Contents Robert Looby John Kearns 2 Introduction Sean Bye 3 Inner and Outer Lives: Seamus Heaney and the Post-War Polish Poets Patrick John Corness 7 Horror Vacui? Explicitation in a Polish Translation of Marie Heaney s Over Nine Waves Barry Keane 29 Angst and Expectations: The First Stage Production of Samuel Beckett s Waiting for Godot in Poland Kasia Lech 37 Memory, Communism, and Foreign Words in Julia Holewińska s Foreign Bodies: Balancing Foreignising and Domesticating Strategies in a Production by Polish Theatre Ireland Patrycja Lewków 49 The Rocky Road to Polish: An Overview of Irish-language Literature in Polish Translation Mark Ó Fionnáin 59 Leabhar na Polainne iii
Translation Ireland 19:2 Translations Thomas Moore 'The Meeting of the Waters' translated by Adam Mickiewicz 73 Józef Czechowicz Two Poems translated by Aidan Doyle 77 Kate O Shea Two Poems translated by Kasia Lech 83 David Toms Two Sonnets translated by Joanna Malicka 91 Fióna Bolger Three Poems translated by Ewa Stańczyk 97 Paweł Huelle 'Arann Islands'translated by Siobhán McNamara 105 Marek Gajdziński 'Irlandzka proza i napitki' translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones 111 Graham Tugwell 'We Touch the Sun on Scarlet Stool' translated by Magdalena Moltzan-Małkowska 125 Zenon Fajfer Widokówka z Dublina Translated, with a Commentary, by Katarzyna Bazarnik Interview Antonia Lloyd Jones in Conversation with John Kearns 157 iv
Book Reviews Cormac Anderson Forked Tongues: Galician, Catalan and Basque Women s Poetry in Translations by Irish Writers. Manuela Palacios (ed.). 172 Sean Bye Migrant Birds: Selected Poems by Adam Mickiewicz, selected, translated and introduced by Anita Jones Debska. 175 Sharon O Brien Translation Studies and Eye-Tracking Analysis, eds. Sambor Grucza, Monika Płużyczka, and Justyna Zając. 177 Pádraig Breandán Ó Laighin Téarmaíocht don Aontas Eorpach. Taithí na héireann: Tionscadal GA IATE / Terminology for the European Union. The Irish Experience: The GA IATE Project. Úna Bhreathnach, Fionnuala Cloke, agus Caoilfhionn Nic Pháidín. 180 Paweł Schreiber Game Localization: Translation for the Global Digital Entertainment Industry by Minako O Hagan and Carmen Mangiron. 188 Joanna Klara Teske Translation and Philosophy. Lisa Foran (ed.) 191 Report John Kearns What We ve Been Up To: A Report on ITIA Activities 2013-2014 199 Notes on Contributors 203 v
Introduction It has often been said that Poland and Ireland have much in common historically, socially, and culturally. On the surface, the parallels are clear both may obviously be seen as post-colonial nations in which the Catholic Church has wielded considerable power. Yet dig a little deeper and there may be grounds to question exactly how much store we should set in these similarities. Even if Polish is now the second most widely spoken language in Ireland from day to day, it is not the culmination of some ancient yearning for Celto-Slavic communion. It is business and a business mostly transacted through the medium of English. For surely the greatest cultural difference between Ireland and Poland is linguistic: Poland has kept her language, Ireland has lost or is losing hers. So let us not recount the familiar but superficial connections between the two countries. Instead let us create some linkages so that for the Irish Poland will be Poland, not the East, and for the Poles Ireland will be Ireland, and not the West. Hence we present here dual text translations of such diverse writers as Józef Czechowicz, Kate O Shea, Paweł Huelle, Thomas Moore, and Graham Tugwell. In particular, to counter the impression that Polish-Irish translation relations are a recent phenomenon, we open this section with a translation by Poland s greatest 19th-century poet Adam Mickiewicz of Thomas Moore s famous The Meeting of the Waters. During the preparations for this volume, we were saddened to hear of the death of Seamus Heaney, much respected for his poetry and much loved for his warm personality. Seamus was an Honorary Member of the Irish Translators and Interpreters Association had a keen interest in Polish poetry. Our collection opens with an article by Sean Bye on his connections with post-war Polish poets. Already retold and rewritten countless times, the Irish myths in Marie Heaney s Over Nine Waves were translated into Polish in 1996 and provide Patrick Corness with food for thought in his article. Corness examines and questions the tendency of the translator to explicitate the source text. Is such explication always necessary or does the assumed great cultural distance encourage translators to overinterpret? Patrycja Lewków s contribution is a survey of Irish-language literature in Polish and is an essential starting point for anyone interested in the subject. The debt to such translators as Ernest Bryll and Małgorzata Goraj-Bryll, who brought the Táin to Polish readers in the 1980s, is acknowledged here, as is the more recent work of Anna Paluch and others. The flow reverses with Mark Ó Fionnáin s contribution on Liam Ó 1
Translation Ireland 19:2 Rinn s translations of Polish poet and seer Adam Mickiewicz. Seamus Heaney once remarked that both Ireland and Poland are largely the creation of nineteenthcentury Romantic poets: Mickiewicz was certainly one of them and Ó Rinn s work carries a strong linguistic and political charge. The poems were translated into Irish, not English, and it is in Irish that this article is written. Scarcely any less charged is Julia Holewińska s, Foreign Bodies, a play about sexual politics, nostalgia and disillusionment inextricably bound up in recent Polish history. Kasia Lech s article is a fascinating insider s view into disentangling the various skeins and staging the resulting translation in Ireland. It takes us far beyond narrowly linguistic translation issues. Barry Keane s contribution is also theatre-related, examining the reception of Waiting for Godot, which was made available to Polish theatre-goers by translator of French literature Julian Rogoziński. Through the critics reaction we can see how much altered the play was in its translation from page to stage. Keane s study is part of a larger project which, if we were publishing this a year later, we would no doubt be reviewing. As it is, our review section is not limited to books of specifically Polish-Irish interest. Such books exist you are reading one now though they are not yet numerous. In recent years, Polish journalism and reportage have gained an international literary reputation, most famously through the writing of Ryszard Kapuściński. Arguably the leading translator of Polish reportage, Antonia Lloyd-Jones has specially translated for us a piece by the Polish journalist Marek Gajdziński concerning the Irish in London, and particularly the work of writer Billy O Callaghan (the piece was the introduction to two stories by O Callaghan, which Gajdziński himself translated into Polish). We were very honoured to welcome Antonia as a guest to Dublin earlier this year and this volume also features a public interview she gave on that occasion. We very much hope that you will enjoy the writing featured here it s been a fascinating project collecting all this work, and we hope you agree that it s been worthwhile. We would like to thank the many individuals and bodies who gave us assistance, including the Irish-Polish Society and the Polish Embassy in Dublin. In particular we would also like to thank Dr Ewa Stańczyk and Dr Máire Nic Mhaoláin for their editorial assistance. Robert Looby John Kearns 2