English Translations of Korczak’s Children’s Fiction: A Linguistic Perspective (Palgrave Studies in Translating and Interpreting) 3030381161, 9783030381165

Citation preview

PALGRAVE STUDIES IN TRANSLATING AND INTERPRETING SERIES EDITOR: MARGARET ROGERS

English Translations of Korczak’s Children’s Fiction A Linguistic Perspective

Michał Borodo

Palgrave Studies in Translating and Interpreting

Series Editor Margaret Rogers School of Literature and Languages University of Surrey Guildford, UK

This series examines the crucial role which translation and interpreting in their myriad forms play at all levels of communication in today’s world, from the local to the global. Whilst this role is being increasingly recognised in some quarters (for example, through European Union legislation), in others it remains controversial for economic, political and social reasons. The rapidly changing landscape of translation and interpreting practice is accompanied by equally challenging developments in their academic study, often in an interdisciplinary framework and increasingly reflecting commonalities between what were once considered to be separate disciplines. The books in this series address specific issues in both translation and interpreting with the aim not only of charting but also of shaping the discipline with respect to contemporary practice and research. More information about this series at http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14574

Michał Borodo

English Translations of Korczak’s Children’s Fiction A Linguistic Perspective

Michał Borodo Kazimierz Wielki University Bydgoszcz, Poland

Palgrave Studies in Translating and Interpreting ISBN 978-3-030-38116-5    ISBN 978-3-030-38117-2 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38117-2 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2020 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover illustration: © oxygen / Getty Images This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

Rodzicom dedykuję

Acknowledgements

I’d like to express my thanks to everyone who contributed to making this book possible. First of all, I’d like to thank the Series Editor, Prof. Margaret Rogers, for her careful reading of the manuscript and many insightful comments as well as her valuable suggestions on the book proposal. I would like to express my thanks to John Kearns for his judicious and constructive observations and comments on the entire manuscript and to Karl Wood for his careful reading and helpful remarks on racial issues in Chap. 8. I would also like to express my gratitude to the three anonymous reviewers whose suggestions and comments contributed to me being able to write a better book. I’m grateful to the students of Kazimierz Wielki University with whom I had a chance to share some of my ideas that later found their way to this book, and to the Palgrave editors responsible for language and linguistics, Alice Green and Cathy Scott, for their assistance and guidance. Last but not least, I’d like to thank my family—my wife, Ola, and my children, Emilia, Kajtek and Łucja—for their support, patience and understanding.

vii

Contents

1 Introduction  1 2 The Language of Translated Children’s Fiction: Key Issues 11 3 Sketching the Context: English Translations of Polish Children’s Literature 57 4 Cultural Assimilation, Foreignization, Fairytalization and Hyperbolization107 5 Mitigation, Standardization, Simplification and Explicitation135 6 Style and Sociolect: A Corpus-Based Study161 7 Formal Literary Style and Modern American Idiom187 8 On Cannibals and Savages: Translators’ Treatment of Racial Issues209 ix

x Contents

9 Conclusion237 Index243

List of Tables

Table 3.1 Table 3.2 Table 4.1 Table 4.2 Table 4.3 Table 4.4 Table 4.5 Table 4.6 Table 4.7 Table 4.8 Table 4.9 Table 4.10

English translations of Polish children’s literature published in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries 60 A reference to “exceptionally problematic” language in Cyrus Brooks’s 1939 translation 97 The treatment of the name “Felek” in the translations by the Sulkins and Lourie 108 The treatment of selected children’s names in the translations by the Sulkins and Lourie 110 The treatment of “kielbasa” and “vodka” in the translations by the Sulkins and Lourie 111 Examples of selected references to people in Czasak’s translation113 English adjectives and adverbs in Czasak’s translation: smashing, jolly and brilliant 115 Distinctively English adjectives in Czasak’s translation: mingy, peckish and barmy 116 Examples of “righto”, “hey-presto”, “blimey” and “fancy that!” in Czasak’s translation 118 Exploiting the fairy-tale convention: the description of the tailor-soldier121 The use of the word “land” in the Sulkins’ translation 122 The Sulkins’ use of fairy-tale convention: the description of king’s funeral 123 xi

xii 

List of Tables

Table 4.11 Hyperbolization and physical terms in the Sulkins’ translation: Matt stamping his foot 125 Table 4.12 Hyperbolization and physical terms in the Sulkins’ translation: learning to whistle 126 Table 4.13 The addition of dynamic terms to describe characters in the Sulkins’ translation 127 Table 4.14 References to characters’ facial expressions in the Sulkins’ translation128 Table 4.15 Overdramatized passage in the Sulkins’ translation: scratching and sneezing 129 Table 4.16 The closing lines of the novel in the translations by the Sulkins and Lourie 131 Table 5.1 The treatment of the colloquial interjection “do pioruna” by Lourie and the Sulkins 137 Table 5.2 The treatment of Matt’s language in the translations by Lourie and the Sulkins 138 Table 5.3 Example of omission of religion in the post-war edition of Król Maciuś Pierwszy139 Table 5.4 The treatment of a reference to Felek drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes 141 Table 5.5 The treatment by Lourie and the Sulkins of a reference to Matt drinking alcohol 141 Table 5.6 The treatment of references to alcohol and spanking by Lourie and the Sulkins 142 Table 5.7 The treatment of a reference to beating in the translations by Lourie and the Sulkins 143 Table 5.8 The treatment of inappropriate conduct in the translations by Lourie and the Sulkins 144 Table 5.9 Example of simplification in the Sulkins’ translation: burning a letter 146 Table 5.10 Example of simplification in the Sulkins’ translation: a visit to the sad king 147 Table 5.11 Simplification in the Sulkins’ translation: the description of a battle 148 Table 5.12 Example of simplification in the Sulkins’ translation: royal etiquette148 Table 5.13 Examples of optional and obligatory explicitation in the translation by Lourie 151

  List of Tables 

xiii

Table 5.14 Examples of explicitation in Lloyd-Jones’s translation 153 Table 5.15 More examples of explicitation in Lloyd-Jones’s translation 154 Table 5.16 Examples of “pragmatic explicitation” in Lloyd-Jones’s translation155 Table 6.1 Examples of the adverb “dead” as an adjective premodifier in Czasak’s translation 163 Table 6.2 Examples of “dreadful” and “dreadfully” in Czasak’s translation 165 Table 6.3 Examples of “loads of” and “a load of” in Czasak’s translation 167 Table 6.4 Examples of distinctively British English expressions linked to formality and sociolect 168 Table 6.5 Sociolect and the informal style of Czasak’s translation 170 Table 6.6 Examples of very informal British English used in Czasak’s translation171 Table 6.7 Examples of contracted forms in Czasak’s translation 173 Table 6.8 Examples of h-dropping in Czasak’s translation 175 Table 6.9 Examples of tag questions in Czasak’s translation 176 Table 6.10 Examples of selected syntactic patterns in Czasak’s translation 177 Table 6.11 Examples of the informal and conversational style of Czasak’s translation179 Table 6.12 Examples of elliptical constructions in Czasak’s translation 181 Table 6.13 Examples of the use of “lot” in Czasak’s translation 182 Table 7.1 The formal style of Fisher and Torrent’s translation: “the king on his deathbed” 189 Table 7.2 Fisher and Torrent’s formal style: “a seemly association” and “an unassisted monarch” 190 Table 7.3 Fisher and Torrent’s figurative language: “pristine blanket of snow” and “ocean of sand” 191 Table 7.4 Fisher and Torrent’s formal style: “a beseeching chorus of voices” and “conferring on a cure” 192 Table 7.5 Fisher and Torrent’s lexical sophistication: “a white steed” and “overwhelming melancholy” 194 Table 7.6 Fisher and Torrent’s lexical sophistication: “Goliath and Cyclops”, “en masse” and “sotto voce” 195 Table 7.7 Idiomatic language in Fisher and Torrent’s translation 199 Table 7.8 Colloquial language of Fisher and Torrent’s translation 200 Table 7.9 Examples of modernization of Korczak’s fictional universe 203 Table 7.10 Fisher and Torrent’s use of hyperbolization 205 Table 8.1 The translators’ treatment of the word “Murzyni” [Negroes] 216

xiv 

Table 8.2

List of Tables

The translators’ treatment of references to foreign kings’ skin colour and racial identities 219 Table 8.3 The translators’ treatment of the original references to “savages”220 Table 8.4 The translators’ treatment of a reference to cannibalism 223 Table 8.5 The translators’ treatment of the white kings’ complaints about the African kings 225 Table 8.6 Translators’ treatment of another controversial passage concerning the African kings 226 Table 8.7 References to cannibals in Lloyd-Jones’s translation of Kaytek the Wizard230 Table 8.8 The portrayal of the African boxer in the original and LloydJones’s translation 231 Table 8.9 Problematic racial references in the original and LloydJones’s translation 232 Table 8.10 Depiction of the moment directly after the fight in the original and the translation 233 Table 8.11 Lloyd-Jones’s modification of the passage describing Africa in the novel 234

1 Introduction

This study has been occasioned by the fact that there has so far been no book available in English about the translation of Polish children’s literature in general, and about the translation of Korczak in particular. Janusz Korczak (1878–1942), the pen name of Henryk Goldszmit, was a Polish-­ Jewish children’s writer and paediatrician, known for his innovative pedagogical methods as the head of a Warsaw orphanage for Jewish children in pre-war Poland. His most famous children’s book Król Maciuś Pierwszy [King Matt the First] is the novel most frequently translated into English from all of Polish children’s literature, although its English-language translations have so far received very little scholarly attention. Focusing on four different translations of this classic text and some other titles by Korczak translated into English over a period of seventy-five years, this linguistically oriented study aims to fill this void. The book’s major contribution lies in showing how Polish-to-English translators mediate children’s fiction, activating different reserves of meaning of the source texts and leaving their “linguistic fingerprints” on the target texts—modifying them in terms of their linguistic organization, underlying ideologies, cultural references and style.

© The Author(s) 2020 M. Borodo, English Translations of Korczak’s Children’s Fiction, Palgrave Studies in Translating and Interpreting, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38117-2_1

1

2 

M. Borodo

The book also delves into the largely unknown history of the English translations of Korczak. His most famous children’s novel was first translated as Matthew the Young King in 1945  in New  York by Edith and Sidney Sulkin, emigrants from Eastern Europe, and published by Roy Publishers—a continuation of the dynamic Polish Rój publishing house established in pre-war Warsaw. The second translation, King Matt the First, was published in 1986 in New York by Farrar, Straus and Giroux with an introduction by Bruno Bettelheim. The translation was the work of Richard Lourie—an American translator from Polish and Russian, a writer, journalist and political commentator. The third translation, titled Little King Matty, was created by Adam Czasak—a versatile bilingual, professional translator and interpreter born in Cheshire, in north-west England, and currently living in Krakow—and published by Joanna Pinewood Enterprises in London, in 1990. The most recent translation, King Matthew the First, was completed by Adam Fisher and Ben Torrent and published in New York by Nanook Books in 2014. With the exception of Lourie’s 1986 version, little is known about the history of the other three translations. For example, in his review of Lourie’s translation, Jack Zipes (1986) observes: “Thanks to the fine translation by Richard Lourie and the informative introduction by Bruno Bettelheim, ‘King Matt the First’ has finally made its American debut.” It had actually made its debut already in 1945 in a full-fledged translation by the Sulkins. Similarly, little is known about Czasak’s 1990 translation—published in a small number of copies and the only English version of Korczak’s novel created on this side of the Atlantic. The present book aims to bring such unjustifiably forgotten, “invisible” translations “if not into the limelight, then at least into the daylight” (Lathey 2006: 16). The other Korczak novels examined in this study include Bankructwo małego Dżeka [The Bankruptcy of Little Jack], published in Cyrus Brooks’s translation in London by Minerva Publishing under the title Big Business Billy, and Kaytek the Wizard, created in 2012 by Antonia Lloyd-Jones, an acclaimed translator and distinguished ambassador of Polish literature abroad. Following Juliane House’s (2004: 683) suggestion that the translation of children’s literature is a fruitful field for linguistic analysis, Korczak’s English translations will be examined from a linguistic perspective. This approach will go beyond such broad categories as “addition”, “omission”

1 Introduction 

3

or “mistranslation”, with the aim of discovering recurrent and systematic linguistic patterns in the choices observable in the English translations (ibid.: 684). Such an approach deserves some explanation and clarification, however, as, after all, the book also adopts an interdisciplinary approach, dealing with children’s fiction from historical and socio-­cultural perspectives and providing the necessary contextualization. This is essential in a study of several literary translations produced in the UK and the USA over a period of more than seventy years, and in this sense the book does not deal with translation issues from a purely linguistic perspective. It draws special attention to the nature of the language of translated children’s fiction, however—to the changing styles and worldviews, as they are expressed in the language of translated texts. In particular, the book draws upon and builds on the work of various translation scholars who specialize in the language of (translated) children’s fiction and who have researched the issues of translation, style, idiolect, sociolect and ideological manipulations in children’s books (e.g. Gillian Lathey, Juliane House, Murray Knowles and Kirsten Malmkjær, Jan van Coillie, Victòria Alsina, Martin B. Fischer) as well as researchers who have investigated the concept of style in translation (e.g. Mona Baker, Gabriela Saldanha and again Kirsten Malmkjær). With regard to the book’s organization, Chap. 2 presents theoretical considerations regarding the language of translated children’s fiction. The first part of this chapter introduces fourteen key translation strategies commonly found in translations of children’s literature and based on a review of the existing literature: mitigation, censorship, didacticism, sentimentalization, infantilization, hyperbolization, fairytalization, simplification, explicitation, standardization, stylization, cultural assimilation, foreignization and modernization. These fourteen strategies form the basis for a new and integrated framework for analysing translated ­children’s literature, where to date the discussion of these strategies has been scattered throughout the literature. The framework builds and expands on the existing work of such scholars as Birgit Stolt (1978), Göte Klingberg (1978), Monika Adamczyk-Garbowska (1988), Riitta Oittinen (2000), Juliane House (2004), Emer O’Sullivan (2005), Maria Nikolajeva (2006), Eliza Pieciul-Karmińska (2011), Jan Van Coillie (2011), Gillian Lathey (2016) and Themis Kaniklidou and Juliane House (2017). The

4 

M. Borodo

second part of the chapter introduces a number of concepts of relevance to the analyses conducted in Chaps. 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8, such as sociolect, style, ideology and the metonymics of (re)translation. The chapter demonstrates that in translated children’s literature one may encounter linguistic modifications amplifying the emotional tone of a text; that elements regarded as inappropriate may be deleted or toned down; and that a children’s book may be subject to linguistic standardization, simplification, explicitation or deliberate stylization through the use of a different degree of formality, manipulation of grammatical constructions and lexis, omission or introduction of a particular sociolect. The added value of the proposed framework is that it places special emphasis on various linguistic concepts and categories and on the analysis of recurrent linguistic patterns in translated texts. The concepts and strategies introduced in this chapter are then used to analyse the English translations of Korczak mentioned above. Chapter 3 traces the history of Polish children’s literature in English translation. Despite the predominantly one-sided nature of this exchange between Poland and English-speaking countries, some Polish titles have nevertheless found their way to Anglophone markets. The chapter describes this largely under-investigated field of cultural activity, the “invisible” and overlooked translations of Polish children’s literature. In the second part of this chapter, special attention is given to Korczak, his works in English translation, his translators and the cultural and publishing context in which the translations were created. Emphasis is placed on Korczak’s biography and the major characteristics of Król Maciuś Pierwszy, followed by the description of the novel’s American debut in 1945, thanks to Edith and Sidney Sulkin and the pre-war Polish publisher Marian Kister. The chapter then concentrates on the novel’s retranslations, as well as briefly discussing its English-language adaptations. It also examines two other children’s books by Korczak in English translation—Big Business Billy and Kaytek the Wizard. Chapter 4 initially focuses on the strategies of cultural assimilation and foreignization, illustrating them with the first two American translations of Korczak’s novel—Matthew the Young King from 1945 and King Matt the First published in 1986. It demonstrates that in 1945 Edith and

1 Introduction 

5

Sidney Sulkin created a version oriented towards American culture. Richard Lourie’s 1986 translation, on the other hand, is more source culture oriented, retaining some of the cultural references signalling Polishness, a strategy that to some extent exemplifies Venuti’s idea of foreignization. The chapter then focuses on the cultural specificity of the 1990 translation of Korczak’s novel, published in London under the title Little King Matty. Referring to Venuti’s concepts of domestication and foreignization, the chapter argues that its translator, Adam Czasak, prioritized the values of the target culture in his translation, though in a way that also problematizes the notion of domestication. The second part of the chapter illustrates the interrelated strategies of fairytalization, hyperbolization and sentimentalization. It is shown that in the first American translation, the Sulkins included a number of motifs and expressions which may be associated with the fairy-tale convention, that they dramatized certain passages and that they wrote their own epilogue which refocuses the novel’s ending. Chapter 5 focuses on strategies of mitigation, standardization, simplification and explicitation, illustrating them with the 1945 and 1986 English-language translations of Korczak’s novel and with the 2012 translation Kaytek the Wizard. The chapter demonstrates that the first American translation contains various examples of mitigation—that is of the manipulation of prose by deleting or toning down content regarded as inappropriate—as well as instances of standardizing the language. Another distinctive feature of the 1945 translation is that it was offered to American readers in a simplified version, with the translators often resorting to omission and condensation on sentence, paragraph and chapter levels. The chapter then examines the strategy of explicitation with reference to Richard Lourie’s translation of Korczak’s novel and, in particular, with reference to another book by Korczak, which was translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones in 2012 as Kaytek the Wizard. It is demonstrated how the elliptical and laconic literary style of the source text is made more explicit by Lloyd-Jones both linguistically and culturally. Chapter 6 concentrates on the notions of translator style, degree of (in)formality and sociolect in translated children’s fiction, with particular reference to Little King Matty, Adam Czasak’s version of Korczak’s tale,

6 

M. Borodo

published in London in 1990. Czasak’s translation is written in colloquial British English, which is not only more informal than the language of the American translations but sometimes even more informal than that of the source text. Moreover, some of the speech patterns used in the translation may be associated with a particular social demographic, that is, the lower middle class or working class, and the translator uses such patterns for narration as well as in fictional dialogues. Using traditional analytical methods and a corpus-based methodology, the chapter traces the translation’s prominent stylistic features, examining the recurrent use of characteristic lexical items and distinctive phonetic and grammatical patterns, such as h-dropping, tag questions and syntactic constructions for adding emphasis and focusing information in a sentence, linking them with sociolinguistic patterns and changing degrees of formality. Chapter 7 discusses the most recent English-language translation of Korczak’s novel. King Matthew the First, completed by Adam Fisher and Ben Torrent and published in 2014, is characterized by a higher degree of formality, lexical sophistication and ornate literary style—qualities which are missing from Korczak’s original novel, which was mostly written in plain, unembellished Polish. Moreover, the 2014 American text contains a large number of idiomatic expressions which are not as characteristic of the source text. The chapter examines these differences and also investigates how Korczak’s fictional universe was partly modernized in this translation, which contains various references to the cultural, economic and educational realities of the present day. Finally, the chapter focuses on the application of the strategies of hyperbolization and fairytalization in the American text. In essence, it is demonstrated that the 2014 translation of Korczak’s novel is an intriguing combination of the use of formal and informal English, as well as of modernization and hyperbolization. Finally, the translators’ treatment of terms and passages concerning racial issues and the stereotypical depiction of African people is the focus of Chap. 8. Reflecting European racial stereotypes of the 1920s and 1930s, Korczak’s novels might be considered problematic by many contemporary readers. Depending on the socio-cultural context and the translator such passages and expressions were mitigated or eliminated, left unchanged or the translator opted for a compromise, toning down some of the negative racial references while retaining others. This is illus-

1 Introduction 

7

trated with a focus on the subsequent translations of Korczak’s novel about the adventures of the boy king, as well as the English translation of his 1933 novel Kaytek the Wizard. The chapter comments on the translators’ decisions and the roles of other participants involved in the publication process, such as foreword writers, critics and publishers, demonstrating how social values and ideologies change over time. Janusz Korczak was an outstanding and heroic pedagogue who dedicated his entire life to children. He was murdered in the Nazi German extermination camp in Treblinka, together with the charges from his orphanage, whom he never abandoned. Recent internationally marketed publications on Korczak with such telling titles as A Light in the Darkness (2019) and King of the Children (2018), as well as numerous translations of Król Maciuś Pierwszy, testify to an international acclaim for and fascination with the life and work of Janusz Korczak. The present book offers a systematic and in-depth analysis of his English translations, and thus takes the existing research on Korczak further. By shedding light on the historical context and by examining the recurrent patterns in Korczak translators’ linguistic choices, the book also consolidates and enriches the existing research on the translation of children’s fiction, contributing to current debates on translation in an intercultural context.

References Primary Sources Korczak, Janusz. 1945. Matthew the Young King. Trans. Edith and Sidney Sulkin. New York: Roy Publishers. ———. 1986. King Matt the First. Trans. Richard Lourie. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ———. 1990. Little King Matty …and the Desert Island. Trans. Adam Czasak. London: Joanna Pinewood Enterprises. ———. 2012. Kaytek the Wizard. Trans. Antonia Lloyd-Jones. New  York: Penlight Publications. ———. 2014. King Matthew the First. Trans. and Adapt. Adam Fisher and Ben Torrent. New York: Nanook Books.

8 

M. Borodo

Secondary Sources Adamczyk-Garbowska, Monika. 1988. Polskie tłumaczenia angielskiej literatury dziecięcej. Problemy krytyki przekładu. Ossolineum: Wrocław. House, Juliane. 2004. Linguistic Aspects of the Translation of Children’s Literature. In Übersetzung  – Translation  – Traduction. An International Encyclopedia of Translation Studies, ed. Kittel Harald, Paul Armin Frank, Norbert Greiner, Theo Hermans, Werner Koller, José Lambert, and Fritz Paul, 683–697. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. Kaniklidou, Themis, and Juliane House. 2017. Discourse and Ideology in Translated Children’s Literature: A Comparative Study. Perspectives 26 (2): 1–14. Klingberg, Göte. 1978. The Different Aspects of Research into the Translation of Children’s Books and Its Practical Application. In Children’s Books in Translation: The Situation and the Problems, ed. Göte Klingberg, Mary Orvig, and Stuart Amor, 84–89. Almqvist & Wiksell International: Stockholm. Lathey, Gillian. 2006. The Translator Revealed: Didacticism, Cultural Mediation and Visions of the Child Reader in Translators’ Prefaces. In Children’s Literature in Translation: Challenges and Strategies, ed. Jan Van Coillie and Walter P. Verschueren, 1–18. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing. ———. 2016. Translating Children’s Literature. New York: Routledge. Lifton, Betty Jean. [1988] 2018. King of Children: The Life and Death of Janusz Korczak. London: Vallentine Mitchell. Marrin, Albert. 2019. A Light in the Darkness: Janusz Korczak, His Orphans, and the Holocaust. New York: Alfred. A Knopf. Nikolajeva, Maria. 2006. What Do We Do When We Translate Children’s Literature. In Beyond Babar: The European Tradition in Children’s Literature, ed. Sandra Beckett and Maria Nikolajeva, 277–297. Lanham: Scarecrow Press. Oittinen, Riitta. 2000. Translating for Children. London: Garland Publishing. O’Sullivan, Emer. 2005. Comparative Children’s Literature. London: Routledge. Pieciul-Karmińska, Eliza. 2011. Polskie dzieje baśni braci Grimm. Przekładaniec 22–23: 80–96. Stolt, Birgit. 1978. How Emil Becomes Michel  – On the Translation of Children’s Books. In Children’s Books in Translation: The Situation and the Problems, ed. Göte Klingberg, Mary Orvig, and Stuart Amor, 130–146. Almqvist & Wiksell International: Stockholm.

