Wstęp

Semantic matrices of the cultures — Macedonian poem in Polish and Croatian reflection

This article describes the ways of transformations of the cultural-semantic elements in parallel translations of the Macedonian poetry. Their comparison through the material of lyric from 1955—1977 period (along with wide annotation in the perspective of communicational theory of translation) depicts differences in the extent of equivalency — ensuing from divergence of both traditions of intercultural relations. Croatian translations show much higher accuracy, articulateness and economy of forms of expression, relying on common extensive corps of south Slavonic lexis, often phraseology. Polish translations on many levels use a compensation — especially archaic stylisation, language embellishing advanced to affectation has high frequency. In the first case dominant method is usually syntagmatic translation or reproduction of the plates (cliches), in the second — applying of the functional cultural equivalents and deriving from the romantic heritage.

Making out the sense (based on translations of Adam Wazyk’s A Poem for Adults into English and Polish)

The article is based on cognitive science and tries to create a prototype of a perfect situation in translation and then categorize two of these situations: a translation from Polish into English and from Polish into Serbian. The prototype is a process in which the translator doesn’t find it difficult to find equivalents and the reader is able to understand the sense of the original. Although this perfect situation is unreal, different situations can be classified as “better” or “worse” representatives of it. As the article focuses on Polish, Serbian and English languages, the conclusion is that the translation from Polish into Serbian is a better representative of the category than the translation from Polish into English as the language relationship of the two former languages is stronger than the relationship between the two latter ones.

The boundaries of source-oriented translation (based on the Polish translation of Indzhe by Yordan Yovkov)

The article focuses on a translation characterized by the occurrence of elements derived from a foreign culture. It displays translation procedures employed by a Polish translator of the Bulgarian short story Indzhe by Y. Yovkov, with its plot deeply rooted in the context of Turkish slavery. The translation procedures introduced in the target text aim to preserve the maximum linguistic and cultural elements occurring in the source text. Particular attention has been paid to the introduction of loan words derived from Eastern languages (orientalisms common for both languages and typical of Bulgarian language), the way of depicting Turkish and Bulgarian specific names (direct transfer,
translation), as well as the use of paraphrase in the translation process of foreign cultural contents.

Representations of Ottoman Turks — between myth, history and translation (about two historical novels of Vera Mutafchieva)

This paper raises two main questions. The first one is how to situate the strategy of representation of Ottoman Turks in historical novels of Vera Mutafchieva The Djem Affair and The Last Shishmans in the frames of bulgarian historical and literary context of the ‘60s and ‘70s of the 20th century. It is not possibile to describe this strategy without reference to the impact of folklore and nineteenth century tradition of representing the Muslims and Turks. In this context fields three themes that causes conflicts are distinguished and their interpretation in the translation of the novel could be used as a criterium for the translation’s evaluation. These themes are the notion of East and West, the topic of multiethnicity in Ottoman Empire and bulgarian stereotypes of Turks, Islam and national identity.
The second question is how the Polish translator interpreted above mentioned historical novels of Mutafchieva. The analysis of some important details shows that the polish translation of The Djem Affair do not follow original emphases and thus eliminate some local meanings of the novel, which means that it obliterates some of its key conflicts and contradictions.

A Dialogue of Signs and Codes: between Jergović’s Novel Ruta Tannenbaum and the Polish Translation

In the article the novel Ruta Tannenbaum, written by Croatian and Bosnian-Herzegovinian author Miljenko Jergović, and the translation of the novel into Polish by Magdalena Petryńska is analyzed. By comparing the original and the translation the question of dialogization of signs and cultural codes is taken into consideration. It is presented which aspects of the semantics of the literary work and the culture itself cannot be adequately adapted into the Polish language and Polish culture. Simultaneously, the idea of applying a semiotic and cultural semiotic approach in translatology in analyzed.

