@article{ac529d08-b39b-44fb-b45d-a0f910c844b1,
author = {Katarzyna Jakubiak},
title = {Translation’s Deceit: Czesław Miłosz and Negro Spirituals},
journal = {Przekładaniec},
volume = {Numery anglojęzyczne},
number = {Issue 25/2011– Between Miłosz and Milosz},
year = {2013},
issn = {1425-6851},
pages = {199-220},keywords = {Czesław Miłosz; negro spirituals; translation; ethics of deception; social realism; postcolonial},
abstract = {This article discusses the politics of translation of eleven negro spirituals,
	which Czesław Miłosz produced in 1948, while working as a cultural attaché of the
	Polish embassy in Washington D.C. Initially, Miłosz intended to publish all of these
	translations in the Polish literary weekly Nowiny Literackie. Although only a few of
	these translations appeared in the weekly, the article proposes that Miłosz’s project
	played a role in opposing the Soviet cultural and political domination of Poland after
	World War II. Drawing parallels between research on slavery and the analysis of
	power structures in post-war Poland presented in The Captive Mind, the article argues
	that Miłosz’s translations were driven by the “ethics of deception” akin to resistance
	strategies inscribed in the original contexts of production of negro spirituals. The article
	relies on theories of translation developed by deconstruction to question the traditional
	hierarchies between “translation” and “the original,” and, consequently, to complicate
	Miłosz’s position as “a translator” of spirituals. Since spirituals are improvisational by
	origin, specifi c examples of Miłosz’s translation choices demonstrate that his role in
	the translation process was participatory and creative rather than imitative. Thus the
	article concludes that the translation of spirituals enabled Miłosz both to be and not to
	be the author of these texts, a subversive move in the Soviet-dominated system, where
	direct expressions of longing for freedom (only implicitly voiced in the spirituals) may
	not have been welcome. This interpretation is consistent with Miłosz’s other early
	works, which draw parallels between Polish post-war and slavery/colonial experiences,
	and adds to current debates on the possible convergences between post-Soviet and
	postcolonial conditions.},
doi = {10.4467/16891864ePC.13.025.1214},
url = {https://ejournals.eu/czasopismo/przekladaniec/artykul/translations-deceit-czeslaw-milosz-and-negro-spirituals}
}