1 Introduction 

9

Van Coillie, Jan. 2011. Nie ma śpiącej królewny bez kolców. Tłumaczenie baśni. Propozycja modelu analizy porównawczej. Przekładaniec 22–23: 11–35. Zipes, Jack. 1986. Review of Korczak (1986). King Matt the First. The New York Times, July 20: 24. Online at: https://www.nytimes.com/1986/07/20/books/ children-s-books-066986.html. Accessed 22 Aug 2019.

2 The Language of Translated Children’s Fiction: Key Issues

The translation of literary texts is never impartial. From the selection of texts to translate, through the choice of translation strategies, to the decisions on publication and marketing policies, it is embedded in a linguistically, culturally, economically and historically conditioned web of relations and dependencies. It is the convergence of the individual, the communal and the institutional. Translators’ crucial points of reference include the original text, culture and author, but also their own convictions, viewpoints and personal identities, the prospective reader, the policies of the translation client, the institutional context, literary conventions, the dominant ideologies of the day and the cultural environment that will be the new home for the translated text. The translator may decide to prioritize some of these points of reference over others. Using the appropriate research methods, many of these translation decisions, which may initially not be immediately apparent, can be tracked and made visible. This chapter presents an inventory of translation strategies and key theoretical concepts to help to achieve this goal. It begins with a discussion of fourteen translation strategies found in translated children’s fiction and based on a review of the existing literature: mitigation, censorship, didacticism, sentimentalization, infantilization, hyperbolization, fairytal© The Author(s) 2020 M. Borodo, English Translations of Korczak’s Children’s Fiction, Palgrave Studies in Translating and Interpreting, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38117-2_2

11

12 

M. Borodo

ization, simplification, explicitation, standardization, stylization, cultural assimilation, foreignization and modernization. Some of these practices can be found in translation in general, and some are characteristic of translated children’s literature in particular. Rather than being rigidly distinct from one another, they may be partially overlapping—for example, the mitigation of offensive language may overlap with standardization, hyperbolization with fairytalization, cultural assimilation with modernization. All these strategies are qualitative in nature, in contrast to such “quantifiable” strategies as addition, omission or condensation, although qualitative and quantifiable categories may naturally also overlap (e.g. simplification with condensation or censorship with omission). The chapter then examines such concepts as style, sociolect, fictional dialogue and the metonymics of (re)translation. These key concepts and the fourteen strategies are interrelated —for example, the translation of sociolects in fictional dialogue may be linked to standardization or stylization, the translation of style with sentimentalization, infantilization and hyperbolization, whereas the comparison and contrast of retranslations can provide insights into the translators’ decisions concerning cultural assimilation, foreignization or mitigation, among others. These concepts and strategies offer a new integrated research perspective for the study of translated children’s literature based on systematic analysis of recurring linguistic patterns in translated texts. Equipped with this analytic approach, in Chaps. 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 the book will then concentrate on the English translations of Janusz Korczak produced in the USA and the UK in the course of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Part One: Key Translation Strategies Mitigation, Censorship and Didacticism Potentially problematic passages have often been mitigated in the history of translating children’s fiction by deleting or toning down the elements regarded as inappropriate. The idea behind mitigation is to make texts less disturbing and controversial by reducing their potential to shock or

2  The Language of Translated Children’s Fiction: Key Issues 

13

upset young readers from a specific target culture at a particular moment in history. Such practices may be linked with the educational intentions of translators and publishers, who may decide to tone down or delete from translations examples of children’s allegedly improper conduct (Stolt 1978: 134). These forms of protectionism on the part of the adults who are involved in the process of translation and publication are also mentioned by Zohar Shavit (1986: 113). She argues that due to the lower cultural and literary status of children’s literature, “the translator is permitted to manipulate the text in various ways by changing, enlarging, or abridging it or by deleting or adding to it” (ibid.: 112), which may involve such textual manipulations as adjusting the text to the adult expectations of what is suitable for children in a given socio-cultural context. In a similar vein, Emer O’Sullivan (2005: 82) observes that the various agents involved in the creation of translated books may either recommend alterations or simply decide to “delete or cleanse elements regarded as unsuitable or inappropriate in the target culture, especially accounts of supposedly unacceptable behaviour which might induce young readers to imitate it”. Mitigation may be juxtaposed with other partially overlapping or synonymous concepts, such as bowdlerism, purification and censorship. Bowdlerism, derived from Thomas Bowdler, the editor of the nineteenth-­ century expurgated family edition of Shakespeare’s plays, is synonymous with mitigation, being concerned with societal taboos and subjects considered unsuitable for certain age groups (though Bowdler was not just concerned with children and young people being corrupted—the changes were also introduced for women). “Purification”, the term used by Göte Klingberg (1978: 86, 1986: 58–61) for adapting children’s books to what is deemed appropriate by adults, including parents, teachers and librarians, also overlaps with mitigation, although it seems broader, being also concerned with politically conditioned textual modifications. On a micro scale, mitigation, bowdlerism and purification may involve, for example, the replacement of offensive language with milder expressions, physical violence with a verbal reprimand, alcohol with other liquids. On a macro-­ scale they may entail, for instance, the modification of the ending of a children’s book, a change introduced to some translations of Andersen’s The Little Mermaid or The Little Match Girl, in which the main protagonist

14 

M. Borodo

does not die but finds a loving family (Nikolajeva 2006: 281). Removing content considered (in)sensitive or unsuitable is also the raison d’être of censorship. However, this may imply more radical modifications in children’s fiction and is usually associated with restricted circulation, indoctrination and textual interventions that are enforced or expected by the censorship apparatus, be it that of former Yugoslavia (Pokorn 2012), Franco’s Spain (Craig 2001), East Germany (Thomson-Wohlgemuth 2003, 2009), Soviet Russia (Inggs 2011) or the USA (Foerstel 2002). Thus, while the difference between mitigation and censorship is not necessarily clear-cut, it is assumed that the former may be milder in form and related to societal taboos and “age-inappropriate” content, while the latter tends to be institutionally and politically enacted and sanctioned. Translated children’s fiction constitutes a particularly fertile ground for the study of mitigation. The most frequently mitigated issues and taboo subjects include, but are not limited to, death, cruelty, violence, punishment, eroticism, sex, nudity, the human body, children’s improper conduct, adults’ inappropriate behaviour and bad habits, lack of respect for adults, offensive language, non-standard or incorrect language use, drinking alcohol, racial issues and religion (e.g. Klingberg 1986: 59–61; Thomson-Wohlgemuth 2004; O’Sullivan 2005: 82–91; Nikolajeva 2006: 281–284; Van Coillie 2011; Pokorn 2012). O’Sullivan (2005: 83–84) illustrates such practices with the fate of Pippi Långstrump [Pippi Longstocking] in German translation, from which those aspects that “celebrated disrespect for adult authority and ridiculed the rules and norms of child-rearing and civilized society” were eliminated. This concerned potentially controversial passages describing the rebellious girl biting into a poisonous toadstool or playing with pistols in the attic. In the first French translation of Pippi, three “problematic” chapters were removed, while the instances when the girl is impolite or questions adult authority were toned down (Nikolajeva 2006: 283; House 2004: 685). Similar modifications were introduced with regard to children’s allegedly improper conduct in the Polish translations of Astrid Lindgren (Dymel-­ Trzebiatowska 2013: 225–239). In some cases, a children’s book may not be translated at all when it is perceived to be incongruent with the norms of the target culture, as was the case with Lindgren in some Arab countries (O’Sullivan 2005: 84–85). The more gory details of the Tales by the

2  The Language of Translated Children’s Fiction: Key Issues 

15

Brothers Grimm, for example, the mutilation of Cinderella’s sisters’ feet or the final scene of the pecking out of their eyes by doves, as well as Grimms’ references to death and eroticism, have been frequently toned down or omitted in translations into various languages (Pieciul-Karmińska 2011; Van Coillie 2011; Pokorn 2012; Joosen and Lathey 2014; Lathey 2016). As argued by Eliza Pieciul-Karmińska (2011), in reference to Bettelheim’s Uses of Enchantment, such examples of mitigation in the translation of fairy tales may be regarded as questionable, given that cruel and drastic descriptions often possess symbolic meanings and may help the child to overcome deeply ingrained, existential fears and internal conflicts. The cruel punishment of an evil protagonist may provide the young reader with a sense of justice and safety, whereas sentimentalized, bowdlerized translations, replacing the cruelty with forgiveness and a happy ending, do not (Pieciul-Karmińska 2011: 85). Far-reaching modifications were introduced in translated children’s fiction under conditions of censorship. A noteworthy example is provided by Judith Inggs (2011), who describes the fate of the popular 1939 Soviet translation of The Wizard of Oz by Alexander Volkov, produced in Russia in “a tradition of free translation and rewriting” (ibid.: 79), reinforced by institutional censorship. As it was unacceptable “to describe life on a farm in a negative light in the Soviet Union of the 1930s”, the opening of the original narrative, describing the joyless drudgery of Dorothy’s uncle and aunt, was adjusted accordingly (Inggs 2011: 85). The Soviet counterpart of Baum’s Dorothy was also depicted differently, at times resembling a resourceful heroine of socialist literature or a revolutionary activist, with a much greater emphasis in the Russian version being placed on comradeship. Such modifications can also be found in other countries of the socialist bloc. For example, religious references, racially sensitive passages and lexical items suggesting social inequality, incongruent with the idea of socialist egalitarianism, disappear from the 1954 version of E.T.A. Hoffman’s Nussknacker und Mausekönig [The Nutcracker and the Mouse King], published in socialist Poland (Pieciul-Karmińska 2014: 63). Unsurprisingly, religion was particularly vulnerable to censorship in translated children’s literature published in communist and socialist countries. Nike K.  Pokorn (2012: 73) demonstrates that in socialist Yugoslavia religious references disappeared from 98 per cent of the

16 

M. Borodo

translations of Andersen and were either attenuated or eliminated from 81 per cent of the translations of the Brothers Grimm. In the larger corpus of about 100 translations created under socialism that were examined by Pokorn (ibid.: 140), 80 per cent underwent modifications in the sphere of religion, a particularly high percentage when compared to the treatment of cruelty, which was mitigated in 50 per cent of the translations in question. Created in a different socio-political reality, the English translations of Korczak’s 1922 classic Król Maciuś Pierwszy, published in the USA and the UK in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, do not contain comparable interventions. However, examples of censorship can be found in the post-war editions of the book in its original language published in socialist Poland. Thus, paradoxically, while a fervent prayer of the young king asking God for guidance is mentioned in the English translations from 1945, 1986, 1990 and 2014, it was eliminated from the post-war Polish edition published under conditions of censorship (see Chap. 5). Finally, it should also be noted that censorship did not only operate through textual interventions but also through the mechanisms of censors’ pre-selection and withdrawal of texts from circulation (e.g. Looby 2015: 158). Translated children’s fiction is also a rich source of various forms of didacticism. Translators may not only try to protect the young by mitigating and censoring allegedly inappropriate content, but can also attempt to instruct, educate and enlighten young readers by providing them with desirable models of behaviour or by expanding their knowledge and enriching their vocabulary. This can be done by addressing the reader directly in prefaces and footnotes, by commenting on (un)acceptable behaviour in the translated text itself or by resorting to various less explicit textual transformations. Mitigation and censorship are often reductive strategies, based on toning down or eliminating improper excerpts, whereas didacticism tends to be concerned with the introduction of additional comments and passages. This may be linked to one of the principles on which translating for children is based according to Shavit (1986: 113), that is “an adjustment of the text to make it appropriate and useful to the child, in accordance with what society regards (at a certain point in time) as educationally ‘good for the child’”. Here, the

2  The Language of Translated Children’s Fiction: Key Issues 

17

emphasis is not only on protecting the child reader from what may be potentially inappropriate but also on foregrounding what is useful, offering moral guidance or enhancing the educational value of the text. This may be illustrated with an almost endless list of examples from translated children’s fiction. It is enough to mention the addition of didactic epilogues about forgiveness in most Polish translations of the Grimms’ Cinderella (Pieciul-Karmińska 2011: 85), the inclusion of moralizing and scolding remarks on Alice’s behaviour in the pre-war Polish translation of Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Looby 2015: 164; Borodo 2005) or the introduction of passages “in which Pippi regrets her bad behavior and apologizes” in the French translation of Pippi Långstrump (Nikolajeva 2006: 283). Interestingly, while didactic tendencies seem to have been more common in translated and non-translated children’s fiction in the past, they can still be found in present-day translations. For example, it is the 2010 Polish version of E.T.A. Hoffmann’s Nussknacker und Mausekönig that emphasizes, in comments added by the translator, the importance of children’s obedience to parents and personal hygiene (Pieciul-Karmińska 2014: 66). While no evident instances of didacticism have been identified in the English translations of Korczak, mitigation was in its prime in the first American translation of his most famous children’s novel, published in New York in 1945, and analysed in Chap. 5.

F airytalization, Hyperbolization, Infantilization and Sentimentalization In translated children’s literature, one may encounter modifications amplifying the emotional tone of a text, which may result both from the asymmetrical relationship between the adult translator and child addressee, and from the adjustment of a text to the target-culture social norms and literary conventions. In their analysis of a corpus of Greek and German translations of English children’s literature, Themis Kaniklidou and Juliane House (2017: 4–5) distinguish such strategies as sentimentalization and infantilization, which may be found in the depiction of protagonists, forms of address, descriptive passages and translations of book titles. Sentimentalization and infantilization may be illustrated with the

18 

M. Borodo

addition of such expressions as “little”, “poor”, “dear”, “my little boy”, “our little girl”,1 when no such forms appear in the source text; also, the introduction of diminutives and other words expressing affection and endearment may have an infantilizing effect on translation, changing readers’ perception of literary characters (ibid.). In a similar vein, Stolt (1978: 137–140) observes that translators of children’s fiction may, consciously or unconsciously, resort to sentimentalization, modifying the original style and increasing the emotional value of a text. She notes that in some cases “[t]he translator’s own style may prove stronger than the will to reproduce the style of the author to be translated” (Stolt 1978: 137), illustrating this with sentimentalized translations of “matter-of-­ fact” passages. Pieciul-Karmińska (2011: 87–89) mentions similar modifications in the Polish translations of the Brothers Grimm, which contain numerous diminutives, and in which Little Red Riding Hood is transformed from a young person of an unspecified age, and on an equal footing with her mother, into a polite little girl. Consistently applied forms of sentimentalization and infantilization are identified by House (2004: 690) in the German translations of the Paddington books (in which the main character is commonly referred to as “our little bear”) and by Nitsa Ben-Ari (1992: 226) in the Hebrew versions of Heidi (in which such references are added as “the poor girl” or “the poor little orphan”). Monika Adamczyk-Garbowska (1988: 113–116) discusses the concepts of infantilization and sentimentalization with a focus on the famous 1938 Polish translation of Winnie-the-Pooh. She argues that Milne’s “childlike” style (i.e. characterized by uncomplicated vocabulary and syntax as well as frequent use of twisted and mispronounced words) was significantly modified by the Polish translator Irena Tuwim. This was done through the addition of numerous diminutives, frequent repetition of names, usually used in diminutive forms, and the use of possessive pronouns, as in “our teddy” or “our hero” (a strategy in line with the above examples by Kaniklidou and House, such as “our little girl” or “my little boy”). As a result, argues Adamczyk-Garbowska (ibid.: 115), Milne’s

 For reasons of transparency and accessibility, the examples will be given in English.

1

2  The Language of Translated Children’s Fiction: Key Issues 

19

“childlike” style became “childish” in translation.2 It could be argued that the tendency to sentimentalize and infantilize used to be more common in earlier translations of children’s fiction. However, this does not make them less noteworthy material for analysis, especially considering that such translations are often still in circulation today, offered to readers in public libraries and republished by commercial publishers. The 1938 Polish translation of Milne’s children’s classic serves as an excellent example. There is also evidence that a tendency towards infantilization and sentimentalization can be found in present-day translations for children as well, as demonstrated by Pieciul-Karmińska (2013: 107, 2014: 68), who, examining the recent Polish versions of E.T.A.  Hoffmann’s Nussknacker und Mausekönig, has identified numerous diminutives and emotionally charged expressions. Two other strategies that can be distinguished in translated children’s fiction include the partly overlapping fairytalization3 and hyperbolization. Murray Knowles and Kirsten Malmkjær (1996: 163) observe that in fairy tales “the language of characterisation is predominantly physical, even when a mental state is, in fact, at issue”. They mention, for example, the frequent use of similes in which certain traits of protagonists are portrayed through references to physical characteristics, observing that the purpose of using tangible, physical terms is to “link the magical world to the observable, everyday world, and to reinforce the impression of clarity of characterisation” (ibid.). Indeed, such physical terms abound in the first American translation of Korczak’s Król Maciuś Pierwszy, introduced into the text by the translators Edith and Sidney Sulkin (see Chap. 4). A translated text may also be adjusted to the fairy-tale convention by introducing various fairy-tale attributes and epithets which do not appear in the source text (Pieciul-Karmińska 2011: 89–90). Hyperbolization, that is, the deliberately exaggerated use of language which creatively embellishes and elaborates the source text, builds tension and heightens suspense and unpredictability, may be illustrated by the addition of the  Though see Woźniak (2012) for a discussion of the merits of the first Polish translation of Winnie-the-Pooh. 3  The coinage fairytalization, which may sound somewhat awkward in English, is based on the Polish word “ubaśniowienie”, itself a neologism, which denotes the introduction of features of a fairy tale into a given work. 2

20 

M. Borodo

adverb “suddenly” in translation (Kaniklidou and House 2017: 9), which signals a new unexpected occurrence, a feature characteristic of fairy tales. For example, Pieciul-Karmińska (2011: 89) mentions building tension and dramatization of certain passages as one of the most common strategies in the Polish translations of Kinder- und Hausmärchen by the Brothers Grimm, and House (2004: 693) identifies various attempts to dramatize the source text in German translations for children. Noteworthy examples of hyperbolization are also discussed in Chap. 4 with reference to the translation by the Sulkins, who expanded a number of brief excerpts into eventful and entertaining passages of their own creation. A translation for children may also be transformed in structural terms, for example, by introducing modifications with regard to its opening and ending. Kaniklidou and House (2017: 8–9) point to certain discursive manifestations specific to the fairy-tale genre which frame a given text as a tale, for example, such opening phrases as “once upon a time”, “one day” or “once there was”. The characteristic “once upon a time” serves the function of tearing the reader “immediately away from their normal world” in order to “immerse them in the fairy tale universe from the very beginning” (Neemann 1999: 27). Such narrative devices might be added in translated children’s literature even if they do not appear in the opening of the original (Kaniklidou and House 2017: 9). Then, although not all fairy tales end happily, a happy ending may nevertheless be regarded as one of the common features of the genre, according to Harold Neemann (1999: 46), who argues that in spite of “an unlimited number of probable negative outcomes, the fairy tale practically always opts for an apparently improbable happy ending”. A happy ending is also a component of a prototypical folk tale according to Vladimir Propp’s taxonomy (Zipes 2000: xvii) and is indispensable to the predictable Disney film formula, in which “[i]n the end the ‘goodness’ of the hero or heroine shines through, and there is a happy end that generally culminates in marriage” (ibid.: xxx). This is a radical solution no doubt, verging on adaptation or retelling, but the source text without a happy ending could be provided with one by the literary translator in the target-culture version. Incidentally, it was again the first American translation of Korczak, analysed in Chap. 4, that significantly transformed the novel’s pessimistic ending.

