„Translation is not a copy but a creative act” – claims philosopher and essayist Jose Ortegi y Gasseta. Literary translation is an art not less valuable than creating a text. Beasuse of that a person translating belles lettres has to show artistic sensitivity so that translation is not only linguistically correct but also consists of sophisticated stylistic devices in a target language. True masters of translation – famous for their unique artistry and creativity – can be found among Polish transtalors of fiction, for example Stanisław Barańczak i Robert Stiller.
Stanisław Barańczak’s translations
”Since its beginning till today Polish fiction did not have such a translator as Stanisław Barańczak” – stated Czesław Miłosz. Stanisław Barańczak is a translator with surprising flexibility in translating various texts. Thanks to his prominent work it is possible to enjoy reading a lot of poems, William Shakespeare’s dramas or to understand texts of Beatles’ songs. Barańczak was interested in translation of abusrd and paradox literaturę. He is famous for his word play , which he collected in ”Pegaz zdębiał“.
Robert Stiller’s translations
Robert Stiller is a polyglot knowing (to a different extend) around 30 languages, what undoubtedly helped him understand difficulties and complexities connected with translating and shaped his extraordinary transtalion skills. He is most famous for his translation of Anthony Burgess’ „Clockwork orange“. The text is written wih the use o a slang mixed with borrowings from Russian language and -besides that- it is full of neologisms.
Irena Tuwim‘s translations
In one of her most popular translations into Polish language Irena Tuwim brought to life the famous bear – Kubuś Puchatek (Winnie the Pooh). This translation was accepted into the literary canon for children. She had an unique talent for learning languages, what allowed her to translate even the most compicated word plays. More than one of her translations was called better than the original. Some pople stated that instead of transtaling she was creating her own text fom the basics only patternig herself upon the original text.
Zofia Chądzyńska’s translations
Zofia Chądzyńska is mainly famous for translating Ibero-American literature incuding Cortazar and Borges’ s texts. Thanks to her this type of literature created in Portuguese nad Spain languages found a way to Polish readers. In 1993 she received an award of Polish PEN Club.
Polish translators perfectly mix language fluency with poetic intuition reforging foreign words and thoughts into Polish language at the same time maintaining authenticity of the original texts. Thanks to their work Polish readers have access to huge legacy of world literature.
