Memories Lost in Polish Translation. Works by Nadezhda Mandelstam, Vsevolod Meyerhold and Sergei Yutkevich

This paper is an attempt at explaining difficulties encountered by Polish readers of selected translations of memoirs by Nadezhda Mandelstam, Vsevolod Meyerhold andSergei Yutkevich. Three translations of memoirs were analyzed, all translated by Andrzej Drawicz, Polish literary scholar. The paper presents results of translator’s decisions as well as free translation of titles and content of those books. In Polish translations, significant changes were studied, both on the level of structure/composition and on the level of selective translation of their content. Moreover, systematically applied solutions, his tendency for omission of words, sentences, paragraphs, even entire chapters, were indicated. The author analyzes the result of those omissions, i.e. the choice not to convey some of the important information to the reader. On the basis of Yutkevich’s work, the author shows that the translation becomes an entirely new text, different from the original, as the Polish translation is made from different texts by the same author. The paper also presents Drawicz’s tendency to omit “less appealing” (in his opinion) passages, delete all political connotations, arbitrarily choose fragments important enough to be translated and “disposable” ones that are insignificant and can be reduced. Renouncement of politics in his translation of memoirs sometimes partially, and sometimes entirely distorts the cultural and historical background of the period. Polish readers will read memoirs of cultural activists, but shall be denied many important facts concerning the country those activists lived in.
 

This paper is an attempt at explaining difficulties encountered by Polish readers of selected translations of memoirs by Nadezhda Mandelstam, Vsevolod Meyerhold andSergei Yutkevich. Three translations of memoirs were analyzed, all translated by Andrzej Drawicz, Polish literary scholar. The paper presents results of translator’s decisions as well as free translation of titles and content of those books. In Polish translations, significant changes were studied, both on the level of structure/composition and on the level of selective translation of their content. Moreover, systematically applied solutions, his tendency for omission of words, sentences, paragraphs, even entire chapters, were indicated. The author analyzes the result of those omissions, i.e. the choice not to convey some of the important information to the reader. On the basis of Yutkevich’s work, the author shows that the translation becomes an entirely new text, different from the original, as the Polish translation is made from different texts by the same author. The paper also presents Drawicz’s tendency to omit “less appealing” (in his opinion) passages, delete all political connotations, arbitrarily choose fragments important enough to be translated and “disposable” ones that are insignificant and can be reduced. Renouncement of politics in his translation of memoirs sometimes partially, and sometimes entirely distorts the cultural and historical background of the period. Polish readers will read memoirs of cultural activists, but shall be denied many important facts concerning the country those activists lived in.