2  The Language of Translated Children’s Fiction: Key Issues 

21

 implification, Explicitation, Standardization S and Stylization When judged to be too difficult by adult translators and editors, a children’s book may be subject to simplification. This is related to one of the two major principles on which translating for the young is based according to Shavit (1986: 113), that is, the necessity to adjust “plot, characterization, and language” to how “the child’s ability to read and comprehend” is understood in society. It is an especially common feature of adaptation for children, where the text may not only be mitigated or made more educational, but also simplified, sometimes considerably, in terms of language. As observed by Jack Zipes (2000: xxix), “in the adaptations of the tales for children, many of the tales were ‘sanitized’ so that putative terrifying aspects of some tales were deleted and also the language was simplified if not made simplistic”. To adjust the text to children’s assumed capacity to understand, the translator may consider simplifying complex syntax, removing specialized vocabulary, omitting detail or phrasing more abstract concepts in more tangible and straightforward terms. Culture-specific notions which might be inscrutable to target-culture readers may also be replaced with more generic ones—a concrete newspaper title with the word “newspaper”, the name of a culturally specific dish with a more universal food item and so on (Nikolajeva 2006: 282). Such changes, involving the use of more easily understandable superordinate terms, may deprive the reader of experiencing the new and exotic values of the source culture, however (see the next section for a more detailed discussion of cultural specificity in translation). Finally, as demonstrated in Chap. 5, the source text may be simplified not only with regard to individual lexical items, clauses and sentences, but also by condensing, omitting and summarizing whole paragraphs and longer passages, even entire chapters, if they are judged as potentially too demanding, digressive or confusing. Although translated children’s fiction may be more prone to various forms of simplification, increased simplification is also considered an intrinsic feature, or a universal, of translation. Focusing on the corpus of translated and non-translated newspaper and narrative texts, Sara Laviosa

22 

M. Borodo

(1998: 8) observes that the lexical density of translations is lower, that is, they possess a lower percentage of content words in comparison with grammatical words. Moreover, translations are characterized by a greater proportion of high frequency to low frequency expressions than non-­ translated texts, and the most frequent expressions are repeated by translators more often (ibid.). The existence of such patterns is explained by Sandra Halverson (2003: 218) with respect to the “gravitational pull” exerted in semantic networks by “the category prototype and the highest level schema”, as prototypical lexical and grammatical structures are more often chosen by translators than less conventional and marginal ones. Such findings confirm Shoshana Blum-Kulka and Edward Levenston’s (1983) study of translators’ inclination to use superordinate and more common terms, or Gideon Toury’s (1995: 273) discussion of the law of growing standardization, in which he claims that translated texts “tend to reveal reduced rates of structuration (that is, simplification, or flattening) vis-à-vis their sources”. Thus, increased simplification should not be viewed as specific to translated children’s fiction, although the asymmetrical child-adult relationship makes it fertile ground for analysis. The Sulkins’ translation of Korczak examined in the following chapters provides many examples of simplification at different levels of linguistic and textual organization. Translators may not only simplify children’s fiction to make it more accessible for the new reader; they may also decide to make the original more explicit. House (2004: 696), for example, writes of “a strong tendency in German translations of English children’s books to be more explicit”. The so-called law of explicitation, which posits that “translators tend to produce texts that are more explicit than the originals” (Chesterman 1997: 71), has long been recognized in translation research. Such research dates back to the 1950s, when the concept was introduced by Jean-Paul Vinay and Jean Darbelnet ([1958] 1995: 342), who define the term as “[a] stylistic translation technique which consists of making explicit in the target language what remains implicit in the source language because it is apparent from either the context or the situation”. The notion was further investigated by Eugene Nida (1964: 227), who deals with it under the rubric of “additions”, which in turn belong to what Nida refers to as “the techniques of adjustment”. Illustrating these

2  The Language of Translated Children’s Fiction: Key Issues 

23

t­echniques with examples of biblical passages, Nida enumerates nine types of additions which clarify what remains implicit in the source text. They cover such translation strategies as filling out elliptical expressions, obligatory specification, additions required by grammatical restructuring, amplification from implicit to explicit status or the employment of classifiers and connectives, among others. It may be noted that although Nida refers to explicitation as a form of addition, it is not always a matter of increasing the amount of text. As argued by Birgitta Englund Dimitrova (2005: 34), “explicitations can take one of two forms: addition of new elements; or specification, a translation that gives more specific information”. Explicitation has been further investigated within Translation Studies by other researchers. One of the most important contributions on the subject was Shoshana Blum-Kulka’s ([1986] 2001: 300) analysis of shifts of cohesion and coherence, in which she proposes the so-called explicitation hypothesis, “which postulates an observed cohesive explicitness from SL to TL texts regardless of the increase traceable to differences between the two linguistic and textual systems involved”. In other words, the increased level of explicitness noticeable in translation is not merely conditioned by the differences between language systems, but by the very process of translation. The hypothesis was confirmed by, for example, the studies carried out by Linn Øverås (1998), demonstrating a high frequency of explicitating shifts in the corpus of English and Norwegian texts, and Maeve Olohan and Mona Baker (2000), showing greater grammatical explicitness on the syntactic level in texts translated into English. Candace Séguinot’s (1988: 108) definition of explicitation suggests that it should be reserved “for additions in a translated text which cannot be explained by structural, stylistic, or rhetorical differences between the two languages”. She observes that explicitation can appear in three forms in the translated text: (a) “something is expressed in the translation which was not in the original”, (b) “something which was implied or understood through presupposition in the source text is overtly expressed in the translation”, and finally (c) “an element in the source text is given greater importance in the translation through focus, emphasis, or lexical choice” (ibid.). Kinga Klaudy (2009: 106–107) enumerates as many as four types of explicitation, namely (a) obligatory explicitation, which is dictated by

24 

M. Borodo

structural differences in language systems themselves, (b) optional explicitation, which relates to stylistic and cohesive patterns characteristic of specific languages, (c) pragmatic explicitation, which involves adding explanations of implicit cultural references, as well as (d) translation-­ inherent explicitation, which is related to the translation process itself. Refraining from obligatory explicitation would result in an ungrammatical translation; avoiding optional explicitation, on the other hand, could result in a translation which is grammatically correct but stylistically clumsy. Due to the elliptical and laconic literary style used in Korczak’s 1933 Kajtuś czarodziej, explicitation is of particular relevance to Antonia Lloyd-Jones’s 2012 translation Kaytek the Wizard, which will be further examined in Chap. 5. Another pattern which can be discerned in translated children’s fiction is the linguistic standardization of fictional dialogues. The term “standardization” is used here in a different sense to Toury’s (1995: 267–274) universal law of growing standardization, which is broader in scope; here, standardization relates to the omission or modification of “improper”, slangy and vulgar expressions and translators’ changes of sociolects, dialects, idiolects and other non-standard language varieties, which are replaced with more “appropriate” linguistic forms, more congruent with the notion of idealized, elegant language. Noting that translation of non-­ standard language has always been a challenge for the literary translator, Gillian Lathey (2016: 75) observes that in the case of children’s fiction this area is additionally problematic due to the pressure from editors, parents and educators, who “may be concerned that children should read only dialogue or prose of high stylistic quality that does not include slang, dialect or indeed scurrilous language”. Teenage speech, for example, may be standardized in translation, because it is sometimes careless, improper and incongruent with more idealized literary language, and certain pedagogic-­didactic norms observable in children’s fiction will determine that such speech should introduce young readers to the world of elegant and correct language usage (Van Coillie 2012: 231–232). Evidence for such tendencies can be both in the testimonies of practising literary translators and in the work of translation researchers. For example, the Catalan translator of the Harry Potter series Laura Escorihuela admits to having been discouraged by the publisher from deviating from standard Catalan,

2  The Language of Translated Children’s Fiction: Key Issues 

25

which made it impossible to recreate Rubeus Hagrid’s speech, reflecting his lower class origin (Fischer 2012: 58), while in children’s fiction translated into Spanish there is a tendency to use higher register and achieve stylistic homogeneity, most probably due to “the strong educational role” ascribed to children’s literature in Spain (ibid.: 75). Similar observations are made by Robert Looby (2015: 171) with regard to the Polish translations of English children’s fiction, in which the dialects spoken by the so-called lower classes were not, as a general rule, recreated, but standardized. This may have important consequences for the reader’s perception of the universe described in the books. The class differences signalled through various linguistic markers in children’s fiction by Hugh Lofting, Edith Nesbit, Michael Bond or Frances Hodgson Burnett become less pronounced in translation, with the speech of working class as well as less educated protagonists being expressed in standard Polish (ibid.: 172–173). It may be hypothesized that one of the reasons behind such translation practices in socialist Poland could have been the intention to minimize the importance of class differences, but according to Looby (ibid.: 175) such standardization was also caused by the “pressure on translators and writers of children’s literature to write good, correct Polish”. This mirrors Lathey’s comments on the pressure from various decision-makers to use language of “high stylistic quality” (2016: 75). Likewise, Looby (2015: 174–175) notes that the Polish translations of Prince Caspian, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and The Jungle Book that he analysed were all more linguistically sophisticated and stylistically embellished. The desire to offer to the child reader texts of high stylistic quality may result not only in translators’ standardizing practices, but also in their deliberate stylization through the use of more sophisticated vocabulary and a higher literary style. This may be illustrated with the British translation of Erich Kästner’s classic Emil und die Detektive [Emil and the Detectives], in which the “stylized Berlin street slang” was transformed by Margaret Goldsmith, in accordance with the literary and socio-cultural conventions of the day, into “the dialogue of the English boarding-school story” (Lathey 2016: 76). As a result, the original sociolect of the lower middle class was replaced with that of the upper middle class. The British translation in question also makes a noteworthy comparison with the American translations of Kästner. Let us quote the passages provided by

26 

M. Borodo

Lathey in full for comparison. The British “Well, I think this thief affair is going to be tophole. First-rate. And, I say, if you don’t mind, I think I’ll help you” from 1931 contrasts with the more vibrant 1930 American translation “This looks like a swell stunt to me – some class, I’ll say. And man, I’m with you, if that’s all right with you”, as well as with the more recent 2014 American version “Listen, this thing with the robber is cool. It’s awesome, actually! So unless you have a problem with it, I’d like to help out” (as cited in Lathey 2016: 77). Recreating the original dialogue in markedly different ways, the translations use either upper-middle-class British English or more colloquial American idiom. In this context, Lathey (ibid.) points to a tendency in the UK, especially in the first half of the twentieth century, but also later, “to choose a higher social register in translation than that used in the source text”. On the other hand, in more recent translations of children’s fiction, from the early twenty-first and late twentieth centuries, one could observe “in many countries a liberalization of educational policy on spoken language, thanks to a new understanding of children’s abilities to switch between different registers when necessary” (ibid.: 78–79). This seems to be confirmed by, for example, the changing tendencies in audiovisual translation for young people in Poland, in which colloquial and slangy language varieties have in recent decades become acceptable and more common (Janikowski 2005). Finally, it should also be acknowledged that what is considered colloquial and slangy also changes—the language itself is a moving target. Stylization may be occasionally introduced by translators when no such stylization actually appears in the original work of children’s fiction. This may take the form of deliberate archaization, which was the case with the 1923 Polish translation of E.T.A. Hoffman’s Das fremde Kind [The Strange Child], in which the translator introduced a number of archaic forms of address, historical details and archaic vocabulary items (Pieciul-Karmińska 2016: 53–56). Stylization may also be introduced to accentuate specific traits of literary protagonists. In one of her translations, English translator Anthea Bell used a non-standard dialect for an old, shrewd and uneducated sailor, who speaks standard German in the original, assuming that this change would make him more credible from the perspective of the reader of the English version (Bell [1987] 2006: 233). Similarly, in her translation of Ronja rövardotter [Ronia, the

2  The Language of Translated Children’s Fiction: Key Issues 

27

Robber’s Daughter] Patricia Crampton introduced in the speech of one of Lindgren’s characters a local dialect from Wiltshire in the southwest England (Lathey 2016: 84). To provide another example, in the seventh volume of Hergé’s Les Aventures de TinTin [The Adventures of TinTin] in which the young Belgian reporter travels to England, and then to Scotland, the translators encountered a paradoxical difficulty of translating French dialogue into English spoken in a Scottish setting. To increase the credibility of the Scottish encounter for the English-language reader, the translators introduced Scottish pronunciation and vocabulary (“there’s no maun heer that’ll dare go neer that curst place”) in place of the original French dialogues (as cited in Lathey 2016: 85). A similar difficulty will be mentioned in Chap. 3 with reference to Korczak’s Big Business Billy, the English translation of a Polish book with an American setting, which contains commentary on the enormous difficulty of learning the English language, which had to be reasonably communicated to the audience of native speakers of English by the English translator. Discussion of sociolect, formality and style in translation will be continued in Chaps. 6 and 7 in particular, in which two radically different approaches will be analysed in the translations of Korczak’s Król Maciuś Pierwszy from 1990 and 2014, one introducing elements of the lower-middle-class or working-­class sociolect, the other making use of an ornate, literary style.

 ultural Assimilation, Foreignization C and Modernization Although every translation is to some extent ethnocentric, as a certain degree of cultural reduction and exclusion is inevitable (Venuti 1995: 310), the translator is often confronted with a choice between two divergent ways of rendering the original in translation. These two disparate strategies are foreignization, whose aim is “to register the linguistic and cultural difference of the foreign text”, and domestication, that is the “reduction of the foreign text to target-language cultural values” (ibid.: 20). A domesticated translation will “conform to values currently dominating the target-language culture, taking a conservative and openly assimilationist approach to the foreign text, appropriating it to support

28 

M. Borodo

domestic canons, publishing trends, political alignments” (Venuti 1998: 240). It will thus aim to resemble a text originally written in the target culture. A foreignized translation, on the other hand, will counter the ethnocentric tendencies of the receiving culture by foregrounding the values of the source culture (Venuti 1995: 20), drawing the reader’s attention to translation as translation. Popularized by Lawrence Venuti, a researcher representing the move towards more socio-political approaches to translation that began to gain traction in the 1980s and 1990s, the concepts of domestication and foreignization are obviously not new in translation theory. Venuti himself draws inspiration from Friedrich Schleiermacher’s lecture on translation, published in 1813, in which the German philosopher and translator distinguishes “two roads” open to “the genuine translator”, that is “[e]ither the translator leaves the author in peace, as much as possible, and moves the reader toward him. Or he leaves the reader in peace, as much as possible, and moves the author toward him” (Lefevere 1992: 149). Venuti’s other sources of inspiration are Antoine Berman, questioning ethnocentric translation and focusing on translation ethics (Venuti 1995: 20), and Phillip Lewis, with his concept of “abusive fidelity”, which resists the values of the target culture through avoiding fluency, favouring linguistic experimentation and foregrounding cultural difference (ibid.: 23–24). On the other hand, Venuti situates himself in direct opposition to the translation tradition epitomized by Eugene Nida, criticizing the notion of “dynamic equivalence” advocated for Bible translation projects on account of its “ethnocentric violence” and emphasis on “naturalness of expression” (ibid.: 21–23). Similar to Schleiermacher, and quite unlike Nida, Venuti is an advocate for “moving the reader toward the author”, rather than “moving the author toward the reader”. Children’s literature translation researchers are similarly divided on the matter of the cultural and linguistic mediation of literary texts. Venuti is a prescriptivist and his enterprise, favouring the politico-cultural strategy of foreignization, needs to be understood in the context of translation into English, which presents a very specific socio-political dynamic, given the powerful global status of English. He was also assuming that his theories would apply to adult literary fiction rather than children’s literature. Prescriptive approaches to children’s literature translation can be found

2  The Language of Translated Children’s Fiction: Key Issues 

29

elsewhere, however, and can be traced back to the early days of CLTS (Children’s Literature Translation Studies) (Borodo 2017: 36). For example, Carmen Bravo-Villasante (1978: 46) observes that cultural adaptation should generally be avoided in translations for young readers, Stolt (1978: 132) points out that translators should not underestimate children’s ability to re-experience the foreign and the exotic, and Klingberg (1978: 86) suggests that cultural assimilation should not be overused by translators, as promoting knowledge about other cultures is one of the major aims of translations for children. These views came under criticism from Riitta Oittinen (2000), who advocates a more free and functionalist translation approach to children’s fiction, claiming that the translator should enter into a creative dialogue with the reader and the author and should have the right to express the source text in novel ways in the new cultural reality, a sign of respect towards both the original author and the reading child. In this context, Nikolajeva (2006) even writes of the Klingberg School and the Oittinen School, the former favouring faithful and literal translation, the latter free and functionalist translation methods. Similar to Oittinen, Nikolajeva (2006: 278) writes in favour of the more free translation approach, which does not refrain from cultural mediation, observing that translations that sound too “strange” may be rejected by readers. It is also possible to adopt a middle course and a non-­ prescriptive approach, accepting the value of the arguments of both sides. Lathey (2016: 38), for example, observes that children’s literature may sometimes require a greater degree of cultural assimilation than adult fiction, but also acknowledges that, especially in today’s globalized world, children are constantly confronted with new concepts and information items anyway and that “adaptation of a foreign milieu removes an element of challenge and excitement” (ibid.). It should also be noted that translations for children will not necessarily exhibit a clear-cut preference for either cultural assimilation or foreignization, but may be characterized by more nuanced and hybrid ways of dealing with cultural specificity. Another translation strategy commonly applied to translations and adaptations of children’s fiction is modernization. This is not exclusive to children’s literature, obviously, but is characteristic of literary translation in general. As a result of modernization, successive generations of readers have been confronted with sometimes widely differing versions of Alice’s

30 

M. Borodo

Adventures in Wonderland, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz or the tales by Perrault, Andersen or the Brothers Grimm, which reflect the changing tastes and ideologies of translators and their audiences at different moments in time, which in Touryan terms also determine the different translation norms (Toury 1995). In the context of translated children’s fiction, modernization is discussed by Klingberg (1978: 86), who understands this translation practice as an attempt to “make the target text of more immediate interest to the presumptive readers by moving the time nearer to the present time or by exchanging details in the setting for more recent ones”. Modernization is aptly illustrated by Oittinen (2000: 135–142) with three different translations of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland created in Finland in the course of the twentieth century. On the lexical level, the translations reflect ongoing socio-cultural changes in Finland: the gradual transformation from an agricultural to an increasingly urbanized and industrialized country, as well as changes in the perception of the child-adult relation, with the image of a polite little girl from the early twentieth-century version replaced with that of a more independent young person in a more recent translation. With regard to cultural specificity, on the other hand, the translations reflect a move away from cultural assimilation to foreignization. At the end of the twentieth century, the name Liisa, used in the first two translations, eventually gave way to the original name, Alice. According to Nikolajeva (2006: 283), modernization may be understood in a purely linguistic sense, when, for example, nineteenth-century literature is rendered into a modern idiom, in which case “a skillful translator may employ minor stylization to indicate the time period, but still use the language adapted to the modern audience”. Such modernization may be crucial in the case of young adult literature with distinctive teenage slang. As noted by Nikolajeva (2006: 283), for example, the Swedish translation of The Catcher in the Rye from the 1950s is “completely unreadable today because of its outmoded slang”, and it is only the more recent translation that brought the original language up to date. In a broader sense, modernization may be understood as not only “bringing everyday details, objects, and concepts up to date in translation”, but also as adapting the source text to the new socio-cultural context by “changing or deleting what may be perceived as offensive, such as racism or sexism” (Nikolajeva 2006:

2  The Language of Translated Children’s Fiction: Key Issues 

31

282–283). This latter usage clearly overlaps with the practice of mitigation discussed earlier in this chapter.

Part Two: Key Concepts Style, Formality, Voice and Corpus Analysis In her discussion of style, Baker (2000) makes an important distinction between “style in translation” and “style of translation” and, in a similar vein, Saldanha (2011) distinguishes between the style of the original and the style of the translator. The two will not necessarily be convergent. An example of a source-text-oriented approach to translation and style can be found in Kirsten Malmkjær (2003: 39), who focuses on “why, given the source text, the translation has been shaped in such a way that it comes to mean what is does” (emphasis in the original) and Jean Boase-Beier (2006: 5), concerned with “the style of the source text as perceived by the translator and how it is conveyed or changed or to what extent it is or can be preserved in translation”. In this context one should also mention Juliane House’s (1977, 2015: 29–30) quality assessment model, concerned with the notion of style and its successful recreation in translation. Noteworthy attempts to discern the style of the translator, on the other hand, can be found in the work of Baker, who observes that such an analysis must “focus on the manner of expression that is typical of a translator, rather than simply instances of open intervention”, adding that “[i]t must attempt to capture the translator’s characteristic use of language, his or her individual profile of linguistic habits, compared to other translators” (2000: 245). More recently, this approach was elaborated by Saldanha (2011: 31), who provides a comprehensive definition of translator style, assuming that it (a) is “a ‘way of translating’ which is felt to be recognizable across a range of translations by the same translator”, (b) “distinguishes the translator’s work from that of others”, (c) “constitutes a coherent pattern of choice”, (d) “is ‘motivated’, in the sense that it has a discernible function or functions”, and (e) “cannot be explained purely with reference to the author or source-text style, or as the result of

32 

M. Borodo

l­inguistic constraints”. In this book we will also be concerned with these parameters with the exception of the first one, examining a range of translations of the same source text rather than by the same translator. An important feature of style, which will be referred to throughout the chapters, is “formality”. It was famously cast as a feature of stylistic variation by Martin Joos (1961), who distinguished between five categories of style in spoken English, namely, frozen, formal, consultative, casual and intimate. This characteristic feature of style has been the subject of sociolinguistics, where style has been used since the 1960s to represent “varieties of language viewed from the point of view of formality” (Trudgill 1999: 119, italics in the original) which “can be arranged on a continuum ranging from very formal to very informal” (ibid.), with different degrees of formality reflecting different social situations and relationships. The factors conditioning the choice of a particular style may be user-bound, such as age, gender or social and regional background, and situation-­ bound, which are dependent on the social and communicative context (Hernández-Campoy 2016: xix). It should be noted that some scholars point to a clear distinction between style and register; others do not see the distinction as clear-cut. In the Hallidayan sense, register denotes “the linguistic features which are typically associated with a configuration of situational features” (Halliday and Hasan 1976: 23) or “a variety of language which is related to topic, subject matter or activity, like the register of mathematics, the register of medicine, or the register of football” (Trudgill and Hannah 2013: 4). Similarly, Douglas Biber and Susan Conrad (2009: 2) differentiate between the register perspective (with linguistic features being “functionally motivated by the situational context”) and the style perspective (where linguistic features “reflect aesthetic preferences, associated with particular authors or historical periods”). Others use the term style in a similar sense to register—for example, Janet Holmes (2008: 259) refers to style as “language variation which reflects changes in situational factors, such as addressee, setting, task or topic”. Register is also sometimes used in a similar sense to style, as a shorthand for the degree of formality and without a direct reference to situational variation (formal register, informal register), also in reference to individual “linguistic items: lexical, grammatical, and phonological” (e.g. Allen 1986: 247) which differ in terms of formality. Register is also occasionally

2  The Language of Translated Children’s Fiction: Key Issues 

33

used in a similar sense to sociolect, that is in reference to a degree of formality and a particular social group (working-class register, lower-­middle-­ class register, upper-middle-class register), which is also the case with some researchers of translated children’s fiction quoted in this chapter. In this book, formality will be primarily treated as a feature of stylistic variation, however. The discussion of style and degrees of formality is particularly relevant to the English-language translations of Korczak’s Król Maciuś Pierwszy, with the two most recent translations, from 1990 and 2014, being positioned on the opposite ends of the formality scale (see Chaps. 6 and 7). Crucial to the analysis of literary style is the discovery of recurrent linguistic patterns in translated texts (e.g. Baker 2000; Malmkjær 2003; Munday 2008; Saldanha 2011). In her study, Baker (2000: 245–246) observes specifically that style “is a matter of patterning”, and later adds that she is interested in examining “patterns of choice (whether these choices are conscious or subconscious) rather than individual choices in isolation”. What types of patterns can be examined in order to find out more about the style of a literary translator? Using corpus-based methods, Baker points, for example, to type/token ratio (the ratio of individual lexemes to the overall number of lexical items), vocabulary diversity, average sentence length, translators’ preference for certain syntactic constructions, lexical items, cohesive devices or even their use of punctuation (see Chap. 6 in particular). Also using corpus-based methods, Saldanha focuses on the use of emphatic italics, source culture borrowings and differences in the use of the connective “that” after reporting verbs, which leads her to the conclusion that the styles of the two translators she examined differ, with one opting for greater explicitness, cohesion, coherence and familiarity, whereas the other translator “does not necessarily prioritize a smooth reading experience and is more willing to allow his readers to confront and negotiate cultural differences” (2011: 16–17). This is a reminder that an analysis of style should not be an end in itself but a way of learning about the socio-cultural and ideological stance of a particular translator and his or her relation to the implied reader (Baker 2000: 258, 261), which seems particularly pertinent to translating children’s fiction, characterized as it is by the asymmetrical child-adult relationship.

