Traduttore traditore. Is it possible to translate ancient Greek text?
Ancient Greek literature belongs to a culture very different from the modern one. The
ancient Greek language, as its medium, is incomprehensible outside the general
context of the Greek civilisation. Any translation of an ancient Greek text is always to
some extent false, or at least artificial, and it cannot express the peculiar character of
the reality referred to in the original. Selected translations of passages from Homer,
Herodotus and Aeschines illustrate the incompatibility of the ancient and modern
styles of narration. The study of the language of literature in relation to the reality it
represents is advocated as a possible solution to the problem. It is also recommended
that the readers make an effort and study the ancient originals rather than reading the
texts in translations which can never be flawless.

The author takes a close look at translating ancient texts from the viewpoint of a historian.
He explains why ancient historians are usually against the very idea of translating
Greek and Latin literature. He then proceeds to argue that historical knowledge is
an indispensable tool if a translation is to be done. This argument is supported by
a detailed analysis of the standard Polish translation of two biographies by Plutarch,
namely Life of Aristides and Life of Cimon.

Until now there has been no Polish translation of Apollonius Rhodius’ Argonautica,
although five Polish classicists: W. Klinger, Z. Abramowiczówna, A. Świderkówna,
W. Steffen and W. Appel, have translated some fragments of this Hellenistic epos. The
paper attempts at comparing these fragments with the first complete translation of the
poem done by Emilia Żybert, in order to trace the strategies used by the translators.
A translator of epic poetry must first of all decide on a form the poem is going to have in
Polish, where there are three main traditions of translating eposes: thirteen-syllable
verse, prose or hexameter. Hexameter was chosen by five out of the six translators; only
Świderkówna decided to render the Apollonian poem in thirteen-syllable verse. There
are also stylistic and lexical differences, due to individual preferences of the translators
as well as to the language style characteristic of their times. Klinger, for instance, prefers
the stylistics of Modernism, while Steffen uses archaization. However, the aim of the
article is not to evaluate the translations, but to open up a discussion on the most adequate
contemporary form for poems written more than two thousand years ago.

Muse upon unequal wheels
The title of this article borrows the metaphor employed by Ovid to define the metrical,
visual and auditory disproportion characteristic for elegiac couplets. He himself
used this meter in his Ars amatoria instead of the traditional hexameter to underline
the amusing character of his quasi-parodic poem composed as a literary joke.
Different approaches to translating this metaphor and Ovid’s text are discussed. The
author analyses the literary tradition in order to demonstrate how to keep the form
of the Polish version as close to the original as possible without making it seem
unnatural. The translation should differ from traditional Polish epic forms. Therefore,
the author experiments with prose and thirteen syllables verse with aabb rhymes or
with abab rhymes. In this way she can investigate advantages as well as limitations
of these forms. Consequently, she chooses the verse of thirteen syllables with abab
rhymes, which cannot be found either in the tradition of Polish heroic poetry or in
the tradition of its translation.

przełożyła Elżbieta Wesołowska

The author comments on her own solutions adopted while translating Ovid’s Fasti,
starting from the title itself, the original verse form and the factual richness of the text,
which is frequently obscure to the contemporary reader.

The article reviews methods (according to the classification proposed by Krzysztof
Hejwowski) of translating cultural elements as used by Grzegorz Franczak in his
Polish version of Carmina Catulli. It is argued that the cultural distance between Latin
and Polish is more evident than any difference between modern language cultures. In
these circumstances it is necessary to pay particular attention to translation of culturebound
terms and expressions, because misinterpretations may be a serious risk. As the
analysis shows, Franczak addresses this issue very carefully and, as a consequence, an
overall evaluation of his translation of Catullus’ poems is highly positive.

