Umbert
o Eco, Experiences in TranslationMaja Lidia Kossakowska, Upiór Południa - Burzowe Kocię.
I'm toying with the idea of taking up a new hobby. Translating some of my favorite fictions from Polish to English. I know, I know - not done in this direction. I should be going from my second language into the native one. Well, that's not going to happen since I'm no longer credible writing in Polish. Has the Polish tongue changed so much during the almost 12 y
I'm toying with the idea of taking up a new hobby. Translating some of my favorite fictions from Polish to English. I know, I know - not done in this direction. I should be going from my second language into the native one. Well, that's not going to happen since I'm no longer credible writing in Polish. Has the Polish tongue changed so much during the almost 12 y
ears when my exposure to it consisted of the infrequent conversations with family or sporadic bouts of Polish fantastic fiction sent my way by the best-read woman
of my life? What I read in Polish so often sounds like a not-so-good translation from English. Especially the new stuff.
Well, I decided to try my hand at translating a bit from a recent book I read in Polish. I remember being struck as soon as I started it by how I could hear the translation in my head as I was reading the Polish sentences. The book seemed so translatable! Aside from lengthy and quite baroque phrases, which I knew might warrant some sentence-splitting in English, even the sentence structure seemed almost English.
Strange I never considered that before. I my work I'm surrounded by French translation and people handling it - people who know what they're doing because they studied translation for years and actuall
of my life? What I read in Polish so often sounds like a not-so-good translation from English. Especially the new stuff.
Well, I decided to try my hand at translating a bit from a recent book I read in Polish. I remember being struck as soon as I started it by how I could hear the translation in my head as I was reading the Polish sentences. The book seemed so translatable! Aside from lengthy and quite baroque phrases, which I knew might warrant some sentence-splitting in English, even the sentence structure seemed almost English.
Strange I never considered that before. I my work I'm surrounded by French translation and people handling it - people who know what they're doing because they studied translation for years and actuall
y think it's the coolest thing ever. The idea of substituting words for other words does seem very cool indeed. And especially with fiction, it is creating without the necessity of coming up with one's own idea!
To educate myself, I consumed some Umberto Eco who in his little book Experiences in Translation talks about the official theories of translation but most of all about translations of his books and translations that he himself committed. He uses multilingual examples, most of which I could actually understand, and talks at length about the importance of translating the meaning, not the words. So prepared, I approached the first chapter of Burzowe Kocię, a surreal fantasy set in the mind of a recovering modern soldier.
To educate myself, I consumed some Umberto Eco who in his little book Experiences in Translation talks about the official theories of translation but most of all about translations of his books and translations that he himself committed. He uses multilingual examples, most of which I could actually understand, and talks at length about the importance of translating the meaning, not the words. So prepared, I approached the first chapter of Burzowe Kocię, a surreal fantasy set in the mind of a recovering modern soldier.It ended up being much more difficult than I thought. Thank God Kossakowska uses literary and pop culture allusions straight from the English language. That made it easier to take care of the idioms too, aside from the outcry "Pobite gary!", which doesn't exist in English, even in its concept. Or does it? As much as I was trying though, the English outcome of Kossakowska's prose came out a little wooden. However I look at it, I'm not quite satisfied. I will continue though. Maybe with something more traditional and less psychedelic next time.