34 

M. Borodo

Corpus-based methods, employed in a number of studies mentioned in this chapter (e.g. Knowles and Malmkjær 1996; Laviosa 1998; Baker 2000; Olohan and Baker 2000; Bosseaux 2007; Munday 2008; Saldanha 2011), can indeed be very useful for linguistic analysis. Although preparing an electronic corpus is often a laborious process, it enables researchers to gather diverse and very precise quantitative data to confirm, or disprove, their intuitions—data that would otherwise have to be collected by an even more laborious process of manual counting. Moreover, corpus analysis can also provide data that would otherwise not be apparent in a manual (i.e. non-automated) analysis at all, such as the translator’s handling of punctuation marks. Olohan (2004: 63–89) mentions a number of standard methods of corpus analysis (some of which have been mentioned above), such as concordancing (to search for specific nodes, or keywords, and their co-text), frequency lists (allowing insight into the number of occurrences of specific words), type/token ratios, average sentence length or keyword lists (showing the frequencies of lexical items in comparison to a larger reference corpus, e.g., to examine the differences in the lexical choices of subsequent translators of same text). Corpus-­ based translation analysis can also reveal the extent of the creativity of literary translators. As is argued by Baker (2000: 262), “[i]f translation is a creative activity, as I believe it is, then translators cannot simply be ‘reproducing’ what they find in the source text – somewhere along the line each translator must be leaving a personal imprint on the new text”. This aspect was examined by Dorothy Kenny (2001) in her analysis of German-language literature translated into English. Focusing on hapax legomena (expressions occurring only once) and author-specific word forms and collocations, Kenny identifies a number of differences in the translators’ treatment of unconventional, creative lexis. Demonstrating the differences in literary translators’ creativity will also be one of the aims of the present study. Analysis of recurrent stylistic patterns may also be explicitly linked to the notion of ideology (see the next sections for a more detailed discussion of the concept). Jeremy Munday (2008: 6), for example, examines the English translations of twentieth-century Latin American fiction in order to identify linguistic patterns and relate them “to the macro-levels of ideology and cultural production”. He observes that “[a]lthough the

2  The Language of Translated Children’s Fiction: Key Issues 

35

words of the ST [Source Text] are a basic constraint against which the TT [Target Text] choices may be measured, the translator may deliberately choose to subvert them or may unconsciously distort them” (Munday 2008: 13). Just like Baker (2000) above, Munday suggests that the recurrent patterns found in translated texts may be conscious and deliberate as well as unconscious. Although the line between the two cannot always be easily drawn, both motivated and unconscious patterns could be informative with regard to translator style and the underlying ideology. In the context of literary fairy tales, the question of style and ideology is tackled by Malmkjær (2003). Examining Victorian translations of Andersen, she identifies a number of linguistic patterns indicative of a reluctance on the part of the translator to refer to the sphere of religion, and to God in particular. Malmkjær argues that the numerous omissions cannot be simply explained by reference to linguistic appropriateness and the desire not to use the name of God in vain or by genre conventions, but she links them to the differences in the perception of the relationship between God and humans in English and Danish society as well as to the personal ideologies and convictions of the original author and the translator. In contrast to the original tales, the English translations consistently present a “universe in which the secular world and its inhabitants with their concerns are kept at a respectful distance from the heavenly regions” (Malmkjær 2003: 51), and a world in which a safe distance is maintained between God and the metaphysical world of magic. The underlying ideology, that is Andersen’s near-pantheistic perspective and almost intimate relationship to God, was thus significantly transformed in translation, as Malmkjær’s analysis of stylistic patterns demonstrates. From a narratological point of view, translated fiction may also be examined with a focus on the notion of a narrative voice, which may be meticulously recreated but also subverted, distorted or amplified in translation. In her analysis of Russian narrative fiction in English translation, Rachel May (1994: 115) suggests that “translators traditionally engage in rivalries not only with editors and authors but with the voices in the text, particularly with the voice of the narrator”. Charlotte Bosseaux (2007) demonstrates that this is the case in her corpus analysis of Virginia Woolf in French, in which she examines the differences between the translators’ handling of the original point of view with a focus on such linguistic

36 

M. Borodo

categories as deixis, modality, transitivity and free indirect discourse. Depending on the specific circumstances, the translator’s voice, an indicator of what Theo Hermans (1996: 27) refers to as the translator’s “discursive presence”, may remain largely concealed behind the voice of the narrator or it may be made clearly visible, for example, when it speaks for itself in paratexts. Focusing on translated children’s fiction specifically, O’Sullivan (2003, 2005) points out that it is possible to identify translators’ discursive presence on two levels. On the one hand, she mentions, after Hermans, translators’ paratextual interventions, such as the addition of explanatory footnotes, forewords and so on, where the voice of the translator can be clearly heard (O’Sullivan 2005: 109). The other level she distinguishes is the discursive level. Here, “the voice of the narrator of the translation” can either mimic the original narrator’s voice, retaining the address of the original, or it can be dislocated from that of the original narrator, taking control of the original text and appropriating it, effectively transforming the original address (ibid.). Such transformations are illustrated by O’Sullivan (ibid.: 114–129) with the examples of “amplifying narration”, the effect achieved through introducing explanatory additions or didactic comments in the text, “reductive narration”, concerned with suppressing or omitting the original humour, irony or parody, and with the more radical strategy of “drowning out” the original narrator. The last example concerns situations when the translator decides that “children should be addressed in a way other than that adopted by the source text”, uses “narrative methods of children’s literature more familiar to the target culture” and decides to “tell the story differently from the narrator of the source text” (ibid.: 118).

 ociolect, Idiolect, Non-standard Speech S and Fictional Dialogue Other key concepts of relevance to our analysis are fictional characters’ sociolects and idiolects. Sociolect denotes “a linguistic variety (or lect) defined on social (as opposed to regional) grounds, e.g. correlating with a particular social class or occupational group” (Crystal 2008: 440). Sociolects of literary characters are indicative of their standing within

2  The Language of Translated Children’s Fiction: Key Issues 

37

society and mark them as representatives of a particular social group, for example, as working class or upper class, less educated society members or intellectuals, members of a street gang or a royal family. Rather than reflecting social stratification in a given speech community, idiolect reflects the unique traits of an individual’s speech and “has to do with ‘idiosyncratic’ ways of using language – favourite expressions, different pronunciations of particular words as well as a tendency to over-use specific syntactic structures” (Hatim and Mason 1990: 43–44). Federico Federici (2018: 300) suggests an even broader understanding, referring to idiolect as “the ensemble of linguistic features belonging to a person which is affected by geographical, educational, and even physical factors including class, gender, race, and historical influences that contribute to shaping one’s ideological persona”. The term, first used in the USA, has been popular among sociolinguists since the 1940s, referring to “the speech habits of an individual in a speech community” (Wales 2011: 211). Katie Wales (ibid.) further explains that idiolect “covers those features which vary from register to register, medium to medium, in daily language use; as well as the more permanent features that arise from personal idiosyncrasies, such as lisping, monotone delivery, favourite exclamations, etc.”, adding that idiolect may be regarded as “the equivalent of a finger-print: each of us is unique in our language habits”. The discussion of such concepts as sociolect and idiolect raises the question of how they relate to the notions of register and style. Hatim and Mason (1990: 44) quote William O’Donnell and Loreto Todd (1980: 62), who suggest that dialect is “the kind of variety which is found between idiolects”, whereas style is “the kind of variety found within idiolects”. In our discussion above, the notion of idiolect was mainly used in reference to individual fictional characters. When used in reference to an individual literary translator, idiolect may be regarded as a category broader than style, in which case style is “the kind of variation occurring within a given idiolect” (Hatim and Mason 1990: 44), a way of making motivated language choices to achieve a particular effect. In this context, Gabriela Saldanha (2011: 26) disagrees with Roger Fowler (1996: 185) that the notoriously “slippery notion” of style is of no theoretical value in comparison with such, arguably more useful, concepts as idiolect, register and sociolect. Saldanha argues that register fails to convey the individual

38 

M. Borodo

and subjective character of a text or its creator, whereas idiolect does not convey the idea of creativity and motivation attached to the notion of literary style. The boundaries between language varieties tend not to be clearly delineated, however, and there exist overlaps between sociolects, idiolects, geographical dialects or temporal dialects (Hatim and Mason 1990: 43–45; Alsina 2012a: 139). Basil Hatim and Ian Mason (1990: 45) provide an example from D. H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover of the speech of the game-keeper, Mellors (e.g. “Tha mun come ter th’ cottage one time”), which is classified by them as social dialect (working class), geographical dialect (English Midlands) and temporal dialect (contemporary with the publication of the book, but now outdated). They also note that this non-­ standard language was standardized in the translations into French, German and Danish, which confirms Peter Newmark’s (1988: 206) observation that in general the distinctive features of idiolect tend to be standardized by translators. Victòria Alsina (2012a: 150) demonstrates that “social variation is seldom or never found on its own: it is almost always blended with some other type of variation, usually geographical, but also idiolectical, temporal or slang”. She points to the overlapping of such language varieties as, for instance, working-class sociolect and Yorksire dialect in Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden (e.g. Mrs Medlock’s “Canna’ tha’ dress thysen?”, to which Mary Lennox replies “What do you mean? I don’t understand your language”) (as cited in Alsina 2012a: 145). It may be difficult to separate sociolect from geographical dialect, as “in many languages (for example, in English and in Italian) regional and working-class dialects overlap” while middle classes speak a more standard language irrespective of their place of origin, or from idiolect, “which may take the form of an extreme or distorted form of a sociolect” (Alsina 2012a: 139). This may also relate to temporal dialect, reflecting the simple fact that “each generation has its own linguistic fashions” (Hatim and Mason 1990: 41), which may be closely linked to a specific sociolect, as “certain social varieties of language are closely linked to certain situations, which may and do change after a time” (Alsina 2012a: 139). Some of the colloquial expressions and grammatical constructions from Korczak’s writings from the 1920s, for example, “doktór”, “andrus”, “funda”, “patrzajcie”, “sto pociech było”, are socially

2  The Language of Translated Children’s Fiction: Key Issues 

39

marked and sound outdated in today’s Poland, constituting a potential challenge for a contemporary Polish child reader. What are some of the common features of non-standard English? Martin B. Fischer (2012: 54) quotes George P. Krapp (1925), observing that “[t]he impression of popular speech is easily produced by a sprinkling of such forms as ain’t, for isn’t, done for did, them for those, and similar grammatical improprieties” and by using so-called eye-dialect, “in which the convention violated is one of the eye, not of the ear” (e.g. “pictsher” for “picture”). Fischer (2012: 55–56) also gathered other distinctive features which can be found in many varieties of English, such as the possessive “me”, as in “I’ve lost me bike”, the use of “them” as a variant of “those”, as in “them books”, the contracted form “o” for “of ”, “ter” for “to” and “yer” for “you”, instances of h-dropping and g-dropping, such lexical items as “blimey” or “kip” and various non-standard grammatical forms, such as “I likes my pipe” or “I walks to work”. He then illustrates many of these features with examples of non-standard speech used by fictional characters from the Harry Potter series. The half-giant Hagrid, for example, uses the language that reflects his lower-class origins (e.g. “Best be off, Harry, lots ter do today, gotta get up to London, an’ buy yer stuff fer school” or “Blimey, this is difficult”), whereas the Knight Bus conductor Stan Shunpike uses non-standard Cockney speech, as well as illustrating Rowling’s use of eye-dialect (e.g. “Woss that on your ‘ead?”, “Choo lookin’ at?” or “Never notice nuffink, they don”) (as cited in Fischer 2012). With regard to the Catalan, Spanish, French and German versions, Fischer (2012: 75) notes that “neither regional nor social variety is stressed with the same intensity in the translations as it is in the source text”, confirming the tendency to use more standard forms on the part of translators. One of the reasons for this may be that the translation of non-standard speech poses many challenges. For one thing, social stratification and the way in which it is reflected in language differ across cultures, which is one reason why translating the sociolects from a play such as Pygmalion into some other languages is difficult (Alsina 2012a: 140). In this context, Hatim and Mason (1997: 97–110) also draw attention to the importance of the careful interpretation of the actual meaning of the Flower Girl’s idiolectical use of tagging (e.g. “I’m a good girl, I am”). What additionally

40 

M. Borodo

complicates the translation of non-standard speech is the different literary traditions exhibiting varying levels of tolerance towards non-standard language varieties, or different spelling conventions. Alsina (2012a: 141) provides an example of eye-dialect (referred to earlier), long used in the English tradition, “which consists of misspelling certain words, such as wuz for ‘was’ and sed for ‘said’ in order to suggest non-standard pronunciation”, which is practically impossible to recreate in such languages as Spanish, Polish or Italian, in which spelling reflects pronunciation. What also needs to be taken into account by the translator is the prominence that social variation has been ascribed in the fictional dialogues created by the original author, as it may vary from central (in which case its omission would lead to a serious loss of meaning) to peripheral (when it is only occasionally used by marginal protagonists, in which case the meaning loss would be less severe) (ibid.). Sociolects and idiolects are often part of fictional dialogue (although they can also be part of narration) and may thus be seen through the prism of fictive orality. The latter makes a controlled use of various features of spoken language, such as a higher frequency of exclamations, hesitations, reformulations, ellipsis, deixis, repetition or a lower rate of subordinate clauses, creating the illusion of a naturalness of expression and spontaneity (e.g. Alsina 2012a: 137, 2012b: 146). It should be noted, however, that fictive orality, being only a mimetic representation of speech, will nevertheless differ from real spoken language. For example, the following utterance, from the speech of London teenagers, is rather unlikely to appear in narrative fiction: “Right in school yeah, erm, after, they gave us these yeah, and they like wanna see like how we talk and all that” (as cited in Van Coillie 2012: 218). Alsina (2012b: 147) notes that sociolects, idiolects, dialects and other non-standard varieties, which are more typical of spoken rather than written language, may serve a variety of functions; for example, they can make fictional dialogue sound more natural, provide additional information about the social, cultural and geographical context and contribute to the characterization of literary protagonists. With regard to the latter, Hatim and Mason (1990: 45) point to the potentially “alienating effect of the use of non-standard speech”, a fact illustrated by Alsina (2012b: 147) with the language used by different villains inhabiting the fictional universe created by Roald Dahl.

2  The Language of Translated Children’s Fiction: Key Issues 

41

Several studies have been devoted specifically to issues of fictional dialogue, idiolects, sociolects and other non-standard varieties, in the context of translated children’s fiction (e.g. Fischer and Wirf Naro 2012; Epstein 2012; Alsina 2012a, b; Fischer 2012). An exemplary analysis of this kind can be found in Alsina (2012b), which focuses on the Spanish and Catalan translations of Roald Dahl’s memorable, grotesque characters from Matilda and The Witches, such as Mr Wormwood, Matilda’s father, the tyrannical schoolmistress Miss Trunchbull and the sinister Grand High Witch. Alsina explains how these villains’ non-standard use of English contributes to their characterization. To provide one example, she demonstrates that Mr Wormwood’s idiolect is characterized by his use of phrases expressing anger and impatience, many words of abuse, colloquialisms (e.g. “d’you”, “to diddle” “like mad”), whereas his sociolect is claimed to be associated with that of working class and lower middle class (ibid.: 151). Alsina concludes that Dahl’s protagonists’ idiolects were generally retained although various shifts of meaning are also noticeable in the translations in question (ibid.: 162). For example, while Mr Wormwood’s idiolect and colloquial register were preserved, his sociolect was standardized in translation. As will be seen in Chap. 6, the 1990 British translation of Korczak’s Król Maciuś Pierwszy is an intriguing case of using the opposite translation strategy, that is, of stylizing the simple and standard language of the original and assigning it certain features characteristic of a specific target-culture sociolect.

Children’s Fiction, Language and Ideology In Language and Control in Children’s Literature, Knowles and Malmkjær (1996: 262) define ideology as “meaning in the service of power” and “the mobilisation of language in attempts to establish and sustain relations of domination”, examining this concept in the context of the asymmetrical adult-writer child-reader relationship. Adopting a linguistic perspective in their corpus-based, computer-aided analysis, they trace patterns found in writers’ use of grammatical constructions and lexical items that may be revealing with regard to societal values and personal convictions. This is done by collocation-oriented searches of selected

42 

M. Borodo

nodes and their collocates. For example, examining Roald Dahl’s treatment of the social institution of family, Knowles and Malmkjær observe that in his Danny the Champion of the World the most commonly used collocate of “father” is the personal pronoun “my” and that “[t]here are only 2 out of 356 occurrences of father where my is not present” (ibid.: 128). This is in stark contrast with Dahl’s depiction of the disagreeable father figure in Matilda, in which the most frequent collocate preceding the word “father” is “the” (ibid.: 134–135). The systematic use of the possessive personal pronoun in these novels contributes to the positive father image, the sense of affection and close familial bond, its absence to the lack of thereof. To provide another example, Knowles and Malmkjær demonstrate how Dahl uses animal imagery to portray unpleasant adult protagonists. Whereas a positive character such as Miss Honey appears with such collocates as “asks, cries, looks, pauses, thinks and hears”, which contribute to the image of a tender and attentive protagonist, negative characters are presented through the use of more or less explicit animal metaphors (the rat metaphor, the bull metaphor or the predator metaphor), and with such verbs as, for example, to “bark”, “bellow”, “roar”, “snort” or “snap” (ibid.: 139–140). A comparable analysis in the context of translation will be conducted in Chap. 8, which discusses a fight between one of Korczak’s child protagonists and his African opponent, ascribed a range of animalistic features, a depiction which is obviously problematic. Knowles and Malmkjær’s focus on ideology and linguistic patterns in children’s fiction results from their conviction that “it is through language that the child learns about the social world, about social customs, institutions and hierarchies” (1996: 44). The social institutions which serve in children’s fiction as channels of a given author’s world view, and which feature prominently in their study, include family, friendship, gender, home, race and religion. Knowles and Malmkjær suggest that it may be revealing “to compare the representations of social institutions in texts of similar genres produced in different eras” (ibid.: 46). The same can be said about the treatment of these institutions in the subsequent translations of the same originals, as their analysis can demonstrate how social values and ideologies change over time. For example, Korczak’s Król Maciuś Pierwszy from 1922 contains a number of passages that may seem

2  The Language of Translated Children’s Fiction: Key Issues 

43

controversial from today’s perspective, such as father’s use of physical violence towards children or the unfavourable depiction of African people, which would be considered inappropriate by today’s standards. Similarly, in their analysis of a Victorian corpus of children’s fiction, Knowles and Malmkjær identify high frequencies of references to the indigenous people of former British colonies, with the most common items in order of decreasing frequency being “blacks”, “savages”, “natives”, “negroes” and “niggers” (1996: 107), sometimes used interchangeably. By now the meaning and social acceptability of such race-related lexical items have changed. As noted by Knowles and Malmkjær, “natives, for example, in today’s usage, is offensive in some contexts; negro is regarded as offensive by some; black can be offensive within certain contexts and both nigger and savage are particularly offensive” (ibid.: 108). Some of these lexical items would certainly be considered more appropriate than others by the multicultural and multiracial British or American societies to which the translations of Korczak’s works, reflecting the racial stereotypes of 1920s Europe, were addressed. “Political correctness” is a complex phenomenon, however. According to Geoffrey Hughes (2010: 3–5), on the one hand, it is based on the noble intentions to tone down potentially harmful or offensive content, combat prejudice and stereotypes by means of new or neutral-sounding phrases, making up for historical injustices, and providing equal opportunities for marginalized groups. On the other hand, it is a kind of semantic engineering, which, although driven by noble motives, imposes artificial and abstract language codes, sometimes hindering an open exchange of views and bringing to mind the Orwellian newspeak (ibid.). A tendency to make use of non-discriminatory language in children’s literature is visible, especially in the USA, in the activities of publishers. The titles which have been particularly controversial or challenging in this respect are The Story of Doctor Dolittle, Les Aventures de TinTin, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as well as Enid Blyton’s books. For example, the Tintin series, published since 1929 and depicting non-European cultures in a rather stereotypical way, was harshly criticized in 2007, when both in Belgium and the UK complaints were made about its racial prejudices against Congolese indigenous people (Hughes 2010: 248–249). Another example of such criticism is the controversy around the word “nigger” in

44 

M. Borodo

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, first published in 1884. Today the term is regarded as offensive (unless it is used as an in-group term in the black community); however, as Lionel Trilling observed, this was the only word for blacks that Huck would have known, being as he was a rough uneducated boy in the American South before the Civil War. This might not be a commendable fact, but a historical one nonetheless (as cited in Hughes 2010: 152). The question of race, ideology and “political correctness” has been addressed in several studies centring on translated children’s fiction. For example, Gabriele Thomson-Wohlgemuth (2004: 120–121) discusses the American versions of Andersen’s fairy tales, from which certain religious, sexual and racial references were removed (e.g. a term such as “black magic” replaced with “bad magic”), and mentions the fate of the translations of Pippi Långstrump and Doctor Dolittle, published in socialist East Germany, from which some chapters were excised due to the “improper depiction of black people”. In socialist Poland, translations from English-language literature were not subjected to measures as radical as the removal of entire “inappropriate” chapters. Ideological interventions in translated literature for children were more superficial and “no thoroughgoing attempts were made to re-write or ‘adapt’ the books to make them more politically correct, although changes to individual words were made” (Looby 2015: 167). Comparing successive editions of Spanish translations of children’s literature with their English counterparts, Marisa Fernández-López ([2000] 2006) observes that while the English source texts were subject to editorial revisions over time, and consequently became more politically correct, the subsequent editions of the same Spanish translations, at least those published up to the 1990s, remained unchanged in this respect. Absent from the Spanish translations, various lexical interventions are observable in the revised English editions of Hugh Lofting’s The Story of Doctor Dolittle (e.g. the phrase “white man” is replaced by “man” or “European”, while “black man” is replaced by “man” or “African”) and there are also far-reaching modifications consisting in the removal of paragraphs or chapters considered politically incorrect (Fernández-López [2000] 2006: 49–51). Such modifications are related to the changing social and political trends which

2  The Language of Translated Children’s Fiction: Key Issues 

45

found reflection in twentieth-century children’s literature. As noted by House (2004: 687): In the Western world, certain broad approaches to children’s literature in the twentieth century can be isolated: the prevalence of traditional ‘bourgeois’ children’s literature up to the sixties; developments in the seventies in which ‘social realism’ and ‘critical awareness’ were propagated; the requirement that children’s books follow lines of ‘political correctness’ in the eighties and nineties, such that anything that would smack of sexism or racism is avoided […].