Formal aspects of medieval Arabic rhymed prose in translation: the Maqamas of al-Hariri in Polish
The author discusses the first Polish translation of two Arabic Maqamas by al-Hariri
(1054–1122). The maqama genre originated in Arabic literature in the tenth century.
It is a short picaresque narrative written in ornate rhymed prose. It features two main
characters: the narrator and the eloquent rogue, who uses his rhetorical skills to earn
his living, not always in an honest way. Translation of this genre presents specific
challenges, some of which are scrutinised. First, the problem of the intertextuality of
the Maqamas is pointed out (both the original version and the translation are
footnoted but in different ways). Then, it is argued that the rich linguistic form
(rhythm, rhyme, homonyms, even graphic properties of the Arabic alphabet)
constitutes the genre and must be preserved in translation. This, however, generates
difficulties, given the different aesthetic traditions and morphological discrepancies
between Arabic and Polish. Some interesting problems and solutions are discussed.

The 20th-century Greek poet Yorgos Seferis (the penname of Yorgos Seferiadis,
1900–1971) is considered to be one of the most influential Modern Greek poets.
However, his hermetic, at times obscure, poetry is not widely read outside Greece and
English-speaking countries, even though it was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1963. The
article discusses Seferis’s use of antiquity and investigates the ways in which Modern
Greek can draw inspiration from ancient literary sources. It attempts to define the
function of mythological allusions in the poems translated for “Przekładaniec” as well
as presents some of the difficulties the translator of Modern Greek poetry may come
across.

To Konstantynowa Sobieska leaving Żółkiew
The paper discusses a translation of the Roman tragedy Historia albo tragedia Oktawii
cesarzówny rzymskiej by Józef Jan Woliński, published in 1728 and finished
shortly before. Its author presents himself as a faithful servant of the Wessels’ and
dedicates his adaptation of the 1st-century praetexta Octavia to Maria Józefa Wessel,
Konstanty Sobieski’s widow. The translator adapts the Latin text, on the one hand
emphasising Nero’s ferocity and despotism, on the other employing the stereotype of
the abandoned wife. The cruel emperor is charged with all the responsibility for the
evil which consumes Rome and his relatives, while Octavia is depicted as a fragile
and passive victim of his malice. However, the translator does not disregard the protagonist’s
intimacy with her brother and nanny. Woliński underlines the moral aspect
of the drama, hinting at the eminent collapse of Nero’s strength and his violent suicidal
death, which does not feature in the original. Crossing out Octavia’s final lamentation,
the Polish translator makes her obey her nanny’s advice and stop crying. Given
Woliński’s closeness to his benefactors as well as the doleful circumstances in which
Maria Józefa Wessel found herself around the time of creating Historia albo tragedia,
it seems plausible to suggest a personal assignment of the drama, conceived as
a remedy for Wessel’s concerns when handing over her beloved property at Żółkiew
to her odious brother-in-law, Jakub Sobieski.

Occulta sapientiae. On the translation of Psalm 51 by Czesław Miłosz
The essay focuses on Czesław Miłosz’s translation of one of the most celebrated
penitential psalms, Psalm 51. Contrary to the medieval practice of illuminating books
of psalms, and thereby providing a vivid narrative and personal context for the
lamentations and pleas, Miłosz aims at highlighting the universal and archetypical
dimension of King David’s prayers. Consequently, he strives to create a new hieratic
convention which would reconcile the suggestiveness and prosodic specificity of
Hebrew poetry with its liturgical application, as well as sustain the coherence of theological
interpretation. Struggling with the characteristic patterns of repetitions and
parallelisms, Miłosz draws the lexical and syntactic inspiration from the earliest
Polish translations of psalms, Psałterz Puławski in particular. The resulting translation
is a complex amalgam of the religious intuitions of Judaism, the hieratic tradition of
the Polish language, and the semantic intensity of Miłosz’s poetry.

Restoring the original meaning: Jewish translations of the New
Testament
Among dozens of new translations of the New Testament published in the last fifty
years, there are several versions by Jewish scholars which have not yet received
enough attention. The article offers an analysis of the most characteristic features of
these translations, such as criticism of the existing versions expressed in introductory
sections, as well as actual techniques by means of which the Jewish origin and
character of the text is emphasized in three spheres: superficial, cultural and rel igious,
and theological, each of them illustrated with examples juxtaposed with
traditional versions. It is argued that regardless of the ideological motivation underlying
the origin of the Jewish translations of the New Testament, they offer valuable
and otherwise unavailable insights into the original message of the ancient
Christian writings.

