The paper presents the fi rst almost complete edition of Shakespeare’s sonnets
in Polish which, appeared in 1913 and has since been forgotten. The translator, Maria
Sułkowska, chose to appear under the pseudonym Mus. She omitted sonnets 134 and
135 as untranslatable puns, and wrote a preface in verse where she expounded her
views on Shakespeare’s Sonnets and their translation. Her version is shown in the light
of a highly critical 1914 review and in the context of the fi rst Polish monograph on
Shakespeare’s poetry by Roman Dyboski (1914) who quoted Sułkowska’s translation
throughout, although with a few alterations of his own. Even though some of the sonnets
must be a challenge to the Polish reader because of the choice of obsolete vocabulary or
syntax, the whole merits attention for consistency of the translator’s decisions as well
as the attention to detail.

The paper presents the fi rst almost complete edition of Shakespeare’s sonnets
in Polish which, appeared in 1913 and has since been forgotten. The translator, Maria
Sułkowska, chose to appear under the pseudonym Mus. She omitted sonnets 134 and
135 as untranslatable puns, and wrote a preface in verse where she expounded her
views on Shakespeare’s Sonnets and their translation. Her version is shown in the light
of a highly critical 1914 review and in the context of the fi rst Polish monograph on
Shakespeare’s poetry by Roman Dyboski (1914) who quoted Sułkowska’s translation
throughout, although with a few alterations of his own. Even though some of the sonnets
must be a challenge to the Polish reader because of the choice of obsolete vocabulary or
syntax, the whole merits attention for consistency of the translator’s decisions as well
as the attention to detail.