It may thus be hypothesized that especially the more recent English translations of Polish children’s literature by Janusz Korczak, published in multiracial and multicultural Britain and America, will be all the more prone to modifications of the original controversial passages concerning racial issues, a hypothesis which will be tested in Chap. 8.

The Metonymics of (Re)translation Examining early Irish literature in English translation from a postcolonial perspective, Maria Tymoczko (1999) makes a number of pertinent comments on the nature of translation. She argues that a total and complete translation is an illusory construct as translations are necessarily partial (1999: 55). When confronted with a source text, translators are capable of preserving only some of its aspects and elements, which in turn stand for the larger wholes of the source culture, source language, literary conventions and so on. Translators consequently “prioritize and privilege some parameters and not others; and […] represent some aspects of the source text partially or fully and others not at all in a translation”, which leads Tymoczko to assert that “by definition, therefore, translation is metonymic: it is a form of representation in which parts or aspects of the source text come to stand for the whole” (ibid.). Although selective and partial in nature, translation comes to represent the entire source text. What Tymoczko’s approach underlines is that all translation is essentially a question of decision-making and choice, which will result in a loss of

46 

M. Borodo

some meanings, but which will also result in a gain in other meanings. Translation is not, after all, only in a metonymic relationship with the source text and culture, but it can create new resonances within the target literature and culture, metonymically reflecting selected aspects and elements of that culture. As noted by Tymoczko, “the translator consciously or unconsciously picks metonymies to evoke other than those of the source text, specifically the metonymies of the receptor literary system and language” (ibid.: 50). This metonymic approach, Tymoczko argues, has an advantage over the traditional binary polarities of free vs. literal, foreignized vs. domesticated, dynamic vs. formal and so on because translations often cannot be neatly pigeonholed into these categories (ibid.: 56). Indeed, one may wonder about how to classify a translation which is highly idiomatic in terms of language and at the same time preserves the original cultural specificity? Is it a foreignized or a domesticated translation, is it characterized by dynamic or formal equivalence, or by both? It seems that a metonymic approach to translation allows for greater theoretical flexibility and better accounts for the complexity of the phenomenon than the binary opposites. This metonymic aspect of translation is particularly noticeable in subsequent translations of the same literary text produced over a longer period of time. This opens up the possibility of examining not only the relationship between the original text and its translations but also that between the coexistent retranslations. Translators can either create a new translation ignoring earlier version(s), sometimes not even being aware of their existence, or they can produce a new translation taking into account its predecessor(s) and entering into a dialogue with other translators (Legeżyńska 1986: 217–243). In the latter case, a retranslation can be “assimilative” or “confrontational” (Alvstad and Assis Rosa 2015: 10), that is, it can be produced in line with the preceding translation(s), using similar translation methods or taking over some of the previous translation solutions (e.g. titles or names that readers have got accustomed to), but it can also be produced in opposition to the existing version(s), using markedly different translation methods. The latter point is highlighted by Anthony Pym (1998: 83), who notes that “[w]hereas re-edition would tend to reinforce the validity of the previous translation, retranslation strongly challenges that validity”, and by Edward Balcerzan ([1968/1998]

2  The Language of Translated Children’s Fiction: Key Issues 

47

2013: 104), who observes that a retranslation can be challenged by competitive retranslations or even be eliminated from circulation. Furthermore, a retranslation can directly or indirectly refer to another retranslation, be it in a preface, afterword or on a book cover (e.g. using such phrases as “in the new translation by”, “the first unabridged version”, “first ever complete translation”), thus openly acknowledging the existence of its predecessor(s); alternatively, this relationship can be somehow concealed or ignored (Alvstad and Assis Rosa 2015: 17). Finally, with regard to the temporal progression of retranslations, “[t]here is usually no discernible rhythm to retranslation, with intervals between the appearance of new target texts ranging from the sporadic to the periodic to the simultaneous” (Deane-Cox 2014: 1). The relationship between the coexistent translations has sometimes been described with reference to the so-called retranslation hypothesis. It stipulates that first translations of foreign works are culturally assimilated and less literal than the retranslations that follow (Bensimon 1990; Gambier 1994), a fact also mentioned by Andrew Chesterman (2000: 23), who observes that “[l]ater translations (same ST, same TL) tend to be closer to the original than earlier ones”. The hypothesis is not universally applicable, however, and other scholars, notably Sharon Deane-Cox (2014), point to its limitations. Deane-Cox (2014: 4) argues that “the coinage of the Retranslation Hypothesis does not have its roots in detailed, empirical analyses of retranslation behaviour […]” and questions the idealized logic of straightforward progression from the initial, inept translation to the translations more closely following and gradually revealing the foreign identity of the source text. She observes that retranslations are dependent on a multitude of factors, such as the various socio-­ cultural factors, the conditions of translation production, the translator’s own preferences and subjectivity, questioning “the deterministic and linear chain of the Retranslation Hypothesis” (ibid.: 5). The English translations of Korczak’s Król Maciuś Pierwszy only partially support the hypothesis, with the first translation being the most appropriated, the second one the most literal and foreignizing, but then it is the third and fourth translations that are again more free and culturally assimilated. Finally, it should be noted that in the Polish context retranslation is studied under the label of “seria translatorska” [translation series], a term

48 

M. Borodo

introduced by Balcerzan ([1968/1998] 2013). This may be exemplified with many excellent studies in translated children’s fiction, for example, Joanna Dybiec-Gajer’s (2017) latest monograph on the Polish versions of struwwelpetriades, Eliza Pieciul-Karmińska’s (2013, 2014, 2016) research on the Polish translations of E.T.A.  Hoffmann, including eight Polish versions of Nussknacker und Mausekönig and two pre-war versions of Das fremde Kind, Izabela Szymańska’s (2014) study of confrontational Polish retranslations, a phenomenon she illustrates with polemical versions of The Rose and the Ring, Winnie-the-Pooh and Ann of Green Gables, or Aleksander Brzózka’s (2018) analysis of fourteen Polish translations of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Children’s fiction is indeed fertile ground for the analysis of the metonymics of retranslation. For example, the 1955 Polish translation of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Antoni Marianowicz prioritizes the target-culture literary system and smooth reading experience, replacing Carroll’s parodies with parodies of Polish poems and nursery rhymes which sound more familiar to the Polish child reader. The 1965 version by Maciej Słomczyński, on the other hand, privileges the source culture and language, being an example of a deeply foreignized and literal translation. The 1938 version of Winnie-the-Pooh by Irena Tuwim prioritizes linguistic simplicity and naturalness of expression. Monika Adamczyk-­ Garbowska’s translation from 1986 was aimed to address a dual audience of adults and children, being characterized by more literal and formal language. As will be demonstrated in the following chapters, Korczak’s Król Maciuś Pierwszy has also been treated metonymically in translation. For example, in their 1945 version Edith and Sidney Sulkin highlight the fairy-tale character of the original story, which is not foregrounded in the subsequent English-language versions of the novel. Richard Lourie privileges the specificity of the source culture, which is noticeable in his treatment of culture-specific items and names in the 1986 translation. In 1990, Adam Czasak accentuates, even exaggerates, the simple and unembellished language used by Korczak. Fisher and Torrent, on the other hand, render the Polish text in a higher style and use more sophisticated lexical items in 2014. All these translations are based on the same source text, yet the various translators have metonymically activated and privileged different reserves of meaning from Korczak’s novel. This chapter has

2  The Language of Translated Children’s Fiction: Key Issues 

49

presented theoretical concepts whose objective is to help reconstruct these translation decisions. The following chapter, on the other hand, will present the larger context of translating Polish children’s literature into English, with a special focus on Janusz Korczak.

References Adamczyk-Garbowska, Monika. 1988. Polskie tłumaczenia angielskiej literatury dziecięcej. Problemy krytyki przekładu. Wrocław: Ossolineum. Allen, Harlod, B. 1986. The Linguistic Atlas of the Upper Midwest as a Source of Sociolinguistic Information. In Dialect and Language Variation, ed. Harlod B. Allen and Michael D. Linn, 247–258. Orlando: Academic Press. Alsina, Victòria. 2012a. Issues in the Translation of Social Variation in Narrative Dialogue. In The Translation of Fictive Dialogue, ed. Jenny Brumme and Anna Espunya, 137–154. Amsterdam: Rodopi. ———. 2012b. The Translation of Idiolect in Children’s Literature: The Witches and Matilda by Roald Dahl. In Translating Fictional Dialogue for Children and Young People, ed. Martin B.  Fischer and Maria Wirf Naro, 145–164. Berlin: Frank and Timme. Alvstad, Cecilia, and Alexandra Assis Rosa. 2015. Voice in Retranslation: An Overview and Some Trends. Target 27 (1): 3–24. Baker, Mona. 2000. Towards a Methodology for Investigating the Style of a Literary Translator. Target 12 (2): 241–266. Balcerzan, Edward. [1968/1998] 2013. Poetyka przekładu artystycznego. In Polska myśl przekładoznawcza. Antologia, ed. Piotr de Bończa Bukowski and Magda Heydel, 103–118. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego. Bell, Anthea. [1987] 2006. Translator’s Notebook: Delicate Matters. In The Translation of Children’s Literature. A Reader, ed. Gillian Lathey, 232–240. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Ben-Ari, Nitsa. 1992. Didactic and Pedagogic Tendencies in the Norms Dictating the Translation of Children’s Literature: The Case of Postwar German-Hebrew Translations. Poetics Today 13 (1): 221–230. Bensimon, Paul. 1990. Présentation. Palimpsestes 13 (4): ix–xiii. Biber, Douglas, and Susan Conrad. 2009. Register, Genre, and Style. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

50 

M. Borodo

Blum-Kulka, Shoshana. [1986] 2001. Shifts in Cohesion and Coherence in Translation. In The Translation Studies Reader, ed. Lawrence Venuti, 298–313. London/New York: Routledge. Blum-Kulka, Shoshana, and Eddie Levenston. 1983. Universals of Lexical Simplification. In Strategies in Interlanguage Communication, ed. Claus Færch and Gabriele Kasper, 119–139. London: Longman. Boase-Beier, Jean. 2006. Stylistic Approaches to Translation. Manchester: St Jerome. Borodo, Michał. 2005. Tracing Visibility in Translated Children’s Literature. Translation Studies in the New Millennium 3: 1–14. ———. 2017. Translation, Globalization and Younger Audiences: The Situation in Poland. Oxford: Peter Lang. Bosseaux, Charlotte. 2007. How Does It Feel? Point of View in Translation: The Case of Virginia Woolf into French. Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi. Bravo-Villasante, Carmen. 1978. Translation Problems in my Experience as a Translator. In Children’s Books in Translation: The Situation and the Problems, ed. Göte Klingberg, Mary Orvig, and Stuart Amor, 46–50. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International. Brzózka, Aleksander. 2018. Przetłumacz mi książeczkę. Kilka słów o przekładzie literatury dziecięcej i młodzieżowej tylko dla dorosłych/Translate Me a Book. A Few Words Regarding Translation of Children’s and Teenage Literature for Adults Only. In Między tekstem a kulturą. Z zagadnień przekładoznawstwa, ed. Piotr P. Chruszczewski and Aleksandra R. Knapik, 300–322. San Diego: Æ Academic Publishing. Chesterman, Andrew. 1997. Memes of Translation: The Spread of Ideas in Translation Theory. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. ———. 2000. A Causal Model for Translation Studies. In Intercultural Faultlines, ed. Maeve Olohan, 15–27. Manchester: St. Jerome. Craig, Ian. 2001. Children’s Classics Under Franco. Oxford: Peter Lang. Crystal, David. 2008. Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics. 6th ed. Oxford: Blackwell. Deane-Cox, Sharon. 2014. Retranslation: Translation, Literature and Reinterpretation. London: Bloomsbury. Dybiec-Gajer, Joanna. 2017. Złota różdżka – od książki dla dzieci po dreszczowiec raczej dla dorosłych. Kraków: Tertium. Dymel-Trzebiatowska, Hanna. 2013. Translatoryka literatury dziecięcej. Gdańsk: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Gdańskiego.

2  The Language of Translated Children’s Fiction: Key Issues 

51

Englund Dimitrova, Birgitta. 2005. Expertise and Explicitation in the Translation Process. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Epstein, B.J. 2012. Translating Expressive Language in Children’s Literature: Problems and Solutions. Oxford: Peter Lang. Federici, Federico. 2018. Sociolinguistics, Translation, and Interpreting. In The Routledge Handbook of Translation Studies and Linguistics, ed. Kirsten Malmkjær, 295–309. London/New York: Routledge. Fernández-López, Marisa. [2000] 2006. Translation Studies in Contemporary Children’s Literature: A Comparison of Intercultural Ideological Factors. In The Translation of Children’s Literature: A Reader, ed. Gillian Lathey, 41–53. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Fischer, Martin B. 2012. “Gulpin’ Gargoyles” – Language Varieties in the Harry Potter Novels and Their Translations. In Translating Fictional Dialogue for Children and Young People, ed. Martin B.  Fischer and Maria Wirf Naro, 43–79. Berlin: Frank and Timme. Fischer, Martin B., and Maria Wirf Naro, eds. 2012. Translating Fictional Dialogue for Children and Young People. Berlin: Frank and Timme. Foerstel, Herbert N. 2002. Banned in the U.S.A.: A Reference Guide to Book Censorship in Schools and Public Libraries. Westport: Greenwood Press. Fowler, Roger. 1996. Linguistic Criticism. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Gambier, Yves. 1994. La retraduction, retour et detour. Meta 39 (3): 413–417. Halliday, Michael A.K., and Ruqaiya Hasan. 1976. Cohesion in English. London: Longman. Halverson, Sandra. 2003. The Cognitive Basis of Translation Universals. Target 15 (2): 197–241. Hatim, Basil, and Ian Mason. 1990. Discourse and the Translator. London/New York: Longman. ———. 1997. The Translator as Communicator. London/New York: Routledge. Hermans, Theo. 1996. The Translator’s Voice in Translated Narrative. Target 8 (1): 23–48. Hernández-Campoy, Juan M. 2016. Sociolinguistics Styles. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell. Holmes, Janet. 2008. An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. 3rd ed. Harlow: Pearson/Longman. House, Juliane. 1977. A Model for Translation Quality Assessment. Tübingen: Gunter Narr.

52 

M. Borodo

———. 2004. Linguistic Aspects of the Translation of Children’s Literature. In Übersetzung  – Translation  – Traduction. An International Encyclopedia of Translation Studies, ed. Kittel Harald, Paul Armin Frank, Norbert Greiner, Theo Hermans, Werner Koller, José Lambert, and Fritz Paul, 683–697. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. ———. 2015. Translation Quality Assessment: Past and Present. London/New York: Routledge. Hughes, Goeffrey. 2010. Political Correctness: A History of Semantics and Culture. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. Inggs, Judith. 2011. Censorship and Translated Children’s Literature in the Soviet Union: The Example of the Wizards Oz and Goodwin. Target 23 (1): 77–91. Janikowski, Przemysław. 2005. Dobry polski Szrek. Wrażliwość kulturowa tłumacza w rękach magnatów popkultury. In Kultura popularna a przekład, ed. Piotr Fast, 39–47. Katowice: Śląsk Wydawnictwo Naukowe. Joos, Martin. 1961. The Five Clocks. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World. Joosen, Vanessa, and Gillian Lathey, eds. 2014. Grimms’ Tales Around the Globe: The Dynamics of Their International Reception. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. Kaniklidou, Themis, and Juliane House. 2017. Discourse and Ideology in Translated Children’s Literature: A Comparative Study. Perspectives 26 (2): 1–14. Kenny, Dorothy. 2001. Lexis and Creativity in Translation: A Corpus-based Study. Manchester: St. Jerome. Klaudy, Kinga. 2009. Explicitation. In Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies, ed. Mona Baker and Gabriela Saldanha, 2nd ed., 104–108. London/ New York: Routledge. Klingberg, Göte. 1978. The Different Aspects of Research into the Translation of Children’s Books and Its Practical Application. In Children’s Books in Translation: The Situation and the Problems, ed. Göte Klingberg, Mary Orvig, and Stuart Amor, 84–89. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International. ———. 1986. Children’s Fiction in the Hands of the Translators. Lund: Gleerup. Knowles, Murray, and Kirsten Malmkjær. 1996. Language and Control in Children’s Literature. London/New York: Routledge. Krapp, George Philip. 1925. The English Language in America. New York: The Century Co. for the Modern Language Association of America. Lathey, Gillian. 2016. Translating Children’s Literature. New York: Routledge.

2  The Language of Translated Children’s Fiction: Key Issues 

53

Laviosa, Sara. 1998. Core Patterns of Lexical Use in a Comparable Corpus of English Narrative Prose. Meta 43 (4): 1–15. Lefevere, André, ed. 1992. Translation/History/Culture: A Sourcebook. London/ New York: Routledge. Legeżyńska, Anna. 1986. Tłumacz i jego kompetencje autorskie. Warszawa: PWN. Looby, Robert. 2015. Censorship, Translation and English Language Fiction in People’s Poland. Leiden/Boston: Brill/Rodopi. Malmkjær, Kirsten. 2003. What Happened to God and the Angels: An Exercise in Translational Stylistics. Target 15 (1): 37–58. May, Rachel. 1994. The Translator in the Text: On Reading Russian Literature in English. Evanston: Northwestern University Press. Munday, Jeremy. 2008. Style and Ideology in Translation: Latin American Writing in English. New York: Routledge. Neemann, Harold. 1999. Piercing the Magic Veil: Toward a Theory of the Conte. Tübingen: Gunter Narr. Newmark, Peter. 1988. A Textbook of Translation. New York: Prentice-Hall. Nida, Eugene. 1964. Toward a Science of Translating. Leiden: Brill. Nikolajeva, Maria. 2006. What Do We Do When We Translate Children’s Literature. In Beyond Babar: The European Tradition in Children’s Literature, ed. Sandra Beckett and Maria Nikolajeva, 277–297. Lanham: Scarecrow Press. O’Donnell, W.R., and Loreto Todd. 1980. Variety in Contemporary English. London: Allen & Unwin. O’Sullivan, Emer. 2003. Narratology Meets Translation Studies, or, The Voice of the Translator in Children’s Literature. Meta 48 (1/2): 197–207. ———. 2005. Comparative Children’s Literature. London: Routledge. Oittinen, Riitta. 2000. Translating for Children. London: Garland Publishing. Olohan, Maeve. 2004. Introducing Corpora in Translation Studies. London/New York: Routledge. Olohan, Maeve, and Mona Baker. 2000. Reporting that in Translated English: Evidence for Subconscious Processes of Explicitation? Across Languages and Cultures 1 (2): 141–158. Øverås, Linn. 1998. In Search of the Third Code: An Investigation of Norms in Literary Translation. Meta 43 (4): 571–588. Pieciul-Karmińska, Eliza. 2011. Polskie dzieje baśni braci Grimm. Przekładaniec 22–23: 80–96. ———. 2013. Polskie adaptacje Dziadka do Orzechów i Króla Myszy E.T.A. Hoffmanna. Przekładaniec 27: 91–115.

54 

M. Borodo

———. 2014. Polska seria przekładowa Dziadka do Orzechów i Króla Myszy E.T.A. Hoffmanna. Studia interkulturowe 8: 56–87. ———. 2016. Przedwojenna seria translatorska Tajemniczego dziecka E.T.A. Hoffmanna. Przekładaniec 32: 45–67. Pokorn, Nike K. 2012. Post-Socialist Translation Practices: Ideological Struggle in Children’s Literature. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Pym, Anthony. 1998. Method in Translation History. Manchester: St. Jerome. Saldanha, Gabriela. 2011. Translator Style. The Translator 17 (1): 25–50. Séguinot, Candace. 1988. Pragmatics and the Explicitation Hypothesis. In TTR: Traduction, Terminologie, Rédaction, vol. 2, 106–113. Shavit, Zohar. 1986. Poetics of Children’s Literature. London: The University of Georgia Press. Stolt, Birgit. 1978. How Emil Becomes Michel  – On the Translation of Children’s Books. In Children’s Books in Translation: The Situation and the Problems, ed. Göte Klingberg, Mary Orvig, and Stuart Amor, 130–146. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International. Szymańska, Izabela. 2014. Przekłady polemiczne w literaturze dziecięcej. Rocznik Przekładoznawczy 9: 193–208. Thomson-Wohlgemuth, Gabriele. 2003. Children’s Literature and Translation Under the East German Regime. Meta 48 (1–2): 241–249. ———. 2004. Children’s Literature in Translation from East to West. In New Voices in Children’s Literature Criticism, ed. Sebastian Chapleau, 119–128. Lichfield: Pied Piper Publishing. ———. 2009. Translation Under State Control: Books for Young People in the German Democratic Republic. New York: Routledge. Toury, Gideon. 1995. Descriptive Translation Studies and Beyond. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Trudgill, Peter. 1999. Standard English: What It Isn’t. In Standard English: The Widening Debate, ed. Tony Bex and Richard J.  Watts, 117–128. London/ New York: Routledge. Trudgill, Peter, and Jean Hannah. 2013. International English. A Guide to the Varieties of Standard English. 5th ed. London/New York: Routledge. Tymoczko, Maria. 1999. Translation in a Postcolonial Context: Early Irish Literature in English Translation. London/New York: Routledge. Van Coillie, Jan. 2011. Nie ma śpiącej królewny bez kolców. Tłumaczenie baśni. Propozycja modelu analizy porównawczej. Przekładaniec 22–23: 11–35. ———. 2012. Cool, geil, gaaf, chouette or super. The Challenges of Translating Teenage Speech. In Translating Fictional Dialogue for Children and Young

2  The Language of Translated Children’s Fiction: Key Issues 

55

People, ed. Martin B. Fischer and Maria Wirf Naro, 217–234. Berlin: Frank and Timme. Venuti, Lawrence. 1995. The Translator’s Invisibility: A History of Translation. London/New York: Routledge. ———. 1998. Strategies of Translation. In Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies, ed. Mona Baker, 240–244. London/New York: Routledge. Vinay, Jean-Paul, and Jean, Darbelnet. [1958] 1995. Comparative Stylistics of French and English: A Methodology for Translation. Trans. J.C.  Sager and M.-J. Hamel. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Wales, Katie. 2011. A Dictionary of Stylistics. 3rd ed. London/New York: Routledge. Woźniak, Monika. 2012. Puchatka przepustka do sławy. Pochwała Ireny Tuwim. Przekładaniec 26: 115–134. Zipes, Jack. 2000. Introduction. In The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales, ed. Jack Zipes, xv–xxxii. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

3 Sketching the Context: English Translations of Polish Children’s Literature

 art One: Polish Children’s Books P in English Translation This chapter traces the history of Polish children’s literature in English translation in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Despite the somewhat one-sided nature of this exchange between Poland and English-­ speaking countries, some Polish titles have nevertheless found their way to Anglophone markets. The first part of the chapter describes this largely under-investigated field of cultural activity, the “invisible” and overlooked translations of Polish children’s fiction. It also mentions translations of non-fiction, educational books, which in the past decade have begun to be exported from Poland to other countries on an unprecedented scale. In the second part of the chapter, special attention is given to Korczak, his children’s books, his translators and their English translations.

