Monika Woźniak

Jerzy Jarniewicz, 2014. Tłumacz między innymi. Szkice o przekładach, językach i literaturze. Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Ossolineum

Explained in Translation: on Jerzy Jarniewcz’s Volume of Essays Tłumacz między innymi

The paper offers a discussion on a recent volume by the renowned critic and translator Jerzy Jarniewicz, a selection of 24 essays, mostly published before in the press and collected volumes. Among the many publications within the flourishing field of Polish translation studies, Jarniewicz’s book stands out because of its clear and reader-friendly style, which makes for an interesting reading not only for the specialists but for everyone interested in literature and translation. Although the volume includes both academicoriented and essayistic texts, it does give a sense of homogeneity, thanks to the recurrent themes and problems. The central concept, developed as a kind of leitmotiv in several chapters, is that of translator as author, and of translation as a creative process, equal in status to original writing. Jarniewicz combines a theoretical approach to translation with the more down-to-earth considerations on translator’s status and role in the contemporary culture. Also, as announced in the title (“Translator among others”) his texts are related, but not limited to the topic of translation and deal –among others –with such questions as literary paratexts, critical reception of Polish poetry abroad and the ways of keeping alive the interest in literary classics.

Within the relatively new fi eld of audiovisual translation studies, voice-over has been
given very little attention and very little credit, even in Poland, where it is used extensively
in TV translation of motion pictures. Similarly, the science-fi ction fi lm genre
– especially its television form – is usually treated with some contempt and considered
not worthy of serious research, except for sociological reasons. The two main issues
discussed in this paper are: fi rstly, the ontological status of the s-f fi lm, the specifi city
and function of its language and the general problems of its translation; secondly, the
weaknesses and strengths of Polish voice-over practice, illustrated by the analysis of
various Star Trek translations and compared with its dubbed and subtitled versions. The
examination of the fi lm material leads to the conclusion that, in spite of the negative
evaluation of voice-over by scholars, this translation practice has some potential. If
fully exploited, it could offer a valid alternative to dubbing and subtitling techniques.

Once Upon a Time There Was a Puss in the Boots: Hanna Januszewska’s Polish Translation and Adaptation of Charles Perrault’s Fairy Tales
The opening of the article examines the history of the reception of fairy tales – in
particular Perrault’s tales – in Poland since 1700; it attempts to explain the reason for
the long established Polish tendency to adapt rather than to translate this kind of literary
works. The introductory presentation is followed by an in-depth comparative analysis
of the fi rst ever Polish translation of Mother Goose Tales by Hanna Januszewska,
published in 1961, and the adaptation of Perrault’s tales made by the same author about
ten years later. The examination focuses on two questions: fi rstly, on the cultural distance
between the original French text and the Polish context of fairy-tales tradition, resulting
in a series of objective translation diffi culties; secondly on the cultural, stylistic and
linguistic shifts introduced by Januszewska to the tales in the process of transforming
her earlier translation into a free adaptation of Perrault’s work. The goal of this scrutiny
is not only to compare originality or literary value of Januszewska’s two proposals,
but also to try to understand the reasons that lie behind the enormous popularity of the
adapted version. The faithful translation, by all means a good text in itself, did not gain
any recognition, and if not exactly a failure, was nevertheless an unsuccessful attempt
to introduce Polish readers to the original spirit of Mother Goose Tales.

RECENZJA: Eliana Franco, Anna Matamala, Pilar Orero, (2010), Voice-over Translation. An Overview, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt am Main, New York, Oxford, Wien: Peter Lang, 2010 248 pp. ISBN 978-3-0343-0393-4 pb.
 

