Something Lost in Translation Here?

I see that Lech Walesa, the hero of the Polish fight for freedom, is threatening again to leave Poland, after a second book accused him of being a communist spy in his youth (link).

Again? Yes, apparently it happened before. In that case, (it says here), Walesa was "cleared by a special court" after "judges concluded that former security service agents had forged documents in his file in a bid to prevent him receiving the Nobel Peace prize in 1983." But listen to what he said this time in his own defense:

A historian must decide whether this serves Poland, and not just repeat unlikely nonsense.

Look, I am not an adept at the subtleties of the Polish tongue, but unless something hugely lost in translation, I'd say that that is about the most mealy-mouthed, evasive sidestep by a public leader since, oh maybe since Bill Clinton.

And his defenders don't do a lot better:

Some critics and Prime Minister Donald Tusk have voiced support for Mr Walesa, saying that the books are politically motivated.

"We need Lech Walesa in Poland as an important authority figure," said Mr Tusk, himself a former Solidarity activist.

The BBC's Adam Easton in Warsaw says the accusations are unlikely to do too much damage to Mr Walesa's reputation.

According to surveys, many Poles say even if he did err as a young man, he is still a hero for what he achieved in the fight for freedom and democracy in the 1980s, our correspondent says.

Or in a freer rendering: we don't care what he did back then, he's still big daddy to us now. Which, actually, is fine. But if they really want to run a first-class democracy, they ought to get used to the idea that the truth has his claims also. Not that they'd ever learn that from us, of course.