Original
Jách śew z dżedźiny do dómu, a na tem chodńiku vidźáw taki ŭogeń látać. To bywo v taki velki grápe¹). A já-ch to vidźáw. Tag-ech já stanów i zostáw stáć. A potym vyšwo to dva razy ku mńe. Ale-ch já… a potemech śád a zavinów-ech śe tak, boch já swyśow, jak óny ćawo náidọ, jeno że do ucha tak póvadajom: a śpiś. A óny tak kela razy… To je luft ze źeḿe, ale tu górale tag véřom, że to je źivá řéć; bo pońevádź to vodźi po ćérńu, tárkach a gwogu, gdżeby bywy najgorśe chodńiki. A to přez pów godźiny trfawy. A to noćnice.
Translation
The source is recorded as continuous, unpunctuated speech. Sentence breaks and punctuation below are editorial, added for readability; no wording has been changed.
I was walking from the village to [my] home, and on that path I saw a fire of that kind, flying. It was in such a big ditch¹). And I saw it. So I stopped and stayed standing still. And then it came flying twice toward me. But I… and then I sat down and wrapped myself up like this, because I had heard that when they find the body [of a sleeping person], they merely whisper into the ear: "Are you asleep?" And they do that several times… It's [said to be] vapor/gas from the earth, but here the highlanders believe it's a living thing; because it supposedly travels through thorns, brambles and thickets, where the worst paths are. And that lasted half an hour. And that is the will-o'-the-wisp.
Translator's note
A few dialect words in this short account were clarified with reader input: dżedźiny (dziedziny, "village/settlement," rather than a word for a godmother or relative as first read); ćawo (ciało, "body" — the light is said to find the sleeping body of a person, rather than simply "finding someone"); noćnice, confirmed as the will-o'-the-wisp rather than a more general "night spirit"; and the footnoted grápe, which the original clarifies as Graben, "ditch," rather than a ravine.
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