The picture of Bosnian Catholics and Muslims in the Polish translations of Andrić’s short story U musafirhani

There are two Polish translations of Andrić’s short story U musafirhani. First one by Maria Znatowicz-Szczepańska was published in 1937. Second one by Alija Dukanović, Bosnian who settled and lived in Poland, was published in 1966. The story presents two Bosnians communities: Catholics and Muslims. The analysis of these two translations shows that the Catholic community is stonger in the Polish translations than in the original text. This tendency is more clear in Znatowicz-Szczepańska’s work. On the one hand the position of Catholics is much better and on the other hand their dependence on Muslims is smaller, as it was in real and as it is shown in Andrić’s pieace. In Dukanović’s translation there is a tendency to present Muslims in a better way as well. They are not so primitive, demanding and ruthless. Differences between translations corresponde with the context they were written. In the period between two world wars there was an antiphaty for the Muslim part of Bosnia which was treated as a dangerous element, warlike and communistlike. After The Second World War, during Communist times, rules unitarist ideology and it wasn’t coreect to emphasis civilizations, religious and national differences. It helps to understand both strategies of translations, why Marija Znatowicz-Szczepańska is very familiar with Catholics and very distanced from Muslims and at the same time why Alija Dukanović presents Muslims in a better way. Znatowicz-Szczepańska’s way of translation we can treat as domestication, Dukanović’s one as foreignization with strong element of the manipulation.

The harmony of cacophony that is to say what Middle Eastern Europe sings (about culture dialogue in Polish translation of The Ministry of Pain written by Dubravka Ugrešić)

Translation relies on the recontextualisation and interpretation of the original text. Different cultural, linguistic and historical impacts determine the foundation of the translator’s interpretation. Translation enables cross-cultural communication as it mediates between two cultures and two semantic universes. The aim of such a dialog is to experience the understanding of different sensitivity and to learn new forms of expression as well as ways of perceiving the world. The object is to develope one’s own interpretations of reality.
According to Y. Winkin communication is a confirmation of collective values and relations of the group members belonging to the same culture. This statement results in understanding translationas a new symbolic order discovery and affirmation of the existing one.
The issue of interpretation and culture communication „in” and „through” the translation is discussed in the article on the basis of the Polish translation of a novel written by Dubravka Ugrešić titled The Ministry of Pain

Nonequivalent words in translation process. A psycholinguistic view

This paper attempts to discuss the importance and validity of the concept of equivalence as a constitutive feature in translation theory. Equivalence is defined as a relation that holds between a source language (SL) and a target language (TL). When we attempt to describe and explain the relation that holds between a source language text and a target language text in translation, we necessarily come across the concept of equivalence. Textlinguistics plays a crucial and decisive role in the study of language use and obviously in the case of translation it does have a close relation with other disciplines, such as psycholinguistics. Of course, some words are nontransferable. On the other hand, text is to be understood as a complex, and, for instance, the use of a lexical entry in a text does not simply affect the lexical level but may have semantic or pragmatic implications (denotations, connotations). Therefore conditions and determinants (psychological characterization, and context) have necessarily been taken into account for fulfilling a communicative purpose in translation process. Analyzing (describing, classifying, explaining) translation equivalence is based in this paper on Croatian word formations that appear in Mediterranean: A Cultural Landscape, by Predrag Matvejević. Matvejević plunges on to subjects — the olive, sponges, fish, nets, herbs, markets, curses, winds — interwoven with a skein of intellectual discourse. This cross-cultural view requires a deep knowledge of the way Croatian phrases translate into Polish phrases.

„To give the proper word” — to thing, the world of Ryszard Kapuściński in translation

The unique epic stories written by Kapuściński show his individual style which is the great challenge for all tranlators. This article represents some of the translation solutions in two translations of the Polish reportage Podróże z Herodotem by Ryszard Kapuściński: the Serbian one Putovanja s Herodotom by Biserka Rajčić and the English one Travels with Herodotus by Klara Główczewska. The analysis is connected mostly with the lexical layer and the metaphorical meaning of chosen phrases.

About translation of the Czech autobiographical prose. The case of Ludvik Vaculik

The article comments upon Polish translators attitude to the novel of the Czech prose writer Vaculik, especially Český snář and Jak se dělá chlapec, fragments of which can be found in Polish magazines of 80’s and 90’s in 20th century. The reception of this prose is linked with the formation and interest decline of the Czech opposition’s situation. The article searches for traces of cultural dialogue in translation attempts.

