Day 102: Which Englishman Broke Enigma?
At a panel during the Science Festival in Warsaw, host Ludomir Wiatr (A) discusses the Polish mathematicians who broke the German Enigma cipher with historian Professor Adela Szczygieł (B), cryptologist Dr Arnold Kruk (C) and Mira Kania (D), who runs a popular history channel online.
How to study this lesson 3 steps
- Read the situation under the title. It says who is talking and how they know each other, which decides how politely they speak.
- Read the dialogue line by line with its translation, until every line makes sense. Point at (or tap) a Polish word to see what it means.
- Spend at least 30 minutes listening to native Polish, for example from the Resources page. It doesn't matter if you don't understand it yet.
Dialogue
Audio recordings are on the way. For now, each lesson is the dialogue with its English translation.
Keys: E hide English · ← → previous / next day · point at a word to see its meaning
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A
Nasi rodacy złamali Enigmę jako pierwsi, a za granicą ich nazwiska są wciąż pomijane. Dlaczego, pani profesor?
Our fellow Poles were the first to break Enigma, yet abroad their names are still left out. Why is that, Professor?
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B
Bo przez trzy dekady sprawa była tajna, a potem rola Polaków była sprowadzana do przypisu.
Because for three decades the whole thing was secret, and after that the Poles' role kept being reduced to a footnote.
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C
A przecież to majstersztyk: Rejewski odtworzył okablowanie wirników z układu równań, nie mając w ręku wojskowej maszyny.
And yet it was a masterpiece: Rejewski worked out the wiring of the rotors from a set of equations, without ever having a military machine in his hands.
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D
Moi widzowie znają Enigmę z filmu z Cumberbatchem. Pytani, kto ją złamał, odpowiadają: „Któryś Anglik”.
My viewers know Enigma from the Cumberbatch film. Asked who broke it, they answer: 'Some Englishman.'
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B
Turing nie zaczynał od zera. Tuż przed wojną Polacy sami przekazali aliantom zarówno metody, jak i kopie maszyny.
Turing didn't start from scratch. Just before the war, the Poles themselves handed over both their methods and copies of the machine to the Allies.
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C
Brytyjczycy działali potem na skalę przemysłową, ale Polacy wyprzedzili ich o kilka lat.
The British later worked on an industrial scale, but the Poles were several years ahead of them.
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D
Dlatego nagrałam o Rejewskim odcinek, który w tydzień obejrzało pół miliona osób. Przypisy nie mają takich zasięgów.
That's why I made an episode about Rejewski, and half a million people watched it in a week. Footnotes don't get that kind of reach.
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B
Widziałam pani odcinek: Rejewski łamie w nim szyfr w jedną noc, przy świeczce. Spektakularne, tylko że nieprawdziwe.
I've seen your episode: in it Rejewski breaks the cipher in a single night, by candlelight. Spectacular, but untrue.
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A
Pora na wnioski: Enigmę złamało trzech matematyków z Poznania, bez świeczki i bez Cumberbatcha.
Time for conclusions: Enigma was broken by three mathematicians from Poznań, without a candle and without Cumberbatch.
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