Translation of literature is not only a linguistic challenge, but it means also the ability to find readable equivalents describing an existential experience in foreign culture code. The article raises issues of translation in relation to Arabic literature, which in the cultural perspective is relatively distant to a Polish reader. In the first part, the authors mention the most important examples of translations of Arabic literary works into Polish ranging from baroque to modernity. They draw attention to the main trends that Polish translators followed and point to the basic problems, which they had to face. The second part of the article refers to the authors’ own experience in translation. It presents the short analysis of the phenomena, which are, in their opinion the biggest challenges in translational work on the Arabic literary texts.
 

Translation of literature is not only a linguistic challenge, but it means also the ability to find readable equivalents describing an existential experience in foreign culture code. The article raises issues of translation in relation to Arabic literature, which in the cultural perspective is relatively distant to a Polish reader. In the first part, the authors mention the most important examples of translations of Arabic literary works into Polish ranging from baroque to modernity. They draw attention to the main trends that Polish translators followed and point to the basic problems, which they had to face. The second part of the article refers to the authors’ own experience in translation. It presents the short analysis of the phenomena, which are, in their opinion the biggest challenges in translational work on the Arabic literary texts.