Stylization of colloquial language in Polish translations of Czech literature

Czech literature has traditionally made use of a distinctive stylization of colloquial language and dialect. This represents a significant challenge for translators into languages with less diverse stylistics as they seek to find a mode of capturing the original’s emotionality. This article explores translators’ strategies when dealing with this problem and uses examples of works by Jaroslav Hašek, Bohumil Hrabal, Jáchym Topol and Irena Dousková who stylize colloquial language in a variety of ways. The author uses a comparative analysis of the original and the translation to determine how and to what extent the individual translators achieved an adequate rendering of the original. The translators in question are Paweł Hulka-Laskowski, Józef Waczków and Antoni Kroh in the case of Hašek; Andrzej Czcibor-Piotrowski, Jan Stachowski and Piotr Godlewski in the case of Hrabal; Leszek Engelking in the case of Topol and Joanna Derdowska in the case of Dousková. In the conclusion the author suggests four categories of stylization of colloquial language (depending on its form and aim): folk (Hašek), aestheticizing (Hrabal), naturalist (Topol) and humorous (Dousková). She also argues that it is increasingly more important to provide as accurate a translation as possible of all the aspects of the text, including those that differ from the national tradition. This is in line with the latest trends when translations incorporate increasingly more of the Other and are characterized by a significant shift from adaptation (viewed through the national prism) to exoticization (viewing one’s home through the lenses of the whole world).

Translations of Certain Contemporary Polish Prose Works into Czech — a Contribution to the Dialogue between Cultures

In his paper, the author deals with the topic of rendering the contemporary Polish  literature, created after the year 1989, into the Czech language. He reminds the reader of certain facts from the literary life of the last 20 years and analyses certain texts of the contemporary Polish prose which were translated into Czech. It is not guaranteed that the outcome of numerous translations will be ever printed. What is more, Polish literature is not systematically published in the Czech Republic. On the other hand, the translations which have been published may show a Czech reader Polish people and the contemporary Poland in a different light than it was done earlier. The researcher quotes D. Maslowska’s prose, who introduces a Czech reader to the subculture of „dreserzy”(„dresiarze”), which requires a translator to find an adequate style and language in order to render the whole context into the target language. Another approach to the issue of shattering the image of Poles has been taken by J. Witkowski, who looks at the specific gay community in his texts. Finally, in the last example, the author shows how M. Szczygiel, a Pole, views the Czech history in the XXth century (the prose Gottland). The author also mentions the fact that there have been analogical processes in both literary cultures (subject matter, selection of means of literature, etc.).

Czech translation of Mariusz Szczygieł’s Gottland and its Czech reception

Mariusz Szczygieł’s Gottland presents Czech modern history by descripting “private stories” of people, that are unknown or slightly known in Poland. Among them we can find: Tomáš Bat’a, Lída Baarová, Otakar Švec, Karel Fabián, Marta Kubišová and Evald Schorm. Czech critiques underline, that this book shows the character of Czech nation, is a mirror of Czech complexes and traumas. An enormous popularity of Gottland in Czech Republic proves, that Czechs still need publications, which could help with describing their modern identity and their position among European nations. Despite of its popularity, we can find many differences between original text and its Czech translation made by Helena Stachová: not only in dates and names, but also in citations and dialogues introduced to Polish book in Mariusz Szczygieł’s translation from Czech language.

In the Perspective of Cognition and Projection. About a Polish Translation of the Collection of Essays Terra incognita by Drago Jančar

In the translation of the essays of Drago Jančar entitled Terra incognita, an intercultural dialogue has been undertaken on the level of lexis within the scope of proper names, making a reader search for the denotements in other regions of Europe. It is not a translation that would speak Slovene in Polish, as Paul Ricoeur accurately defined a translation that would be perfect in shape and more in function. It means that we do not commune with the Slovene culture and with its mentality through the structure and the expression of the Polish language. Despite the undoubted translational intuition of the translator, her language, logical competences and, to a large extent, pragmatically-logical competences, a mental dialogue did not take place between the cultures.

Moreover, the translator has used the original title of the book, presenting some other contents of that book. Such abuse of the author’s and receiver’s confidence that is put in a translator changes the view of the rendered text that does not resemble the original.