The article opens with an overview of the Polish reception of fairy tales, Perrault’s in particular, since 1700. The introductory section investigates the long-established preference for adaptation rather than translation of this genre in Poland and provides the framework for an in-depth comparative analysis of the first Polish translation of Mother Goose Tales by Hanna Januszewska, published in 1961, as well as her adaptation of Perrault’s tales ten years later. The examination focuses on two questions: first, the cultural distance between the original French text and Polish fairy-tales, which causes objective translation difficulties; second, the cultural, stylistic and linguistic shifts introduced by Januszewska in the process of transforming her earlier translation into a free adaptation of Perrault’s work. These questions lead not only to comparing the originality or literary value of Januszewska’s two proposals, but also to an examination of the reasons for the enormous popularity of the adapted version. The faithful translation, by all means a good text in itself, did not gain wide recognition and, if not exactly a failure, it was nevertheless an unsuccessful attempt to introduce Polish readers to the original spirit of Mother Goose Tales.

The paper describes the results of an experiment in translation carried out during a course attended by a group of Polish and Italian students. The text chosen was a comic sketch A Little Rewrite by Richard Curtis and Ben Elton. The goal was to compare the transfer of a typical gig into two different languages and cultural contexts. It emerged that, while all the students enjoyed the sketch and were amused by it, as soon as they started to translate the dialogue some significant differences arose, both language- and culture-related. In the transfer into Polish, the lack of a recognizable marketing jargon used in the original scene for humorous effect resulted in replacing it with a low register of everyday speech and Polish equivalents were found for a few not immediately comprehensible allusions to British reality. The one distinctive comic feature of the original text, the funny form of addressing Shakespeare as “Bill” was, however, lost in translation due to a different use of such form in Polish. In the Italian translation it was easier to replicate the comic effect of calling Shakespeare “Bill”, thanks to a similar way in which forms of address are used in that language. It appeared, instead, far more difficult, to find a satisfactory equivalent for a low oral register of the original dialogue. Because of the stylistic conventions of standard Italian and also a more rigid attitude towards the rules of translation itself, the final result of the transfer appeared far more polished and toned down linguistically that its Polish counterpart or even its English original.

Translator’s Feast
To the stock conceptualizations of translation Elżbieta Skibińska offers a delicious
novelty: translation as a culinary art, and the translator as an expert chef who loves to serve
foreign foods, at times replacing exotic spices with local ingredients, but always with
fl air and fi nesse. This conceptualization organizes the author’s thoughts on translation as
the dynamics of intercultural relations, collected in The Translator’s Cuisine. Studies of
Polish-French Translatory Relations (Kuchnia tłumacza. Studia o polsko-francuskich
relacjach przekładowych). She brings into her discussion particularly Itamar Even-
Zohar, Antoine Berman, Laurence Venuti, Richard Jacquemond and Marie-Hélène
Catherine Torres. Her essays on Polish and French literature, translations created in the
two countries and their reception profi t also from the statistical analysis: the number
of specifi c translations which appeared over a chosen period. Skibińska concludes that
Polish literature in France is at stand-by, eagerly used when the need for its symbolic
resources appears. In Poland, French literature has been claimed by political regimes
and establishments to meet their ideological needs. The analysis clearly shows Polish
literature and culture as “peripheral” and the French as “semi-central”. This overview
and general discussion is supported by case studies which concentrate on translation
questions prompted by culinary issues: its lexicon and anthropology. Not surprisingly,
Claude Lévi-Strauss and his 1965 seminal essay Le triangle culinaire make an important
appearance in Skibińska’s argument.
 

Praise of Irena Tuwim

Irena Tuwim is one of the very few Polish translators who are recognizable by large readership. What is even more remarkable, she achieved this success as a translator of children’s literature. Although she is known above all for the Polish version of A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh books, generally considered her greatest accomplishment, in fact she translated many other children’s books, among them such classics as the Mary Poppins saga, Edith Nesbit’s books or H. Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. This article first briefly outlines Tuwim’s apparently transparent, yet surprisingly elusive biographical vicissitude, then examines her translation strategies. It is not easy to decide whether Tuwim’s versions may be defi ned as free translations or adaptations, but a detailed analysis of her method clearly shows that her choices were based on a very incisive study of the original text. Although not without occasional minor errors, her translations are exquisite examples of stylistic mastery that enriches the target language.