wstęp

Going beyond schemas. Some remarks on the Polish reflection upon translation

The diversity of Polish voices about translation draws attention to the fundamental problems of translation: 1) the role of the translator in the process of linguistic and cultural transference; 2) the modeling impact of the receiving culture on the target text; 3) respect for the output work and culture in relation to word and text; 4) linguistic and cultural untranslatability; 5) the desire to create a discipline that “would tame” the complex nature of translation in theory and practice. Reflections upon these issues led to interdisciplinary and descriptivity in translation studies.

Currently we are dealing with the situation of the repealing of faithfulness in translation as an impossible and unnecessary task. The voices of Polish translators, among others, growing over the centuries, were confirmed by this theoretical reflection. Researchers have announced it in Polish translatory reflection. They represented different methodological, phenomenological and structuralist-semiotic options (for example, Stefania Skwarczyńska and Edward Balcerzan in the years 1965—1981). In their reflections on translation, an essential role has been played by the adoption of two basic assumptions. The first one concerns the autonomy of a literary work, whereas the other one is about interpretation, that is, its full implementation in the process of reading. Within their borders, they pointed to the inevitability of the gradable identity of translation with respect to the original.

Key words: Polish translatory reflection, identity, transformations of the original, needs of the receiving literature, repealing of fidelity

Lubomír Feldek’s concept of translation in the context of the Slovak translatological thoughts

In Poland, Slovak translatological thought is mainly associated with the concepts of Anton Popovič and his school of translation. The article presents an overview of the history of the development of translation and translation studies in Slovakia, and then discusses the poet Lubomír Feldek’s concept based on his practical experiences as an interpreter and critic of translation. Feldek, like Popovič treats translation as a form of communication, emphasizing a focus on the issues of reception. He presented his conception in the book Z reči do reči (1977), which was met with great interest by Slovak theoreticians of translation.

The article presents the polemical and critical opinions and acceptance and praise which were formulated at the time of the publication of the Feldek’s book, and the comments subsequent to the most recent controversy, which document the place of the views of the poet — translator in Slovak translatology.

Key words: the theory of translation, Slovak translatology, Ľubomír Feldek, history of translation

Between interculturality in translation practice and “interculturality” in translatology

The article has tried to demonstrate that the implementation of the interculturality phenomenon in the translation process should be considered as one of the conditions of a distinguished translation. If the translator does not integrate the so‑called ‘cultural equivalents’ in his/her translation, it occurs on the text level only, undermining and weakening its understanding with the target readership. Such a translation moreover lacks the authentic diction and turns to be prosaic and non‑poetic. The formal theory of translation should therefore finally give up its mere semantic comprehension of translation equivalence. Having evaluated this problem in a complex way, one would find the way out of its schizoid position between widely shedding light on the phenomenon of interculturality in theory, yet facing it with embarrassment and discomfort when evaluating translation practice.

Key words: formal theory vs. substantial theory, interculturality, concept of trichotomy, complex normative paradigm, translation equivalence

The translation of poetry in Slovakia after 1945

After the clear dominance of naturalizing tendencies in the 1950s, when classic translations were preponderant, a predominance of up‑dated translations appeared. This was introduced by Feldek’s manifestation appearance in Mladá tvorba at the end of the 1950s and throughout the 1960s by the dominance of modern literature. This alternation of dominant tendencies is by no means mechanical, but it is also applicable in hindsight. Whereas in the period of Realism, naturalization tendencies (Kukučín, Hviezdoslav) seem dominant, the period of Modernism foregrounds those of exotization (Roy, Krasko). However, in the inter‑war period, exotization took turns with naturalization (Jesenský, Jesenská, Rázusová‑Martáková). J. Felix praises these translations although with respect to historization and modernization he is in favor of so‑called ‘vivification’, i.e. adapting translation to the epoch in which it originated, as well as the reader. Furthermore, Surrealists in the period of the Second World War and shortly before it seem to prefer modernization and exotization besides naturalizing translations. Thus, they bridge the period of naturalization from the 1950s to the 1960s when they became closer with the starting generation of Concretists. Again, after 1968 modernization was not pushed to the background mechanically; prime translations are still being modernized or up‑dated. After 1989, gradually after a wave of exotization, especially Americanization (shortly after the Revolution), attenuation of the modernizing and exoticizing methods in supreme translations, those of poems, in particular, may be observed, in contrast to what was referred to by Felix as vivification on a temporal axis and creolization, i.e. mixing of cultures, by Popovič. This is called an attenuated or classicist translation method; translation fulfils its basic role, it approximates to the style of a translated author and is at his service.

