Wstęp

This article attempts to answer the question: why the Polish translation of a novel by Elfriede Jelinek The Children of the Dead (Die Kinder der Toten) did not stir any debate in the circles of literary criticism in Poland. While analysing the actions carried out as a part of the W.A.B.’s (a Warsaw-based publishing house) strategy to advance the publication process and to popularize Jelinek’s oeuvre, we may notice that they actually confirm the publisher’s endeavour to balance economic and symbolic capital (Bourdieu). It allows us to reconstruct the “marketing” aims of the translation in question. Yet both the cognitive and pragmatic facet of the Austrian Nobel Laureate’s Polish translation remain to be reconstructed by the readers.

In this paper, I would like to present the story of two Polish 20th century translations of Osman by baroque poet Ivan Gundulić. In the production process of the translation there were involved three main actors: Croatian initiator of the whole process, Julije Benešić, and the two translators, Czesław Jastrzębiec-Kozłowski and Jerzy Pogonowski.

The monthly Poland: Illustrated Magazine was published (with an interruption) from 1954 to 1999. In the period under analysis (1954—1956), apart from its Polish version, the magazine was also published in English, French, Spanish, German, and Russian. The periodical was a product of the export circulation of cultural goods, the aim of which was to export translations of texts published in the country and those specifically intended for foreign readers. The initial task of the monthly was to shape the image of socialist Poland abroad. Through an analysis of texts intended for export, we examine how the monthly was used for propaganda purposes in the years making to the end of Stalinism and the beginning of “the thaw” in Poland.

Existence of Upper-Silesian ethic minority has been confirmed by two national censuses carried out in the years 2002 and 2011. It is also the largest minority residing in the territory of the Republic of Poland. However, the Polish state does not recognize the existence of Upper Silesians in legal terms. At the same time, for Upper Silesians themselves the struggle for recognition of their culture, language and community is a serious matter. In the present article the author discusses the role of creating and strengthening Upper-Silesian community played by culture, especially by literature and literary translation.

The bibliography includes translations into the Silesian language made both in the standard script as well as in the non-standard one. The starting point for translations into the contemporary Silesian may be dated back to 2002. Since then, there have been irregularly published, usually in the form of collections, translations of various literary genres (with a preponderance of poetic forms) from dozen or so world languages, such as: Greek, Latin, French, German, Polish, Mandarin Chinese, English, Welsh, Russian, or the Upper Sorbian. No single translation from Silesian into other language is included, since heretofore no such a translation has been made.

The topic of the article is an attempt to answer the question: Why are translations into Kashubian made? The analysis draws upon the distinction between weak and strong languages. Translations into regional language are considered as a symbolic phenomenon; which is to contribute to the preservation of regional identity and the development of minority language and culture.

Slovenian literature in Austria represents a case of multiculturality, but most of the time, biculturality and interculturality. The researchers claim that this type of literature belongs to Slovenian as well as to contemporary Austria nor German literature. It discusses and linguistically reflects on both cultural-historical environments. The literary translations show that the Slovenian literature in Austria has a double, Slovenian-German identity.

This article deals with cognitive aspects of artistic translation based on the example of translations of Herta Müller’s oeuvre into Polish and Czech. The reader of Herta Müller’s novels in translation seeks to get to know / acquaint onself with otherness in / through translation, which will be familiar to him or her in a manner consistent with the idiomaticity of the source language. Cognitive values are especially present in the topic offered by Herta Müller, that is, what living in a communist dictatorship means: constant fear of the secret police, reporting to authorities, individual incapacitation, censorship, thus — topics known to Czech and Polish readers from their own history.

The object of the analysis is the so-called Szczecin episode in its many variants. The episode plays a significant role in interpreting the novel Too Loud a Solitude, the Czech version of which is a source text for a number of foreign translations. As such, the episode creates space for specific translation operations that are possible in some languages (e.g. Polish and German), while impossible in other.

This article attempts to give literary translations into non-native languages not only permission and acceptance but justification and theoretical legitimacy. While referring to Stefan Themerson’s postulates of semantic poetry, it explores his philosophy of language to focus on the possible independence of the translator.

The article explores André Lefevere’s rewriting / refraction perspective in literary translation on the basis of the Polish and English versions of Czesław Miłosz’s book Piesek Przydrożny (Road-side Dog). Differences between the original and its translation identified in the analysis suggest that Road-side Dog may be seen as a Lefeverian “rewriting” of the original and as such it both confirms and strengthens a unique position of Miłosz and his oeuvre in American literary system.

Literature may stand in opposition to any theory, and so, even those theories which are marked by conspicuous theses, hardly provide readers with sufficient, compelling interpretations. Gustaw Herling-Grudziński in his Diary Written at Night assumes the reader’s vantage point. He writes of what he sees, reads, and what he can remember, but also of what is really important. In the Diary we may witness a Pole who, despite being an outstanding intermediary, does not take liberty to explain in order to elucidate new things, but merely reads and comprehends the world, approaching reality also by means of languages and cultures through which Goodness is expressed.