The talent of the author, the effort of the translator and the optimal time of appearing of the translation of the essays caused that the contemporary Slovene essay writing reminds a Polish reader of Jančar, although sometimes of Adam Michnik in a perspective that would make him too alike, of Dubravka Ugešić or of Ivan Čolović.

Inter-textual and inter-cultural shifts in translation Contemporary Polish prose in Slovenian translation

The tension between the signifiant and the signifié, which is present in both singular signs and chains thereof, is also the cause of various semantic incoherencies in translation. Within the boundaries of a language, one can classify and describe such departures from the original, regardless of whether they arise in the grammatical, lexical or syntactic sphere.

The subjective decisions of the interpreter become much more important whenever one transcends the boundaries of language and compares two metalinguistic realities.

But the greatest role of the interpreter lies within a process of Ingarden’s “concretization”, understood as a conscious or unconscious filling of gaps in a schematic literary artwork, which forms an integral part of the sphere of competence of the interpreter of a translated work. Therefore, it is the interpreter who exerts a decisive influence on the perceptions, created by literary artwork.

Intertextuality as a way of cultural dialogue

The artistic texts which as a part of the intertextuality phenomena refer to other texts, known only in the native literary tradition and culture of the original text, present an enormous challenge for the translator ( in this article the deliberations on this subject are illustrated by the work of Bolesław Leśmian titled Urszula Kochanowska in a Slovenian translation of Tone Pretnar). The intertexual elements go into a dialogue with a literary translation and a target culture because in a foreign context they function differently. However, they always have enriching value (at least from the cognitive perspective).

The atmosphere of a Serbian-Turkish borderland in the Polish translations of Borisav Stanković’s prose

Works of Borisav Stanković, who introduced the atmosphere of his home town Vranje, are the space of the two cultures dialogue: — his own (Serbian) and the strange (Turkish). The last one formed the mentality and the life style of the inhabitants of this region during more that five centuries of Turkish bondage. Thanks to the translations the picture of the Serbian-Turkish borderland has been recorded in Polish readers consciousness. The descriptions of family celebrations, ceremonies and rites interweave there with the scenes of everyday life. However, despite the strong Stanković’s bonds with the concrete geographical region, the reader can find in translations the universal message about human condition and about the man who — in the situation of confrontation with restrictions and prohibitions imposed by the society — loses his battles and cannot fulfil his emotional and physical needs.

Intercultural dialogue in Slovak translation of Andrzej Stasiuk book Opowieści galicyjskie

The article deals with the question of intercultural dialogue in Slovak translation of Andrzej Stasiuk book under the title Opowieści galicyjskie. The author draws attention to translation problems resulting from the peculiarity of origin, in which a dialog of many cultures decides about the inner structure of a text. The author discusses translation problems focuses on text signals, significant structure elements which state the limits of semantic area of the origin. It defines the way of reading and transfering the sense of origin implied in translation. The author considers what extent the translator of Opowieści galicyjskie managed to transfer in translation the aspects of cultures mix up and coexistence.

Domesticated translation — foreignizated translation

In the theory of translation rooted terms: domesticated translation — foreignizated translation, They are used as the name of the translation strategies. The first of them consits in bringing the author to the reader; the second one — inversely — consists in bringing teh reader to the author. As a replacement are used the terms: exotic and naturalisation in translation. Tranlsation can be seen as a process and a product. Domestication and foreignization also can be understood as the concept of social, whoch relate to existence of tranlsation in the host culture.In this context domestication is not synonymous with acquaintance and it is inclusion of the work in the tradition of the host literature under the same conditions under which literary works are subject to activation of native with complementary the host culture of the text which intensive impacts on its development. Foreignization means the removal of the host culture of the translation, which had already been domesticated in this culture or which was in a situation of translation — guest or which never existed in the host literature, although it has been published. Choice strategy, nor the quality of translation is not always decide od the domestication and foreignization of translation in the host culture. The domestication largely determines the need for the secondary culture of the text. The foreignization may be come with errors in tranlsation but also with a number of factors, which are outside the lyric, independent of the interpretation. The article discusses the specific cases of domestication and foreignization of translation, mainly in Polish — Slovak interliterature communication.

Indeks tłumaczy

Indeks autorów

Noty o autorach