Key words: modernization, exotization, creolization, naturalization, Slovak translation theory of poetry

(Self‑) perception in regards to the Other and foreign culture as a source of one’s own identity: the poet Zdravko Malić

This paper deals primarily with the poetry of Zdravko Malić, one of the most prominent Croatian Polonists of the 20th century, founder of Croatian Polonistics as a university, institutionalised philological discipline, and the author of a comprehensive and far‑reaching literary‑historic and translator’s body of work. Along with his literary‑scientific work and work as a translator, as a poet Malić wrote a rather small but, in the composition of the whole of his interests, an indicative poetic contribution, which mirrors his research topics and the depth of their perception. As a Polonist, he covered his own poetic practice with a web of intertextual and citation points that helped him to refer to a foreign culture, Polish, as the starting point of his erudition. As a prolegomenon to the insight into his poetic collection, we will give a brief overview of Malić’s body of work and his activities, which supplements his biography as a Polonist.

Key words: Zdravko Malić, U drugom nekom gradu, prose poem, Croatian‑Polish literary connections

(tłum. Agnieszka Bukowczan i Joanna Cieślar)

I. Prijatelj and A. Nowaczyński: the informative and the corrective function of translation (Wilde’s aphorisms rendered into Slovene via Polish)

The Slavic scholar Ivan Prijatelj (1875—1937), who received his university education in Vienna and was a contemporary and collaborator of the group of Slovene writers known as the »Slovene Modernists« (slovenska moderna), established himself primarily as an influential literary historian. Apart from that, he developed his interests in literature as an essayist and translator, being eager to become familiar with important authors and literary currents, especially modern European ones, and to make them accessible to Slovene readers.

He succinctly presented the English writer, who at the time garnered attention in Eastern and in Western Europe, in the journal article Oskar Wilde (1907), which is a translation of Wilde’s aphorisms on art and on criticism. They were translated into Slovene from Polish, on the basis of Oskar Wilde. Studjum. Aforyzmy. Nowele, a book by Adolf Nowaczyński (1906), in which Wilde is dealt with in a more extensive and multi‑faceted manner. Prijatelj’s version, which is thematically homogeneous, is the only one among his translations that is not based directly on the source text. It does not always follow Nowaczyński’s translation, but is consistent with the poetics of translation sketched out by Prijatelj in the introductory chapter to his study on Pushkin in Slovene translations (1901). The study presupposes that for the literature of a small nation such as Slovenia, translation is indispensable in as far as it enables that literature to become connected to other national literatures; in actual fact, translations are considered as a means of informing and educating target readers as well as of correcting local literary standards. In order to perform these functions in a satisfactory way, a translation must preserve the original’s authenticity, while at the same time adapting to the target culture and naturally integrating into it. Accordingly, a translated text does not only bear a mark of the author’s creative genius, but, to an extent, also of that of the translator.

Some minor shifts with respect to the English original are observable in Prijatelj’s and Nowaczyński’s translations, which in some points differ also from each other, and remain within the recommended middle way, which makes it possible for the translator to take into account the author’s intentions, while allowing himself the necessary freedom, so as to produce an effective and convincing target text.