A Historical Perspective Polish-English translation exchanges in the context of children’s literature have generally been asymmetrical. On the one hand, this has been due to © The Author(s) 2020 M. Borodo, English Translations of Korczak’s Children’s Fiction, Palgrave Studies in Translating and Interpreting, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38117-2_3

57

58 

M. Borodo

the socio-economic and historical forces responsible for the privileging of the English language and Anglophone literature in the international arena. This is also related to the reluctance of some Anglophone publishers to publish translated children’s books, as they might be more difficult to market and sell (e.g. Jobe 2004: 921; Tucker 2005). Referring to the British context, Nicholas Tucker observes that “there has for many years been an abundance of good books coming on to the market, making it less likely that publishers will look abroad while so much is going on at home,” also claiming that “[w]ith their authors and illustrators on hand for publicity jaunts and school visits, these British books already have a built-in advantage” (2005: 10). However, the limited accessibility of Polish children’s titles in English translation was also partly due to the fact that until 1918 partitioned Poland was officially erased from the map, to become three decades later part of the Eastern Bloc, hindering its cultural and publishing exchanges with the Western world in terms of literary exports. Thus, unsurprisingly, the number of English-language children’s titles “imported” to Poland within the previous century far exceeded the number of Polish children’s books “exported” to English-speaking countries. Consequently, the twentieth century saw the publication in Poland of translations of many English-language literary works for children, some of which achieved a unique cultural status. First translated between 1900 and 1939, such titles as The Jungle Book, The Rose and the Ring, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Five Children and It, Peter Pan, The Secret Garden, The Story of Doctor Dolittle, The Wind in the Willows, Winnie-the-­ Pooh, Mary Poppins or Ferdinand the Bull have been read by generations of young Polish readers and are available in numerous editions and sometimes in several retranslations. For example, when in 1910 Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was first translated into Polish, it was to be the first of more than ten different translations of the book to appear in Poland over the next hundred years. Considering that many Polish ­translations of Alice have also been made available in numerous reprints and re-editions, we arrive at a truly remarkable number of publications. Even if we assume that Alice is exceptional in terms of its cultural standing and the extraordinary number of translations into other languages, Carroll’s novel is still only one of many English titles that achieved a sig-

3  Sketching the Context: English Translations of Polish… 

59

nificant cultural status in Poland. At the turn of the twenty-first century this unique cultural status was confirmed by the popularity of Harry Potter, whose dominance in children’s literature publishing was unquestionable (Borodo 2017a: 76). It is also worth pointing out that Poland is far from exceptional in this context and such asymmetrical translation exchanges have been characteristic of many other countries in the world. Although Polish children’s literature has played a less significant role in the English-speaking world, a number of Polish titles have found their way to Anglophone countries in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. These titles can be grouped into several categories, such as Polish folk and fairy tales, educational books and animal stories, followed by poetry and books for younger children and, last but not least, full-length novels for children. The books are presented in chronological order in Table  3.1, with information about the year of publication, the Polish author(s), the original and translated titles, the publishing house, place of publication and, whenever they could be identified, the translators.1 Only the first edition of a translation is mentioned. Bilingual and multilingual editions have been excluded from the table, with the exception of the translations of children’s poetry by Julian Tuwim (1894–1953), a leading Polish poet. Literature for teenagers and young adults (e.g. Henryk Sienkiewicz’s W pustyni i w puszczy [In Desert and Wilderness] or Aleksander Kamiński’s Kamienie na szaniec [Stones for the Rampart]) has also been left out. Every care has been taken to include all translated publications for children, but some unintentional omissions might have nevertheless occurred. This table presents a diverse range of titles which, it should be noted, are not directly comparable in terms of content and form. For example, full-length novels differ significantly from educational, non-fiction books, where sometimes limited text plays an auxiliary role to illustrations (the list also contains three unconventional wordless books from the Mamoko series, which are nevertheless marketed in target cultures under new  The list is based on Literatura polska w przekładach/Polish Literature in Translations 1981–2004 (Bilikiewicz-Blanc et al. 2005), “Pegazy na Kredytowej”. Wspomnienia (Kister 1980), Polish Literature in English Translation 2007–2016 (the Polish Book Institute, no publ. date), Z uśmiechem przez wszystkie granice. Recepcja wydawnicza przekładów polskiej książki dla dzieci i młodzieży w latach 1945–1989 (Staniów 2006), Zarys historii polonistyki w Ameryce Północnej (Mikoś 2012), the Culture.pl website and the author’s own findings. 1

Polish Fairy Tales

English title Selected tales from Bajarz polski

Original title Maude Ashurst Biggs

Translator(s)

Publisher

John Lane, London and New York 1928 Zofia Kossak-Szczucka The Troubles of a Kłopoty Kacperka Monica A & C Black, Gnome góreckiego skrzata M. Gardner London David McKay, Selected tales by Kornel Lucia Merecka 1928 Lucia Merecka Borski The Jolly Tailor and New York Other Fairy Tales Makuszyński, Kazimierz Borski and Kate and Kate B. Miller B. Miller Gliński and Jan (compilers and Kasprowicz translators) M. Arct, Warsaw 1929 Maria Konopnicka The Brownie Scouts O krasnoludkach i o Kate sierotce Marysi Żuk-­ Skarszewska Francis Bauer E.P. Dutton & 1930 Ferdynand Antoni The Life Story of a Little Życie i przygody małpki Czarnomski Company, Ossendowski Monkey. The Diary of New York the Chimpanzee Ket Longmans, Lucia Merecka 1933 Lucia Merecka Borski The Gypsy and the Bear A selection of Polish New York and Other Fairy Tales tales Borski and Kate and Kate B. Miller B. Miller (compilers and translators) 1939 Janusz Korczak Big Business Billy Bankructwo małego Cyrus Brooks Minerva Dżeka Publishing, London Minerva 1939 Julian Tuwim Locomotive; The Turnip; Lokomotywa; Rzepka; Bernard Publishing, The Birds’ Broadcast Ptasie radio Gutteridge and London William J. Peace Collins, London 1942 Lucyna Krzemieniecka The Three Little Sisters Baśń o trzech J. Kolankowska and Glasgow siostrzyczkach and Helen Krueger

1920 Antoni Józef Gliński

Year Author

Table 3.1  English translations of Polish children’s literature published in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries

60  M. Borodo

Matthew the Young King The Glass Mountain and O królewnie zaklętej w Other Stories żabę

1945 Janusz Korczak

1946 Kornel Makuszyński (text), Marian Walentynowicz (drawings) Mr. Rouse Builds His 1950 Stefan Themerson (text) and Franciszka House Themerson (drawings) 1958 Maria Konopnicka The Golden Seeds. A Legend of Old Poland

1946 Halina Górska

Prince Godfrey, the Knight of the Star of the Nativity The Adventures of Piki-Miki

9 Cry-Baby Dolls

1945 Janina Porazińska

1945 Antoni Józef Gliński

My Village

1944 Janina Porazińska

Jak to z lnem było

Pan Tom buduje dom

O księciu Godfrydzie, rycerzu gwiazdy wigilijnej Awantury i wybryki małej małpki Fiki-Miki

Dziewięć płaczek-nieboraczek Król Maciuś Pierwszy

Moja Wólka

W wojtusiowej izbie

In Voytus’ Little House

Original title

English title

Year Author

1944 Janina Porazińska

Gaberbocchus Press, London Stefan Themerson and Barbara Wright Margaret Sperry

(continued)

The Golden Mill Press, Copenhagen

Willow Press, London

Roy Publishers, New York

Roy Publishers, New York Roy Publishers, New York Roy Publishers, New York Roy Publishers, New York F.P. Agency, London

Publisher

Eileen Alice Arthurton-­ Barker

Lucia Merecka Borski Lucia Merecka Borski Josephine B. Bernhard Edith and Sidney Sulkin Eileen Alice Arthurton and Norbert Reh Roman Braun

Translator(s)

3  Sketching the Context: English Translations of Polish… 

61

Squirrel Redcoat

The Golden Seed

1961 Jadwiga Wernerowa

1962 Maria Konopnicka

1986 Janusz Korczak

1976 Zofia Rogoszówna

1976 Jerzy Ficowski

1970 Lucia Merecka Borski and Kate B. Miller (compilers and translators) 1970 Maria Niklewiczowa

Sister of the Birds, and Other Gypsy Tales Treasured Polish Folk Rhymes, Songs and Games King Matt the First

A Sparrow’s Magic

Good Sense and Good Fortune and Other Polish Folk Tales

1963 Helena Bechlerowa Teddy and the Seesaw 1963 Krystyna Pokorska Make Me a Farm 1964 Cecylia Lewandowska The World of the Bee

English title

Year Author

Table 3.1 (continued)

Koszałki opałki. Gadki, piosenki, zabawy dziecięce Król Maciuś Pierwszy

Gałązka z drzewa słońca

Wróbel czarodziej

Miś na huśtawce Moje gospodarstwo Wielkie prace małej pszczoły A selection of Polish tales

Jak to z lnem było

Rudzia

Original title

Publisher

Richard Lourie

Lucia Merecka Borski R.P. Anderson et al.

A. Tresselt

Parents’ Magazine Press, New York Abingdon, Nashville, TN Polanie, Minneapolis, MN Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York

Heinemann, London/Watts, New York Catharine Charles Scribner’s Fournier Sons, New York Anonymous Methuen, London Anonymous Methuen, London Anonymous Heinemann, London David McKay, Lucia Merecka New York Borski and Kate B. Miller

M. Paczyńska

Translator(s)

62  M. Borodo

The Train

Elżbieta D.O.M.E.K. Doskonałe H.O.U.S.E.: Habitable Wójcik-Leese Okazy Małych i Objects Unique Spatial Efektownych Extraordinary Konstrukcji Elżbieta D.E.S.I.G.N. Domowy D.E.S.I.G.N. Domestic Wójcik-Leese Elementarz Sprzętów i Equipment: Sleek, Gratów Niecodziennych Ingenious, Groundbreaking, Noteworthy Kaytek the Wizard Kajtuś czarodziej Antonia Lloyd-Jones

1991 Julian Tuwim

2010 Aleksandra and Daniel Mizieliński

2012 Janusz Korczak

2011 Ewa Solarz (text), Aleksandra and Daniel Mizieliński (illustrators)

Little King Matty… and the Desert Island

Król Maciuś Pierwszy, Król Maciuś na wyspie bezludnej Lokomotywa Czesław Knobbe

Adam Czasak

Bożena Smith

Translator(s)

1990 Janusz Korczak

Za górami… za lasami…

The Enchanted Book. A Tale from Krakow

Original title

English title

Year Author

1987 Janina Porazińska

(continued)

Penlight Publications, New York

Gecko Press, Wellington, New Zealand

Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, San Diego and New York Joanna Pinewood Enterprises, London Sterling Design, Duluth, MN Gecko Press, Wellington, New Zealand

Publisher

3  Sketching the Context: English Translations of Polish… 

63

Lokomotywa. The Locomotive. Die Locomotive King Matthew the First

2013 Julian Tuwim

2015 Aleksandra and Daniel Mizieliński

2014 Aleksandra and Daniel Mizieliński 2014 Aleksandra and Daniel Mizieliński 2014 Aleksandra and Daniel Mizieliński 2014 Aleksandra and Daniel Mizieliński 2014 Julian Tuwim Miasteczko Mamoko

Lokomotywa. The Locomotive. Die Locomotive Król Maciuś Pierwszy

Mapy

Original title

Under Earth, Under Water

Mr Miniscule and the Whale

Pod ziemią, pod wodą

Pan Maluśkiewicz i wieloryb

The World of Mamoko Dawno temu w Mamoko in the Time of Dragons The World of Mamoko Mamoko 3000 in the Year 3000 Maps Activity Book Mapownik

Welcome to Mamoko

Maps

2014 Janusz Korczak

English title

Year Author

2013 Aleksandra and Daniel Mizieliński

Table 3.1 (continued)

Antonia Lloyd-Jones

Antonia Lloyd-Jones

Marcel Weyland (Eng. trans.) et al. Adam Fisher and Ben Torrent

Antonia Lloyd-Jones

Translator(s)

Nanook Books, New York Big Picture Press, London Big Picture Press, London Big Picture Press, London Big Picture Press, London Book Island, Raumati South, New Zealand Big Picture Press, London

Candlewick Press/ Big Picture Press, Somerville, MA/ London Universitas, Krakow

Publisher

64  M. Borodo

Alphadoodler: The Activity Book That Brings Letters to Life The Book of Bees

Thames and Hudson, London

Wydawnictwo Dwie Siostry, Warsaw

Agnes Monod-­ Gayraud Agnes Monod-­ Gayraud

Under Water Activity Book Under Earth Activity Book Impossible Inventions: Ideas that Shouldn’t Work

Maps. Special Edition

Ale patent! Księga niewiarygodnych wynalazków

Podziemnik

Mapy (an extended and updated edition) Podwodnik

Agnes Monod-­ Gayraud

(continued)

Big Picture Press, London Big Picture Press, London Big Picture Press, London Gecko Press, Wellington, New Zealand

Tate Publishing, London

Eliza Marciniak

Typogryzmol

Antonia Lloyd-Jones

Enchanted Lion Books, New York

Agnes Monod-­ Gayraud

W moim brzuchu mieszka jakieś zwierzątko

Pszczoły

Publisher

Translator(s)

Original title

Polish Pioneers: Book of Pionierzy, czyli poczet Prominent Poles niewiarygodnie pracowitych Polaków

The Beast in My Belly

2015 Grzegorz Kasdepke (text), Tomasz Kozłowski (illustrator) 2016 Jan Bajtlik

2016 Piotr Socha (illustrator), Wojciech Grajkowski (text) 2017 Marta Dzienkiewicz (text), Joanna Rzezak and Piotr Karski (illustrators) 2017 Aleksandra and Daniel Mizieliński 2017 Aleksandra and Daniel Mizieliński 2017 Aleksandra and Daniel Mizieliński 2017 Małgorzata Mycielska (text), Aleksandra and Daniel Mizieliński (illustrators)

English title

Year Author

3  Sketching the Context: English Translations of Polish… 

65

Boom! Boom!! Boom!!!

Kajko i kokosz. Szkoła latania

Oscar Seeks a Friend

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Kayko and Kokosh: Flying School

2019 Przemysław Wechterowicz (text), Marianna Oklejak (illustrator) 2019 Janusz Christa

Greek Myths and Mazes Nić Ariadny: Mity i labirynty

2019 Paweł Pawlak

2018 Piotr Socha (illustrator), Wojciech Grajkowski (text) 2019 Jan Bajtlik

Universitas, Krakow

Walter Whipple (Eng. trans.) et al.

Michael Kandel

Antonia Lloyd-Jones

Egmont Polska, Warsaw

Candlewick Studio, Somerville, MA Lantana Publishing, London Scribblers–Salariya Book Company, Brighton

Roaring Book Press, New York Marek Kazmierski Wydawnictwo Blue Bird, Warsaw Anna Burgess Thames and Hudson, London

Publisher

Translator(s)

Zosia Krasodomska-­ Jones Ignatek szuka przyjaciela Antonia Lloyd-Jones

Poems for Children/ Wiersze dla dzieci (bilingual edition) Drzewa

Poems for Children/ Wiersze dla dzieci (bilingual edition) The Book of Trees

2018 J.M. Brum (text), Jan Bajtlik (illustrator) 2018 Julian Tuwim

Lokomotywa – The Locomotive – Lokomotiva – Паровоз Auto

Lokomotywa – The Locomotive – Lokomotiva – Паровоз Our Car

Original title

English title

Year Author

2017 Julian Tuwim

Table 3.1 (continued)

66  M. Borodo

3  Sketching the Context: English Translations of Polish… 

67

translated titles and have thus been included in the list). Among the published Polish authors are those who attained literary fame at home (e.g. Maria Konopnicka, Janina Porazińska, Janusz Korczak, Julian Tuwim, Zofia Kossak-Szczucka, Ferdynand Antoni Ossendowski, Kornel Makuszyński), as well as less popular authors who would not be readily recognizable to many Polish readers. The authors with the largest number of translations include Korczak, Porazińska, Konopnicka, Tuwim and, more recently, Aleksandra and Daniel Mizieliński, the creators of popular educational books. The books have been published by various publishing houses, although some publishers in particular deserve credit for contributing to the visibility of Polish children’s literature in English. Roy Publishers, for instance, established in New York by Marian and Hanna Kister, published five children’s books by three different authors between 1944 and 1946. The most prolific translators of Polish children’s literature into English include Lucia Merecka Borski and, more recently, Antonia Lloyd-Jones. The titles with the greatest number of translations include Korczak’s 1922 novel Król Maciuś Pierwszy, with four translations, as well as Konopnicka’s 1892 tale Jak to z lnem było, with two translations. In children’s poetry, the translators’ absolute favourite has been Tuwim’s 1938 famous onomatopoeic poem “Lokomotywa” [The Locomotive], translated several times since 1939. Some of the translated books were published only once; others were re-published over several decades. For example, Zofia Kossak-Szczucka’s beautifully illustrated tale The Troubles of a Gnome from 1928 had no re-editions, whereas The Jolly Tailor and Other Fairy Tales, translated and compiled by Lucia Merecka Borski and Kate B.  Miller, also published in 1928, was re-published twelve times by 1966. The list also reveals certain conspicuous absences as well as periods of more intense translation activity. For example, English readers have not had an opportunity to become acquainted with many works by Kornel Makuszyński, such as the proto-comic book 120 przygód Koziołka Matołka [120 Adventures of Silly Billy the Goat],2 illustrated by Marian  The English title is by Teresa Bałuk-Ulewiczowa, who also translated several pages from the book, which appeared in the special issue of the Polish translation journal Przekładaniec (Makuszyński 2006: 24–37). 2

68 

M. Borodo

Walentynowicz, or O dwóch takich, co ukradli księżyc [About the Two Who Stole the Moon], Ludwik Jerzy Kern’s Ferdynand Wspaniały [Ferdinand the Magnificent], combining absurd humour and fantasy, or Jan Brzechwa’s works, such as Akademia Pana Kleksa [The Academy of Mr. Inkblot] and his poetry for children, which are perennially popular in Poland. What is also immediately apparent in terms of absences is the stagnation of the 1990s and 2000s. The transformation from a socialist state of the Eastern Bloc into a capitalist state, and the thorough reorganization of the children’s literature publishing sector, which was virtually flooded in the 1990s by Disney publications and their imitations, did not result in an increase of Polish titles translated into English, or at least not immediately. Whereas earlier in the twentieth century several titles were usually translated per decade, practically no children’s books were translated into English in the 1990s and 2000s. This situation changed dramatically in the 2010s, a decade which has seen more Polish books for children translated than at any other time in history. In this ten-year period, the number of English translations of Polish children’s literature is comparable to that of all the English translations for children published in the twentieth century. The reasons for this, as well as the types of books that have been most often translated in the last hundred years, will be discussed below.

Types of Translated Books Polish folk and fairy tales have been represented in English at least since the early decades of the twentieth century. Polish Fairy Tales, translated and compiled by Maude Ashurst Biggs3 (1856–1933), appeared in 1920, with colour illustrations by Cecile Walton. The collection was based on the second revised edition of the four-volume Bajarz polski, one of the most popular Polish books of the second half of the nineteenth century, written by Antoni Józef Gliński (1817–1866), a famous Polish collector of tales. The English edition contains seven tales as well as the translator’s  Biggs was an enthusiast of Polish culture, an advocate for Polish independence and the translator of notably Pan Tadeusz, an epic poem by Poland’s greatest national poet Adam Mickiewicz published under the title Master Thaddeus in 1885. See Aleksandra Budrewicz (2018: 18–35) on Maude Ashurst Biggs and her relationship to Polish culture. 3

3  Sketching the Context: English Translations of Polish… 

69

notes, a glossary with pronunciation tips and a brief introduction. From the latter we learn about the inspirations and sources of the tales and about the translation strategy adopted: [The tales] represent the folklore current among the peasantry of the Eastern provinces of Poland, and also in those provinces usually known as White Russia. They were set down by Glinski just as they were related to him by the peasants. In the translation it was of course necessary to shorten them considerably; the continual repetition – however quaint and fascinating in the original – cannot easily be reproduced. (Gliński 1920, n. pag.)