The article discusses selected problems encountered by the translator working on the
first complete translation of a classic work of medieval English mysticism, Revelations
of Divine Love by Julian of Norwich, into Polish. The most characteristic features
of the original as well as the differences between English and Polish devotional
literature are examined. Some semantic and syntactical problems as well as their
solutions are presented.

The author discusses his translation of Oswyn Murray’s Early Greece into Polish,
which relied on researching ancient sources cited by Murray in the original. Such
a strategy revealed various challenges. Firstly, different interpretations of some
sources provided by Murray and existing Polish translations were addressed by the
translator’s notes. Secondly, the findings on epigraphic sources needed updating.
Finally, as the translator was not familiar with ancient Oriental scripts and languages,
he had to resort to modern translations and consultations with friendly Orientalists.
One important alteration, in the mode of the German translation of the first edition,
was the substantial extension of bibliographic notes, which made the translation more
acceptable to Polish historians and history lovers.

A barbarian among ancient texts
After a brief account of his personal experience as a translator, the writer (a professor
of classics, papyrology and archaeology at Warsaw University) investigates problems
and traps which a translator encounters in his work. Errors are human, but a special
gift and genuine education are indispensable to become a good translator. The author
emphasizes the importance of classical studies. Latin and Greek, much neglected in
our days, still belong to the foundations of the Western culture. Major historical
events in European history were often influenced by ideas inspired by the ancient
heritage. In a society largely ignorant of Greek, and even Latin, the translator of ancient
texts is not only a furnisher of caviar to the general but may sometimes indirectly
become a maker of history. The author comments on the current reception of classics
in Poland, taking into consideration the translators’ achievements in the past (for
example, the great poet Jan Kochanowski of the 14th century) and nowadays. Fidelity
is a necessary condition of acceptable translations. To conclude, the author calls for
respect for linguistic freedom of the translator as a writer and artist, whose talent may
sometimes rise above the common linguistic rules imposed on texts by the editors.
Translators should, however, be aware of their responsibility and they should not
forget that they are supposed to be skilful and meticulous craftsmen, always ready to
accept criticism of their readers.

The review of O poprawnym przekładaniu. Teksty łacińskie i przekłady polskie (Kęty:
Derewiecki, 2006, the bilingual series “Ad Fontes” edited by Władysław Seńko, trans.
Władysław Seńko, Juliusz Domański, Włodzimierz Olszaniec, pp. 211) discusses the
introductory essay by Juliusz Domański On Correct Translation in the Latin Area as
well as the texts: Cicero’s De optimo genere oratorum, St. Jerome’s De optimo genere
interpretandi, Ex prologo in Ioannis Chrysostomi Commentarium in Evangelium
secundum Ioannem by Burgundius of Pisa and Leonardo Bruni’s De translatione
recta (presented in O poprawnym przekładaniu in their Latin and Polish versions),
emphasizing that the book is a valuable collection for European translation studies.

The review of Stuart Gillespie and David Hopkins’ The Oxford History of Literary
Translation in English. Volume 3. 1660–1790 (prepared in a series edited by Peter
France and Stuart Gillespie) published by Oxford University Press in 2005 concentrates
on the crucial issues of this hefty volume. Special attention is paid to the basic
assumptions of the editors which resulted in a coherent volume offering a broad but
well-structured overview of literary translation in the period under discussion. Such
an approach helps to present the largely disregarded role of translation as a medium
through which new ideas and literary styles were adapted into original English literature
of the Enlightenment. The review ends in a moderately critical presentation of the
book’s treatment of translations from Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski, the only Polish
author included, yet the criticism does not overshadow the fact that the reviewed
volume is an extremely valuable work of scholarship.