Key words: translation function, aphorism, I. Prijatelj, O. Wilde, A. Nowaczyński

“This collection will not be a useless burden for the book trade” that is, Serbian folk Songs selected and translated by Roman Zmorski

In the article, the collection of Serbian folklore song translations, entitled Serbian Folk Songs, is regarded. The collection itself was prepared and published in 1853 and 1855 by Roman Zmorski. Located in the centre of consideration, it also becomes a pretext for a reflection on the essence of a literary text’s translation along with its communicational aspect and the role of the translator in the process of the fusion concerning two axiological systems, two cultural horizons — the initial one and the final one. Furthermore, the article serves to present a traditional translation in the nineteenth century: the reception of South Slavonic (Serbian) folklore poetry. The considerations dedicated to the translation theme and the translator’s role concentrate not on the philological issues themselves, but rather on the broadly comprehended intercultural phenomenon which means a process and the result of a transposition of the text from one cultural realm to the other. Besides the exposition of the translation meaning in the relational, dialogical aspect, its fundamental conditions are emphasized. They refer to the historical and cultural contexts, sources’ selection, and intentional operation on the primary text together with its translation understood as a specific sort of interpretation and communication.

Key words: Serbian folklore songs, folklore poetry, translations, translator, reception, collection

War, Croatian nationalism, sex and swearwords — how has Vedrana Rudan’s books been translated?

This article shows the various translations of Vedrana Rudan who is one of the most popular Croatian writers in Poland. A common view of translation says that focusing on a translation not the original is needed. That is why Polish culture, language and the reception of Croatian literature in Poland are key factors. Therefore in this article the problems with translating the Croatian language such as swearwords, sex and literary allusions into Polish have been shown.

Key words: taboo, vulgarisms, translatability, untranslatability, Vedrana Rudan

Danuta Abrahamowicz’s school of translation

The author of the article focuses on the specific school of translation formulated by the well‑known Polish translator of Slovak literature, Danuta Abrahamowicz in the Slovak environment of the second half of the 20th century. The article defines all aspects of Abrahamowicz’s translatological activities. Her literary studies, critical, publishing, editorial and translation activity are examined in the article and finally, the article shows the ways in which Abrahamowicz perceived translation and the various ways of implementing it in a new horizon of reception to become a fact of the target culture.

Key words: translation, Slovak literature in Polish translation, Danuta Abrahamowicz, Polish literature in Slovakia, Polish and Slovak literary contacts

The Picture of Polish Literature in Slovakia through Jozef Marušiak’s Translations

The paper deals with Jozef Marušiak’s translations and their reception in Slovakia. The author presents a selection of his translations from Polish into the Slovak language, which has mostly formed the picture of Polish literature in Slovakia. The author points out some specific translation strategies, as well as the cultural and literary dialogue, which the translations have led to. The article also maps the wide range of Marušiak’s translation works from the beginning up to the present. The aim of the paper is to capture how the choices and translations of one personality can enrich the receiving literature.

Key words: Jozef Marušiak, Polish literature in Slovak language, literary translation, translator, reception of translation

The History of Slovenia in a Polish perspective. Slovenian literature as translated by Joanna Pomorska

The article deals with the topic of translator’s choices while investigating the case of the translation of Drago Jančar’s book, Terra incognita, translated in Poland by Joanna Pomorska. This article is based on the theory of tropes by Hayden White, whose research is directly related to the historiography, and points out to the trap of objective or truly scientific history which, in fact, cannot exist. The same also applies to the essays that include some threads of history, such as Jančar’s essays concerning Slovenian history, analyzed not only in the Slovenian, but also in Yugoslavian and even European context. The image of history in his works is built on the remarkable way, where prevails the irony arising from the specific argument on the wheel of history. This unique perspective cannot be retained in the translation, where the translator must take into account a Polish reader’s limited knowledge about the Slovenian history. The author pays particular attention to illustrating the effects of translation strategies and its attitude towards the essay as a relay of history. She analyzes the translation choices on the lexical‑semantic level, and shows their impact on the perception of the text.

Key words: essay, translation, history, Joanna Pomorska, Drago Jančar

The Problems of Interpreting and Translating Old Literature. Several questions, comments and propositions

In this paper I have analyzed some translatological questions in the field of translating old literature, on the basis of selected fragments from the works of Jan Kochanowski and from the essay of Czesław Miłosz that examines some translatological problems. An analysis of the cited fragments and their translations shows that the translation of Renaissance literature should also opt for knowledge of contemporary poetics and rhetorical rules, which formed a part of the legacy from the literature of the ancient period. In addition, as Miłosz postulates in his essay, it seems that in the process of a translation of great significance is the empathy of the translator himself with the persona of a given author. Literary interpretation and the correct understanding of old literature is a crucial factor and the starting point in the translation process. Such an interpretation is based on a thorough knowledge of the epoch and the culture of the Renaissance period, within which the concrete work was written.