The information about the original tales being translated freely and significantly shortened is later repeated in the volume in one of the translator’s notes: “There is much pious reflection, too long for insertion. The conversation between the prince and the sorcerer-miller is somewhat changed as much of it seemed rather irrelevant to the chief interest of the story, and lacking in pithiness” (ibid.). On several occasions the translator also shares her thoughts about various translation decisions: “The prince’s name ‘Dobrotek,’ signifies ‘good,’ or ‘benefactor.’ Being easy of pronunciation, but not easily Englished into a proper name, it seemed best to retain it” (ibid.). Some of the notes are of a more scholarly nature and point to the resemblance of certain motifs to those from Greek mythology and Persian and Indian traditions. Re-published in 1980, this collection was then published again in several editions in English between 2010 and 2017. Polish tales have also been represented by other translations. A classic Polish fairy tale depicting the struggle between good and evil, Zofia Kossak-Szczucka’s Kłopoty Kacperka góreckiego skrzata [The Troubles of Casp, a Mountain Gnome] appeared in English under the title The Troubles of a Gnome in 1928, only two years after the original publication. The tale was translated by Monica M. Gardner (1873–1941), an English writer on Polish literature and history, and published in London by A & C Black. Released in a hardback edition, the translation contains eight full-page colour illustrations by Charles Folkard. The translator (or the publisher) also decided to add chapter titles to the English version (e.g. “The Old House”, “The Home of Hobgoblins”, “The Stolen Talisman”, “The Battle in the Black Wood”), which are absent from the

70 

M. Borodo

source text. With regard to the translator’s treatment of the cultural specificity of the original, Gardner resorts to partial cultural assimilation, and sometimes to omission, although she also retains many references to Polish culture (Borodo 2015). Also published in 1928, The Jolly Tailor and Other Fairy Tales provides the reader with information about Lucia Merecka Borski, a librarian and a prolific translator and compiler of Polish children’s literature, who at the age of sixteen emigrated from Poland to the USA, settling with her family in New York in 1919. Her 1928 collection mentions the historical context of early twentieth-century Poland and refers to the translator’s personal experiences. Lucia Merecka Borski was born in Warsaw, Poland, August 2, 1903. When she was seven, she attended a private Russian school where use of the Polish language was forbidden. During World War I, after the Russians had evacuated Warsaw she went to a Polish school and remained there until her departure for America. These four years were her happiest schooldays. The freedom to speak her native language without fear of being punished, to study freely the literature and history of Poland was in itself happiness. (Borski and Miller [1928] 1958: dust jacket)

Borski and Miller’s The Jolly Tailor and Other Fairy Tales contains tales by various Polish authors, notably several tales by Kornel Makuszyński, such as The Jolly Tailor Who Became King (orig. O tym jak krawiec Niteczka został królem), The Story of Princess Marysia, the Black Swan, and the Iceberg (orig. Bajka o królewnie Marysi, o czarnym łabędziu i o lodowej górze) and Cobbler Kopytko and Drake Kwak (orig. Szewc Kopytko i kaczor Kwak), originally published in Bardzo dziwne bajki in 1916. In the following years, Borski translated more Polish titles into English (in 1933, 1944, 1970, 1976), which makes her one of the most prolific Polish-to-­ English translators of children’s literature. Another significant translation from this time was Maria Konopnicka’s The Brownie Scouts (1929), which appeared in a translation by Kate ­Żuk-­Skarszewska (1868–1950).4 The book begins with an introduction  Kate Żuk-Skarszewska (née Kate Hadley), a wife of Polish writer and journalist Jan Tadeusz Żuk-­ Skarszewski, whom she married in England in 1897, for many years lived in Krakow, working as a Polish-to-English translator (Davies and Moore 2008: lxix). 4

3  Sketching the Context: English Translations of Polish… 

71

presenting Maria Konopnicka (1842–1910), highly praised by the translator as “an ardent Polish patriot who devoted to the service of her country all the best and noblest that she possessed: her poetic talent” (1929: 5). The translation itself is deeply foreignizing, meticulously recreating references to Polish history, tradition and culture, although it omits some references to children’s folklore (Brzózka 2011). In the second half of the twentieth century, Konopnicka’s work is represented with two other translations of her book Jak to z lnem było—in 1958 The Golden Seeds: A Legend of Old Poland translated by Margaret Sperry appears in Copenhagen, and in 1962 Catherine Fournier’s translation The Golden Seed is published in New York. Among other texts which have been published in Anglophone countries are Korczak’s novels (Big Business Billy, Kaytek the Wizard, Matthew the Young King and its retranslations), stories about animals (e.g. Ossendowski’s The Life Story of a Little Monkey from 1930), poetry (with Tuwim’s onomatopoeic “Lokomotywa” being translated by Bernard Gutteridge and William J. Peace, Czesław Knobbe, Marcel Weyland and Walter Whipple, in addition to many other attempts at this poem which can be found online) and books for younger children (e.g. Makuszyński and Walentynowicz’s pre-war, proto-comic book Awantury i wybryki małej małpki Fiki-Miki [The Adventures of Piki-Miki], translated in 1946). Several books for younger children by Janina Porazińska were published by Roy Publishers between 1944 and 1945, including her well-known poems from the collection W Wojtusiowej izbie, translated by Lucia Merecka Borski as In Voytus’ Little House. Curiously enough, Porazińska’s poetry was translated into prose, with the original, charming rhyming stories about life in a village house and Polish folklore replaced with matter-­of-fact descriptions accompanying the illustrations (Porazińska 1944). Tuwim has by far been the translators’ most favourite poet, which has been recently confirmed by Antonia Lloyd-Jones’s translation of Pan Maluśkiewicz i wieloryb as Mr Miniscule and the Whale, with illustrations by the well-known Polish graphic artist Bohdan Butenko, and Wiersze dla dzieci [Poems for Children] in Marek Kazmierski’s translation. Finally, the last title listed in Table 3.1 is Janusz Christa’s Kajko i kokosz. Szkoła latania, one of the most popular Polish comic books of the twentieth century, translated as Kayko and Kokosh: Flying School by Michael Kandel, the

72 

M. Borodo

American translator of the acclaimed Polish science-fiction writer Stanisław Lem. Christa’s humorous story about two Slavic warriors, Kayko and Kokosh, is addressed to a dual audience of both children and, perhaps even to a greater extent, adults, who may purchase it out of curiosity or sentiment. This also seems to be the case with Tuwim’s “Lokomotywa”, which has recently appeared in translation by the Polish-­ based academic press Universitas with famous pre-war illustrations by Jan Lewitt and Jerzy Him, addressed to both younger readers and adult enthusiasts of Tuwim’s poetry. Probably the best-known children’s book by avant-garde artists Stefan and Franciszka Themerson, Pan Tom buduje dom [Mr Tom Builds a House], originally published in Warsaw in 1938, appeared in English translation in London in 1950 under the title Mr Rouse Builds His House. It is a light and humorous story centring on “Pan Tom” [Mr Tom], alternatively referred to as “Tomasz Łebski” [Thomas “Brainy”], an amiable man in a bowler hat, transformed into Mr Tom Rouse in the English version, who wants to have a house built for himself. It is not only a story about the various stages of building a house, however, but also about the history of civilization, describing the development of water supply and time measurement systems, light sources, as well as traditions of construction in other cultures (Prodeus 2010: 25–28). The English translation of the book was prepared together by Stefan Themerson and Barbara Wright, a friend of the Themersons. Rather than meticulously recreating the semantic content and reality of the source culture, the translators aimed at retaining the educational value of the book in an equally entertaining manner prioritizing rhymes, humour and wordplay, while the original cultural references were either omitted or culturally assimilated (Borodo 2017b). As a result, the reader will not encounter in this translation the original references to Warsaw but will instead come across the references to a tennis court (Themerson [1950] 2013: 128) or cricket (ibid.: 82). However, with the exception of a handful of titles, such as the Themersons’ Mr Rouse Builds His House or Cecylia Lewandowska’s The World of the Bee, educational books from Poland were not well represented in English in the twentieth century. This situation has changed dramatically in the twenty-first century. In the 2010s, Polish educational

3  Sketching the Context: English Translations of Polish… 

73

books for children have become a great literary export for the country, owing to a number of factors. First, the Polish school of illustration, represented by such artists as Jan Marcin Szancer, Józef Wilkoń, Janusz Stanny, Olga Siemaszko, Zbigniew Rychlicki or Jerzy Srokowski, has been exceptionally good, especially since the 1950s (e.g. Wincencjusz-­ Patyna 2008). Second, Poland changed into a free-market capitalist state in which a number of independent publishing houses came into being after 2000, providing the younger generation of graphic artists and illustrators with a platform for their artistic endeavours. These publishing houses, referred to as “Lilliputian publishers” by Katarzyna Biernacka-­ Licznar and Natalia Paprocka (2016a, b), began publishing high-quality children’s books, which in the 2010s started to be exported to other countries. The greatest success story of this period is the bestselling Mapy [Maps] (2013), created by Aleksandra and Daniel Mizieliński, and translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones. Selling three million copies in thirty languages, the book has won prestigious awards, such as Prix Sorcières and Premio Andersen, and has been hailed “the biggest Polish hit ever on the global children’s literature market”.5 In the same decade, other books by the Mizielińskis were published in Anglophone countries, as well as books by Jan Bajtlik or Piotr Socha, and this has created a demand for high-­ quality, artistic, educational books from Poland. Having discussed the publishing trends, types of translated books and the history of Polish children’s literature in English translation in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, we will now focus on the author whose novels for children have been translated from Polish into English most often.

 art Two: Korczak’s Children’s Fiction P in English Translation The second part of the chapter is devoted to Janusz Korczak and the English translations of his children’s books—Matthew the Young King, published in New York in 1945, and its subsequent retranslations, along  https://culture.pl/en/article/maps-passes-two-million-global-sales

5

74 

M. Borodo

with Big Business Billy published in London in 1939, and Kaytek the Wizard, which came out in New York in 2012. It also briefly discusses the English-language adaptations of Korczak’s most famous novel. The chapter aims to shed light on the “people behind the books”, that is the English translators of Korczak’s children’s fiction, including Edith and Sidney Sulkin, Richard Lourie, Adam Czasak, Adam Fisher and Ben Torrent, Cyrus Brooks and Antonia Lloyd-Jones, discussing the publishing context and offering some indication of the motivation for the English-­ language translations.

Janusz Korczak and Król Maciuś Pierwszy Janusz Korczak (1878–1942), the pen name of Henryk Goldszmit, was a Polish-Jewish children’s writer, paediatrician, educator, social activist and journalist, the author of many pedagogical texts, who ran his own radio programme about children in pre-war Poland and was known for his innovative pedagogical methods as the head of a progressive Warsaw orphanage for Jewish children. As observed by Eric Sterling (1998: 13), Korczak thus “satisfied the dualistic roles of scholar-artist as a result of his work as a pediatrician, pedagogue, child psychologist, author of more than a thousand articles, and advocate of children’s rights – as well as his artistic accomplishments as a writer of children’s books, fantasies, and a significant Holocaust diary”. Korczak may also have been one of the most heroic children’s authors in history. He died in the summer of 1942, killed in the Nazi German extermination camp in Treblinka, together with his associates and the children from his orphanage, whom he never abandoned. Korczak was born to Józef and Cecylia Goldszmit in 1878 or 1879 (the date of birth remains uncertain) in Warsaw, in the Russian Partition of Poland. He came from an affluent family of assimilated Polish Jews and he retained this dual Polish and Jewish identity throughout his life (Olczak-Ronikier 2011: 11). In the 1890s, when the financial situation of his family deteriorated due to his father’s illness, the young Korczak started giving private lessons as a tutor to support his mother, sister and grandmother (ibid.: 70). In 1896, at a young age, the boy lost his father.

3  Sketching the Context: English Translations of Polish… 

75

This motif is central to Korczak’s most famous novel Król Maciuś Pierwszy [King Matt the First]. It opens with the death of the Old King and it is his son, little Maciuś, who prematurely takes over the duties of the King, just as Korczak had to take over the duties of the head of the family in his own life. Korczak then studied medicine, graduating in 1905. As a doctor, he worked in a hospital and became a well-known paediatrician in Warsaw fully devoted to his work and known for refusing to charge young patients from poor families (Sterling 1998: 14). In his memoirs, he notes: As the old doctors do not like to bother themselves at night, especially where the poor are concerned, I, who am young, must give this nightly assistance. Do you understand? Speedy help. Can it be otherwise? For what will happen, should a child not live to see the light of day? (Korczak 1972: 125)

After graduation, he was enlisted in the Russian army as a military doctor and sent to the Far East, taking part in the Russo-Japanese War, and returning to Warsaw in 1906. After the outbreak of World War I, he was enlisted in the Russian army again. During the Polish-Soviet War he served as a military doctor in the Polish army. Some of Korczak’s war experiences may have been a source of inspiration in writing Król Maciuś Pierwszy, which contains various descriptions of travelling by military trains, digging trenches, everyday army life, conversations with ordinary soldiers and war tactics. As a young man, Korczak started his career as a writer and journalist, writing short literary forms, feature articles for newspapers and publishing his works in instalments. His most famous works for children are Król Maciuś Pierwszy [King Matt the First], its sequel Król Maciuś na wyspie bezludnej [King Matt on the Desert Island], Bankructwo małego Dżeka [The Bankruptcy of Little Jack] and Kajtuś czarodziej [Kaytek the Wizard]. Among Korczak’s best-known pedagogical works are Jak kochać dziecko [How to Love a Child], Prawo dziecka do szacunku [A Child’s Right to Respect], Momenty wychowawcze [Educational Moments] and Kiedy znów będę mały [When I Am Little Again]. From 1935, Korczak cooperated with Polish Radio under the pseudonym “Stary Doktor” [The Old Doctor]. Throughout his life, Korczak was a fervent proponent of chil-

76 

M. Borodo

dren’s rights. He objected to corporal punishment and subjecting the young to drilling and humiliation (Olczak-Ronikier 2011: 61). In his pioneering pedagogical work, he advocated showing respect for every child, treating children as partners and equals, engaging in dialogue with them, acknowledging their needs, rights and dignity (Korczak 1929). In a famous 1922 demonstration at the National Institute of Specialized Pedagogy in Warsaw, he placed a little boy in front of an x-ray machine, which showed the scared child’s heart beating and addressed his audience: When children are naughty, when you feel angry, tired or irritable, and you feel you must punish them, then remember, this is what the heart of a frightened child looks like! This is the heart of a terrified child. This is how the heart of the child reacts to anger. (Mortkowicz-Olczakowa 1965: 129)

Korczak’s ideas on children’s rights were, according to Moses Stambler (1980: 3), “too avant-garde to develop into a major movement during his lifetime, but they fit in very well with contemporary ideas on human rights and improving the status of disadvantaged groups”. Korczak’s pedagogical ideas found reflection in the various initiatives and institutions that he created. In 1912, Korczak established “Dom Sierot” [Orphans’ Home], a Warsaw orphanage for Jewish children, which he ran until 1942, together with his associate Stefania Wilczyńska. In 1919, he co-established “Nasz Dom” [Our Home], another Warsaw orphanage for Polish children. In both, Korczak introduced innovative pedagogical methods which were based on self-government, mutual support, justice, dialogue, self-development and democracy in the small children’s communities, which had their own newspaper, court and parliament (Olczak-Ronikier 2011: 219–221). These ideas can be found in Korczak’s Król Maciuś Pierwszy in which he developed the idea of granting children autonomy in ruling themselves. For example, one of Maciuś’s reforms was the establishment of a children’s parliament which had the authority to decide on the most important matters in his kingdom. Korczak also organized vacations for Jewish children from poor families, who could thus spend time away from Warsaw in summer camps in the country— another idea which found its way to his classic novel, as setting up summer camps for children was one of the boy king’s reforms. In 1926,

3  Sketching the Context: English Translations of Polish… 

77

Korczak launched the first issue of a popular children’s newspaper Mały Przegląd [The Little Review] (a supplement to Nasz Przegląd [Our Review], a Polish-language newspaper for the Jewish community), which was published and edited by adults but was created exclusively by children (Olczak-Ronikier 2011: 255). Contributing letters and stories concerning their lives, hopes, experiences and problems, the children in time formed an organized system of correspondents and collaborators, “possibly the first venture of its kind in the history of journalism” (Joseph 2002, n. pag.). Korczak died in the summer of 1942. Like thousands of other Polish Jews, he was deported from the Warsaw Ghetto during the Grossaktion Warsaw, a Nazi German mass-murder operation, and killed in the extermination camp in Treblinka. There are different and conflicting accounts of the final march of Korczak and the children from his orphanage from the ghetto to the Umschlagplatz station square. Some of them mention Korczak and his children holding a green flag and singing on their way to the train which was going to transport them to the gas chambers of Treblinka, with Korczak attempting to uplift the children even in this most tragic moment; some mention having seen a more disorganized crowd led by Korczak, looking tired and helpless (Olczak-Ronikier 2011: 426–428). Whichever is true, Korczak is remembered as a person who remained faithful to the orphaned Jewish children of Poland—some of the most vulnerable and helpless people in war-struck Warsaw, which was being gradually annihilated by Nazi Germany. Published in 1922,6 Korczak’s novel about the boy king is a classic of children’s literature and one of the most frequently translated books in Polish literature (Staniów 2006: 65). It is the story of a young prince, ­ten-­year-­old Maciuś, who, after the loss of his mother and father, becomes the king of an imaginary kingdom, partly modelled on Korczak’s homeland, Poland. As a king, Maciuś introduces bold and risky social reforms, transforming the monarchy into a democracy, establishing a children’s parliament to decide on the most important matters in his kingdom, and he has many adventures. When war breaks out with the three neighbour Although 1923 appears as a publication date on its title page, the book was already published in October 1922 (Rogoż 2013: 13). 6

78 

M. Borodo

ing countries, he escapes from the royal palace to secretly join the army and then sets out on a daring journey to Africa, where he befriends an African king. However, despite having good intentions, the boy makes numerous mistakes. Irritated by his ministers, Maciuś imprisons them; infuriated by his secretary who throws out children’s letters addressed to Maciuś, the boy tries to read all the letters by himself but soon realizes, exhausted, that he is not up to the task. The young king’s decisions and actions sometimes have serious, even disastrous, consequences. When the children’s parliament passes a law ordering that children and adults switch their social roles, this leads to accidents, catastrophes and chaos. The boy’s advisors also turn out to be untrustworthy—his closest friend Felek, who becomes a corrupt aristocrat, fails him—and the country is for the second time invaded by the three neighbouring countries. This time Maciuś is defeated, captured and sentenced to death. Only at the very last moment is the death sentence commuted to exile on a desert island. Instead of a happy ending, presenting the boy’s triumph, Korczak’s “most beautiful and saddest book” (Olczak-Ronikier 2011: 218) shows his defeat. Betrayed, he loses the war and his country is conquered.7 As observed in a review by Pam Harwood (2005): “children encouraged to read it now as an amusing tale of children overruling adults will be jolted by its ending. There is fun here, but not much comfort.” Korczak’s novel may be interpreted on multiple levels. It is characterized by a syncretic literary form, combining elements of a fairy tale, initiation novel, utopia and political grotesque (Rogoż 2013: 11), depicting various social mechanisms governing communities and the world of diplomacy and politics in a parliamentary monarchy. Harwood (2005) refers to it as “George Orwell for young children” and a story “balancing an idealised depiction of empowered childhood against Matt’s painful education in the ways of the world and the implacable realities of realpolitik”. The novel has many features of a Bildungsroman. The naïve, innocent and idealistic Maciuś is confronted with harsh reality, gaining life experience and learning from his numerous mistakes. For example, after joining the army he learns that ordinary soldiers do not always respect  Interestingly, in the first American translation of the book this pessimistic ending was modified (see Chap. 4). 7

3  Sketching the Context: English Translations of Polish… 

79

their rulers and that war is not only about parades but also about digging trenches, marching, food supplies, death and misery. From a historical perspective, the novel may be viewed as an allegory of the fate of Poland, which had been invaded and partitioned by three neighbouring powers, just as the boy’s kingdom was attacked by the three neighbouring countries. The book also contains many autobiographical elements. Korczak gave Maciuś some of his own character features and experiences—a lonely childhood, the loss of his father at a young age, war experiences, perseverance in achieving his aims and willingness to change the world into a better place (Olczak-Ronikier 2011: 224). According to Sterling (1998: 18): King Matt, for instance, resembles the young Korczak in that both children derive from a privileged, wealthy background, and their overprotective and class conscious guardians refuse to permit their interaction with other boys, especially those of lower classes. The author’s treatment of snobbish guardians who prevent King Matt from playing with other children manifests Korczak’s disdain for elitist attitudes and demonstrates why he devoted his life to the care of poor and helpless children.

With regard to the various child protagonists in Korczak’s novel, they are by no means idealized, polite children who follow court etiquette. On the contrary, they use lively, colloquial and even mildly vulgar expressions and exhibit various “bad habits”, such as spitting, smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol, including cognac and vodka. Translators’ treatment of these aspects will be of special interest in Chap. 5. The book is written in a “simple, slightly infantile style” (Olczak-Ronikier 2011: 224) and has features of what Adamczyk-Garbowska refers to as a “childlike style” (1988: 113). Its style may be described as colloquial; it resembles ­informal spoken Polish, and containing many conjunctions, repetitions and exclamations, it partially reflects children’s authentic speech (Gąsiorek 1997). Korczak’s intention to stylize the language of the novel to reflect the authentic speech of children seems to have been misunderstood and was partially criticized in the reviews of the book which appeared after its publication (e.g. Szmydtowa 1925; Gruszecka 1923). Finally, with regard

80 

M. Borodo

to its popularity, the novel is not necessarily widely read by children in present-day Poland, but both the author and the story are culturally significant. For example, 2012 was officially proclaimed the Year of Janusz Korczak by the Polish parliament (Gliński 2011), the story of the orphaned king appears on the supplementary reading list in primary schools in Poland, and it has recently gained more popularity due to the TV series which ran from 2002 and a 2007 animated film co-produced by Poland, France and Germany.

 ról Maciuś Pierwszy in America: The People Behind K the Book The first American translation of Korczak’s novel about King Maciuś was published by Roy Publishers in New York in 1945 under the title Matthew the Young King and it was jointly completed by Edith and Sidney Sulkin. Edith was a writer, journalist, translator and editor, the author of a semi-­ autobiographical novel An Invented Life and of Continent in Limbo, a book about her trip across the war-devastated European continent. Sidney was also a writer, translator, editor and poet, the author of a novel The Family Man and a collection of short stories and poetry The Secret Seed. The Sulkins’ professional and literary activities were linked to their own emigrant identities. This offers a context in which their translation of Korczak can be viewed—it is likely that in terms of personal identity, Korczak’s story carried a deep resonance for them, in keeping with their other literary endeavours. Korczak’s novel would not have made it to press, however, if it had not been for Marian Kister, a Polish publisher who migrated to America during World War II.  Here we will be concerned with the publishing context and the lives of the people responsible for making the book available in the USA for the first time. Edith Sulkin was born in Russia in 1921 and died in the USA on 1 November 2013 (“Edith Chilewich Exton” 2013). Her maiden name was Chilewich, which she changed to Sulkin (after marrying Sidney Sulkin), and later to Exton. According to the biographical note in An Invented Life, Sulkin was “born in Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution. She spent her early years in Eastern Europe. Educated in England, she came to the

3  Sketching the Context: English Translations of Polish… 

81

United States on Labor Day of 1939, four days after the outbreak of World War II” (Exton 2001: 389). The precise name of Edith Sulkin’s birthplace is never mentioned in the texts that concern her. One can wonder whether the opening passage of her semi-autobiographical book may be partly revealing in this respect: The circumstances of my birth are confusing. They have been described differently by various members of my family. The version my mother used to tell was that I was born two months earlier than expected while she, accompanied by her old nurse, ‘Niania’, was crossing the border from Russia to Poland. […] The border village, where my mother so inconveniently began her premature labor, was nameless. (Exton 2001: 1)

The book in question is a work of fiction but it is also “based on some of the author’s and her family’s experiences against the background of historical events” (ibid.: vii). The question of whether the dramatic story about the nameless village and birth at the border crossing is true will nevertheless remain unanswered. It is certain, however, that the Russian-Jewish Chilewich family were fortunate enough to safely reach the USA just after the outbreak of World War II. In 1939, Edith’s father, Aron Chilewich, an American trader and philanthropist born in Pskov, a city in western Russia close to the Estonian border, and her mother, Bronislawa Chilewich, née Mordchelewicz (“Aron Chilewich” 1985), settled in New  York. The 1940 US Census reveals that Aron and Bronislawa Chilewich lived with their eighteenyear-old daughter in the Upper West Side of Manhattan at 599 West End Avenue. At this address, there still stands a twelve-storey brownstone apartment building from the 1920s, in which the young Edith Chilewich must have lived at that time. In the USA, Edith pursued a career as a translator, reporter and editor. During World War II, as a polyglot acquainted with European countries, she “worked for CBS News as a monitor and interpreter of shortwave broadcasts from the Soviet and east European fronts, using languages learned as a child refugee from the Soviet Union to Eastern Europe” (“Edith Chilewich Exton” 2013). It was also during the war that she translated Korczak’s Matthew the Young King together with her husband. After