Key words: translation studies, translation, interpretation, Kochanowski, old literature

Translation of the sonets of Jan Nepomucen Kamiński by Tone Pretnar

The extensive translation work of Tone Pretnar includes within it the fourteen sonnets of Jan Nepomucen Kamiński, an important organiser of the Polish theatre and cultural life in Lvov in the first half of the nineteenth century. The sonnets, which were written in 1827, were rejected by critics of the period, and were not afforded any greater attention by later literary historians. According to his own account, Pretnar decided to undertake the translation of these works due to the author’s close links with Matija Čop, an important figure in the intellectual and artistic scene of that time. While Kamiński’s works were criticised for their linguistic and compositional failings, Pretnar’s translations are linguistically pure and flow with inherent beauty. Attention is often focused on those elements within them that are reminiscent of Prešeren — namely quotations and allusions to the poetic language of the greatest Slovene romantic poet, France Prešeren. With these elements, the translator succeeded in firmly placing his translation in a time, interest in which (apart from some subsequent attempts to revitalise interest) remained, like the sonnets themselves, restricted and confined. Nor can it be ruled out (even though for the reader who is unaware of the literary and historical background it may not be immediately apparent) that those elements that are reminiscent of Prešeren also in fact represent the translator’s ingenious solution to the problem as to how best realise in translation the very elements which some critics had seen (or wanted to see) in the original: namely, a lyric parody of the greatest Polish poet of that period, Adam Mickiewicz.

Key words: Jan Nepomucen Kamiński, Tone Pretnar, France Prešeren, literary translation, sonnet

Międzykulturowość w powieści Mai Haderlap Engel des vergessens / Angel pozabe i strategie tłumaczenia na język słoweński (tłum. Joanna Cieślar)

Interculturality in Maja Haderlap’s novel Angel of Oblivion and strategies of translation into Slovene

In 2011, the publication house Wallstein published the novel by the Carinthian Slovene Author, Maja Haderlap, which attracted a lot of attention. Firstly, the novel is special because it tells a somewhat unknown and oftentimes concealed tale about the agony of the Carinthian Slovenes during the Second World War. This narrative is being revived by the author on the basis of her grandmother’s narration and other relatives, who were deported to Nazi concentration camps during the war because they were suspected of collaboration with the partisans. Secondly, this novel is special because of its emphasis on a woman’s war story which is usually marginalized in historical accounts. The third peculiarity of this novel is demonstrated by the fact that the novel was written by a female Slovene author in the German language. The author substantiated her writing on the rationale that the German language offered her the emotional distance and that she wanted to draw from the subject, which was not well‑recognized in the German‑speaking environment, being nearer to Austrian rather than German readers. On the basis of the autobiographical elements, she has spoken about the discrimination of the Slovenes and also about the disdain and disavowal of the Slovene language. Nevertheless, the writer, Florjan Lipuš, has labeled her novel as linguistic and national heresy in his work Enquiry for the Name (Poizvedovanje za imenom, 2013). He thought that the Slovene language on the artistic level should be taken care of by those that are gifted and creative and that writing literature in the Slovene language means its preservation. His critique of Maja Haderlap’s linguistic crossing into German is also very harsh because this is not the only such case of writers of the younger or middle‑aged generation of Carinthian Slovenians writing in German. Maja Haderlap’s novel was translated into Slovene by Štefan Vevar, who is himself of Carinthian origin. This is especially important because the translator has demonstrated not only the role of the Slovene language in this novel but also has included in his innovative translation some elements of the Carinthian dialect, which is the mother tongue of the author and her literary characters. With these translation solutions, Vevar preserved the original’s linguistic duality and also demonstrated that this novel, which was written in German, is also Slovene. However, the author of this novel belongs to the group of writers with a double, interculturally designated identity.

Key words: Maja Haderlap’s novel The Angel of Oblivion, Slovene translation, bilingualism, interculturality

German compound words as culturally marked word‑formation units and their translation into Polish

This article deals with the topic of German compound words as culturally marked word‑formation units and their translation into Polish, based on the example of the translation of Herta Müller’s novel Herztier (The Land of Green Plums). Firstly, the author specifies compound words as such — in German and Polish, as well as their differing functions and types. Under focus especially are the divergences in the area of the terms used in each language (cf. Zusammenrückung vs. zestawienie and zrost). In the beginning of the practical part, which is dedicated to an analysis of the translation into Polish, the attention of the reader is directed to the potentially problematic characteristics of Herta Müller’s prose, which can appear during the process of translation. In this regard, we can state: that the typical German compound words cannot be translated into Polish without semantic displacements, for the translation it is necessary to use partly uni‑ and partly multi‑verbated constructions. However, this results in the loss of an important degree of imagery. Many of these compound words are culturally marked collocations, e.g. Patentstrümpfe or Essenskarte, which cannot be translated faithfully into Polish. Nevertheless, one can say that the translator has found satisfactory translational solutions, which we can partially explain as parallels between the cultural experiences of Herta Müller (her life in the Romanian People’s Republic) and of the translator, Alicja Buras (raised in the Polish People’s Republic). All in all, we can recognise in the Polish translation the clear effort to find the golden mean between the so‑called covert translation and overt translation, with the second one dominating.

Key words: compound words, Polish‑German translation, word formation, The Land of Green Plums, cultural imprint

Polish translations of Croatian tales of long ago by Ivana Brlić‑Mažuranić

Despite the over one hundred years long popularity of Ivana Brlić‑Mažuranić in Croatia, her collection Croatian Tales of Long Ago remains almost absent in Poland. An attempt to determine the reasons for this absence involves the reconstruction of the circumstances of its Polish translations and the outline of the translators’ silhouettes, which leads to Wanda Pogonowska, who was a visual artist and a painter by education and who should be considered as the first Polish translator of the famous Croatian tales. Although she took on the translation twice (in the 1930s and 1950s) and has remained the only person who translated the entire collection into Polish, the final effect of her translation efforts, due to the problems with its publication, is still unknown, and the memory of Wanda Pogonowska is slowly fading away. Wiktor Bazielich was also an amateur translator but who made up for his lack of professionalism with his extraordinary perseverance and managed to publish in the interwar press his own translation of one fairy tale from the Brlić‑Mažuranić’ collection. The same tale about the fisherman Palunko was translated again forty years later by Magdalena Petryńska (unaware of the existence of the earlier Polish version), who, with her considerable achievements, in contrast to the pre‑war translators of Brlić‑Mažuranić, proudly represents the circle of the most outstanding contemporary Polish translators of South Slavic prose. Existing translations show that the translators adopted extremely different translation strategies. Wiktor Bazielich’s attitude, which could result from his intention of introducing Polish recipients to the realities of South Slavic culture or from the translator’s skills, is close to formal equivalence; while the procedure of Magdalena Petryńska was dictated by a concern for the communication comfort of the story’s recipients — children and can be described as functional equivalence.

Key words: Ivana Brlić‑Mažuranić, Croatian Tales of Long Aago, Wanda Pogonowska, Wiktor Bazielich, Magdalena Petryńska, translation

Croatian literature for children and youth as the centre of interest of Slovak translators

Croatian literature translated into Slovak consists of a relevant selection of Croat authors for kids and youth dating from the 19th century to the present, such as I. Brlićová‑Mažuranićová, V. Nazor, M. Lovrak, I. Kušan, Lj. Bauer, J. Horvat, H. Hitrec, Đ. Zrakić, J. Cvenić, S. Tomaš, A. Gardaš, Z. Balog. Slovak translations are published in Slovakia, but also in the Serbian Vojvodina. The most significant translators focusing on the translation of juvenile literature are Zlatko Klátik, Juraj Tušiak, Andrej Vrbacký, Rudo Brtáň, Peter Čačko, Michal Nadubinský, Ján Jankovič and others. Translators were influenced in their selection of Croatian authors by their reputation but also by the translators‘ personal interest in the literature.

Key words: literature for children and youth, literature in translation, publishing policy, translation competence

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