82 

M. Borodo

World War II, Edith Sulkin returned to Europe as a reporter and in 1947 published her first book Continent in Limbo, which was warmly received by critics (Hughes 1947). The book opens with the following account of sailing out from America to England on the Queen Elizabeth in January 1946: The majority of the passengers […] were deeply concerned with what it would be like in Europe. These were the exiles returning home after many years. […] They had acquired American dress habits; […] Their children read comic strips and were far more interested in baseball and Dick Tracy than Joan of Arc or the Royal Family of the Netherlands. Nevertheless they were Europeans and they were going back to where their roots were. I felt a close affinity with them. For I was going back too. I was a mixture of a homeward-bound refugee and an American going to Europe on private business. I was going back to the continent on which I had been brought up, whose countries, languages and people I had known well in peace and crisis […]. Yet, unlike most of them, I could not point to a single country on the continent and say that this was where I came from. It was Europe itself that had been my childhood and early adolescence. (Sulkin [1947] 2000: 4–5)

Continent in Limbo is occasionally revealing with regard to the author’s pre-war experiences, describing the reminiscences of her childhood and early adolescence spent in Europe of the 1920s and 1930s. Her life in pre-war Europe was constantly on the move. As she recalls, she attended as many as twelve schools in five different countries, in such cities as Warsaw, Prague, London and Berlin (ibid.: 5). In Warsaw, she lived in the city centre and, as a grown-up returning to the destroyed Polish capital, she describes her memories of the place: I walked down Warecka Street looking for Number Nine, the house I had lived in when I was a schoolgirl in Warsaw. […] Memories kept crowding back, memories of busy streets and churchbells, of little girls in blue uniforms running to school, of theaters and parks, of chestnut trees and open cafes. (Ibid.: 207)

After returning from Europe to America, Edith Sulkin pursued careers as an editor and journalist, creating television and radio programmes for

3  Sketching the Context: English Translations of Polish… 

83

Yale University and working for Atlas Magazine, which published translated articles about current affairs from the world press (Exton 2001: 389). Apart from Continent in Limbo (1947, reprinted 2000) and the semi-autobiographical An Invented Life (2001), she also published a collection of short stories entitled The Golden Village and Other Stories (2003). Matthew the Young King is apparently the only children’s book that she translated in her lifetime. However, as noted earlier, she was not alone on this translation project. Sidney Sulkin was born in Boston in 1918 and died in 1995  in Bethesda, Maryland (Levy 1995). The 1940 US Census reveals that he was a son of immigrants from Eastern Europe, Frank and Celia Sulkin, who were both born in Russia in 1887. A graduate of Harvard University, Sidney Sulkin was during World War II “chief of worldwide English programs at the Voice of America and chief of news of the American Broadcasting Station in Europe”; after the war, he would become director of the US International Book Association for Eastern and Northern Europe, as well as a special correspondent for CBS (ibid.). His major publications include a 1962 novel The Family Man, which recounts the life story of a second-generation Russian Jew, Harry Allman, who left Ukraine as a young boy and settled in Boston, where he set up his own successful business; he also published a 1983 collection of short stories and poetry, The Secret Seed. The 1945 Matthew the Young King appears to be the only children’s title that he ever translated into English. The children’s book translated by the Sulkins would not have been published, however, if it had not been for Polish publisher Marian Kister (1897–1958). A graduate of mathematics at the Jan Kazimierz University in Lviv, he had a lifelong passion for books. After marrying his wife Hanna in 1922, Kister translated into Polish Maxim Gorky’s My Childhood, and in 1924 he and the acclaimed Polish writer and journalist Melchior Wańkowicz established the Rój8 publishing company. Rój soon became a leader in its field, publishing books by some of the major Polish writers of the day, as well as by foreign, mainly Western authors, such as Jack London, Marcel Proust, Thomas Mann, John Steinbeck, Sinclair 8  The Polish word rój denotes a “swarm” and the symbol of the Rój publishing house was a beehive.

84 

M. Borodo

Lewis, John Galsworthy, Bertrand Russell and Aldous Huxley. When Hitler invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, Rój had about 70,000 books in stock (Pinkowski n.d.). Kister was in London when he learnt about the German invasion of Poland and decided not to return to the war-torn country. Fortunately, his wife and two daughters managed to reach Paris, where the family were re-united in 1940. On 22 March 1941 they set out for America on a Portuguese ship, the SS Carvalho Araujo. In the USA, Hanna Kister, who spoke four languages, became a teacher in Brooklyn, but soon after they returned to their great passion, that is, publishing books, re-establishing their publishing firm under the new name Roy Publishers. Undaunted by initial failures, they published Bez oręża, a novel about St Francis of Assisi by Zofia Kossak-Szczucka, translated into English by Rulka Langer as Blessed Are the Meek. In April 1944, the translation was selected as book of the month by Book of the Month Club, which gave a much-needed boost to the publishing firm. Roy Publishers then continued publishing translated books by Polish authors, becoming one of the main outlets for Polish literature in translation in America at the time (ibid.). One of these Polish books was Korczak’s Matthew the Young King, published with illustrations by Irena Lorentowicz (1908–1985), a renowned Polish painter, stage designer and illustrator. The book contains the following mysterious preface by Kister printed on a separate blue insert: As you will note in the preface, we had it from reliable sources that the author, Janusz Korczak, a celebrated physician, teacher, and head of a Warsaw orphanage in pre-war Poland, was killed by the Gestapo during one of their mass murders. […] However, we have just received word from the Overseas News Agency that the Underground rescued him at the last moment, spiriting him away from the train […]. We were informed of this after the book was ready for distribution, and are happy to share this news with you. (Korczak 1945)

The insert was most probably the result of rumours emerging from Poland at the end of the war that Korczak had not been murdered in a gas chamber in Treblinka, but had actually survived. Sadly, this turned out to be false. However, while Korczak never visited America, in 1945, Kister and

3  Sketching the Context: English Translations of Polish… 

85

the Sulkins brought alive for the American reader Korczak’s vision and his all-time classic about the power of dreams, courage and responsibility. Matthew the Young King also contains an introduction by the Sulkins, which makes reference to the origins of the novel and explains to the reader that the story of Maciuś was a prophecy of events to come: Korczak seemed to be thinking of the future. For these things came to pass just as he had written them. Small countries were in fact invaded by greedy dictators, after fifth columnists had weakened them by sabotage. Whole nations were conquered by evil men whose armies attacked without warning and whose bombers struck cities that were unprepared. Korczak’s own country was invaded in this manner and conquered. And one day even Korczak’s orphanage was invaded. (Korczak 1945: 9)

The introduction ends with a partly invented and dramatized description of the deaths of Korczak and his orphan charges: “While the sun glittered on the earth, the guards lifted their guns. And Korczak may have muttered the words of King Matthew – ‘I’ll show them how to die’ – he and all his little Kings were shot” (ibid.). The back dust jacket presents a portrait of Korczak as well as a lengthy blurb which begins as follows: “If there were saints in the twentieth century, Janusz Korczak would have been one of them.” It then describes his work and devotion to “those who were most wretched and most helpless”, that is, “the homeless Jewish orphans of Poland”. The passage ends, again in a hagiographic tone, with the assertion that Korczak “lived like a saint and died like a hero”. Published in 1945, Matthew the Young King most probably had no re-­ editions. The next translation of Korczak’s classic novel was created forty years later.

The New Tellers of the Classic Tale The second translation of Korczak’s classic tale was created by Richard Lourie and published in New York by Farrar, Straus and Giroux under the title King Matt the First in 1986. Born in 1940  in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Lourie comes from a family of Lithuanian Jews who emi-

86 

M. Borodo

grated to the USA (Lourie 2013a). He recalls that he felt very American as a boy, but at the same time he grew up in a family that retained some of the Eastern customs that Lourie associates with the Russian Empire (Lourie 2013a, b). As a child, he knew many Russian words from home and was always intrigued by Russia, the land of the “enemy” situated behind the Iron Curtain, but also the country associated with the history of his family. After reading Crime and Punishment, which made a profound impression on the seventeen-year-old would-be translator, he decided to read the novel in the original (Lourie 2013c). He made a decision to study Russian literature and moved from Boston to Berkeley. Lourie’s first encounter with Polish literature and culture was partly coincidental and related to an academic requirement: I discovered Polish literature quite by accident. Arriving in Berkeley in 1960 to pursue a degree in Russian, I was told that I would be required to learn a second Slavic language, literature, history. I chose Polish because I was drawn by the magnetism of Professor Czeslaw Milosz, known in the U.S. at the time only as the author of The Captive Mind. […] He proved an ideal mentor. Aside from teaching me Polish literature, he instilled in me a respect for translation, a craft he himself has never ceased to practice. (Lourie 1991)

Lourie and Miłosz translated hundreds of Polish poems together and developed a deep friendship which lasted for forty-four years (Lourie 2013b). It was initially a master-apprentice relationship, but later they became colleagues in Berkeley and then were joined by family ties when Lourie became the godfather of Miłosz’s granddaughter (ibid.). Lourie pursued a career as a translator, writer and journalist. Apart from King Matt the First, he translated more than forty books from Polish and Russian into English. His translations include Czesław Miłosz’s Visions from San Francisco Bay (1975), Vladimir Voinovich’s The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin (1977), Tadeusz Konwicki’s The Polish Complex (1982) and A Minor Apocalypse (1983), Aleksander Hertz’s The Jews in Polish Culture (1988), and My Century: The Odyssey of a Polish Intellectual (1988), an abridged version of Aleksander Wat’s My Century. Lourie also became known as an author of

3  Sketching the Context: English Translations of Polish… 

87

fiction and non-fiction with such titles as Hunting the Devil (1993), The Autobiography of Joseph Stalin: A Novel (1999), Sakharov: A Biography (2002), A Hatred for Tulips (2007) and Putin: His Downfall and Russia’s Coming Crash (2017), among others. He has worked as a journalist and political commentator, writing for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The New Republic, The Nation and The Moscow Times, and he served as Hillary Clinton’s consultant on Russia during her 2008 presidential campaign. As Lourie himself admits in interviews, he also has had quite an eventful life: he worked as a chauffeur to a mafia boss in Boston of the 1950s, belonged to the Beat Generation, and was arrested by the KGB in Gori, Stalin’s home town, to which he travelled from Tbilisi without permission while working on his novel about the Soviet dictator (Lourie 2013a, b). As regards the formal characteristics of the first edition of Lourie’s translation, it contains some noteworthy paratexts. The translation begins with an introduction by Bruno Bettelheim, who, referring to Korczak’s novel as “a late flower in the venerable tradition of Bildungsroman” (1986: vii), praises it for its literary value but also psychological depth, calling it “one of the most penetrating and subtle studies of the psychology of children” (ibid.: vi). The back cover of Lourie’s translation features a recommendation by the acclaimed children’s writer and illustrator Maurice Sendak. The author of Where the Wild Things Are observes that Korczak’s novel is “a book about children and for children, [which] should certainly be read by anyone who is seriously interested in children”. The front cover blurb recommendation of the 1986 edition is also by Sendak who, although born in Brooklyn, came like Korczak from a Polish-Jewish background. Jewishness and a Central or Eastern European background is in general a common denominator of many of those who contributed to the promotion of Korczak’s literary work in America: Sendak, with his Polish-Jewish roots, Edith Sulkin, with her Russian-Jewish background, Lourie, coming from a Lithuanian-Jewish family, or Bettelheim, who was Austrian-Jewish. The second edition of Lourie’s translation was published in 2004 by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, and another edition appeared in 2015 in Vintage Classics, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Indeed, if one were to point to a “living translation” of the story of King Maciuś,

88 

M. Borodo

the translation that is continually re-published and presumably most often purchased and read by readers is Lourie’s. His King Matt the First is by far the most successful translation in terms of the number of editions and copies. For comparison, the Sulkins’ Matthew the Young King was apparently published only once in 1945, and although it may have been available in public libraries or passed from person to person over time, it has not achieved a status comparable to that of Lourie’s version. Korczak’s biography and his death in Treblinka seem to have had significant implications for the reception of his works especially in the American context. The blurbs, paratexts and reviews of his translations often inform the reader that Korczak was a victim of the Holocaust and emphasize his refusal to abandon the Jewish children of his orphanage. In the introduction to Lourie’s translation, Bettelheim mentions the time Korczak spent in the ghetto, his refusal to abandon his charges and their death, referring to him as “one of the genuine martyrs and heroes of our age” (Korczak 1986: x). At the beginning of his review of this translation, Jack Zipes (1986) informs the readers of The New York Times that in the summer of 1942 “the director of an orphanage for Jewish children of Warsaw, Henryk Goldszmit, known throughout Poland under his pen name Janusz Korczak, accompanied more than 200 orphans to the main railroad station. Their destination was the Treblinka concentration camp.” In the foreword to the 2004 edition of Lourie’s translation, and in the most recent edition of this translation, published in 2015 as part of Penguin Vintage Classics, the children’s author Esmé Raji Codell notes: The fate of King Matt is particularly poignant when juxtaposed with the fate of the author and the children who inspired him, who were not afforded a miracle. On August 6, 1942, Korczak and the two hundred children in his orphanage followed behind the green flag, their symbol of children’s freedom, to the train station, where the group was taken to the gas chambers at Treblinka. Korczak had several opportunities to escape, but he refused: “You do not leave a sick child in the night, and you do not leave children at a time like this.” (Korczak [1986] 2004: vii)

Raji Codell’s foreword ends with the words: “Long may the green flag wave!” (Korczak ibid.: xi). Similarly, the back cover of the fourth English-­

3  Sketching the Context: English Translations of Polish… 

89

language translation, published in 2014, draws the reader’s attention to the author’s life and the final march of Korczak and his orphan charges. The third English-language translation of Korczak’s novel was completed by Adam Czasak and published by Joanna Pinewood Enterprises in London in 1990. In fact, Czasak translated the book ten years earlier, when he was in his early twenties (it is in fact possible that he might have completed his translation before Lourie did his), and when asked about how he went about it he reveals that he aimed to translate it in a straightforward and accessible style, rather than in refined, “literary” language (telephone conversation, 8 July 2019)—a topic which will be investigated in Chap. 6. The 1990 translation includes not only Król Maciuś Pierwszy but also the sequel Król Maciuś na wyspie bezludnej [King Matt on the Desert Island], written by Korczak in 1923. The translation as a whole bears the title Little King Matty … and the Desert Island, with the two titles actually combined into one. Notably, Czasak’s translation of the second part of the young king’s adventures is the only English-­ language version of the novel created to date—a fact which is highlighted on the cover. The note about the translator on the front page informs us that Adam Czasak was “born in England of Polish parents. He studied Polish Philology at the Jagiellonian University, Krakow and English at the University of Ulster and University College London. His translation of Emigrants by Sławomir Mrożek was produced at the 1986 Edinburgh Festival” (Korczak 1990: 1). Apart from his translations of Sławomir Mrożek and Janusz Korczak, Czasak’s major achievements in the field of literary translation include his translations of Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, Tadeusz Różewicz, Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz, Jerzy Szaniawski and Zbigniew Herbert. Born in Nantwich, Cheshire, in north-west England, this versatile, bilingual, professional translator and interpreter currently lives in Krakow, Poland. The front cover of Czasak’s translation presents Maciuś sitting on a throne surrounded by different protagonists, with the African King Bum-­ Drum on his left, the African princess Klu-Klu on his right and a man with a revolver behind him, which may suggest daring adventures and exotic journeys. The blurb on the back cover notes that “[i]t is a book about freedom and democracy, politics and travel, corruption and reform” and adds that the young king’s “efforts to reform his country take him to

90 

M. Borodo

war, to the land of cannibals and witch-doctors, to the kingdoms and domains of his enemies and friends”—again, like the illustration, suggesting a sense of adventure. In a more serious tone, the blurb also refers to the novel as “a deeply moving plea for sincerity and equality – a plea seen through the innocent eyes of a sensitive, valiant child. Written with penetrating insight, this bewitching fantasy has appealed to millions in Poland and abroad.” Interestingly, the end of the blurb contains a quotation in English about Korczak by Wojciech Pszoniak, who is referred to as “one of Poland’s leading actors who plays the role of Korczak in Andrzej Wajda’s newest film”. Entitled Korczak, and shot in black and white, Wajda’s film was released in 1990, the same year as Czasak’s translation was published. While this may have been a coincidence, it could have also been the publisher’s attempt to capitalize on the publicity related to the film release. In 2014, Korczak’s novel appeared in English for the fourth time, this time under the title King Matthew the First. It featured a cover illustration and drawings by the well-known Polish graphic artist and illustrator Jerzy Srokowski (1910–1975), and it was published in New York by Nanook Books, part of the American Tom eMusic Corporation, publishing educational books, picture books and fairy tales, among others. Just like the 1945 translation by the Sulkins, the most recent version was jointly completed by two translators, Adam Fisher and Ben Torrent, and just like the first American translation of the novel, the 2014 version was also partially adapted (see Chap. 7 for a discussion), as is indicated on the title page: “Translation and Adaptation by Adam Fisher and Ben Torrent”. The book does not provide any information about the translators, and details were generally difficult to find, but on the back cover it provides some information on the novel, referring to it as “firmly established in the canon of world classics for children”, as well as on the author. Korczak is introduced as “a prominent Polish-Jewish writer but also a pediatrician, educator and social activist”, “the inventor of an original system of working with children, which was based on partnership, self-governing institutions and procedures, and the promotion of self-education” and “a precursor of children’s rights”. On the back cover, there is also an account by the acclaimed pianist and composer Władysław Szpilman, who was a

3  Sketching the Context: English Translations of Polish… 

91

witness to the final march of Janusz Korczak and his orphans in the summer of 1942.

 nglish-Language Adaptations of Król E Maciuś Pierwszy Apart from the four translations, Korczak’s most famous novel has also appeared in English in the form of adaptations. An example is King Matt the First, a 2018 abridged version “translated from Polish, adapted, and illustrated by Itzchak Belfer (a pupil of Janusz Korczak)”, which is based on the opening chapters from the original book. Another example is King Matt, Stephen Greenhorn’s adaptation for the stage, based on the 1986 American translation by Richard Lourie and published in Edinburgh by Capercaillie Books in 2004. These two adaptations transform Korczak’s Król Maciuś Pierwszy to the point where detailed linguistic comparison with specific chapters and passages of the Polish original and the four English-language translations would not be possible. However, just like the English translations, these texts offer valuable insights into how adapters mediate children’s fiction, metonymically activating and privileging different reserves of meaning from Korczak’s novel. The stage adaptation entitled King Matt was created by Stephen Greenhorn, a Scottish screenwriter and playwright.9 It begins with an introduction to the play in which Greenhorn presents his reflections on  Born in West Lothian, Scotland, in 1964, Greenhorn began writing professionally in 1989 and has cooperated with many theatre companies across the UK, including children’s theatre companies and community groups. Some of his better known plays include The Salt Wound (1994), Passing Places (1997), which in 1998 earned him a nomination for Scottish Writer of the Year, King Matt (created in 2001 and published in 2004) and the musical Sunshine on Leith (2007), which between 2007 and 2010 toured Scotland and the UK, featuring the songs of the Scottish music band The Proclaimers. Greenhorn also created a screen adaptation of the musical in 2013 which received a lot of publicity at the time, in addition to preparing an adaptation for screen of Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea (2006). For British television, Greenhorn has created episodes for a number of series representing diverse genres, such as the police drama The Bill (1997), the family drama Where the Heart Is (1998), the drama series Glasgow Kiss (2000), the Scottish soap opera River City (2002, creator of the series), Doctor Who (the two episodes were broadcast on BBC One in 2007 and 2008) and the ghost story Marchlands (2011). He was commissioned to write a stage version of Korczak’s classic novel by TAG Theatre Company and the play toured Scotland between May and June 2001, being remounted for London International Festival of Theatre (LIFT) in June 2003 (Greenhorn 2004, 2018). 9

92 

M. Borodo

Korczak’s novel and shares with the reader his experiences on the adaptation process. He describes the beginnings of the project as follows: When TAG Theatre Company first approached me about adapting a children’s book for the stage I was wary. Adaptations are strange beasts. They are so difficult to get right that an immense degree of enthusiasm is required before taking them on. When TAG explained that the book in question was an out-of-print Polish classic from the 1920’s my suspicions increased. When they handed me a dog-eared copy of an old American translation my heart sank. And then I read it. (Greenhorn 2004: 1)

The “old American translation” was in fact only fifteen years old in 2001, as it was Lourie’s 1986 version. Greenhorn then refers to Korczak’s novel as “an astonishing book” and “a fantastic roller-coaster adventure story”, which confronts the boy king with the truth about the complex, painful and confusing realities of adult life (ibid.). He mentions the difficulties related to adapting the novel involving adapting for the stage several battles, parliamentary debates, riots, explosions and an African expedition, admitting that “the most difficult and brutal part of the process was the editing down of the material and the choices about which sections to focus on” (ibid.: 2). In the introduction, Greenhorn also discloses that during performances of the scenes set in the children’s parliament the audience was invited to adopt the roles of the delegates, making proposals and comments and having a vote: In practice, we discovered that while some audiences were reluctant to do any more than raise their hands to vote, others embraced the debate so enthusiastically that it added ten minutes onto the running time! Though a little nerve-racking for the actors, these sections were often the most exciting and revealing parts of the show. (Ibid.: 3)

One of the most distinctive features of this adaptation is the introduction of a Greek chorus of narrators who, in rhymed, narrative sections, comment on the unfolding story and the boy’s situation. This, as noted by Greenhorn, “was in keeping with Korczak’s narrative voice in the book which often seems to address the reader directly and invite them to con-

3  Sketching the Context: English Translations of Polish… 

93

sider what they might’ve done in Matt’s shoes” (ibid.: 2). An example of the Greek chorus of narrators is provided below. The passage in question has a corresponding passage in Lourie’s translation and in the Polish source text in which Korczak warns the reader, at the beginning of the book, that his novel may not necessarily be suitable for adults who may have problems understanding it. Korczak’s “warning” to Polish readers of the 1922 novel, closely followed by Lourie in his 1986 translation, is very simple and brief: Grownups should not read my novel, because some of the chapters are not very nice. They’ll misunderstand them and make fun of them. But if they really want to read my book, they should give it a try. After all, you can’t tell grownups not to do something – they won’t listen to you, and you can’t make them obey. (Korczak 1986: 3)

Greenhorn’s chorus of narrators communicates this message in a completely different manner. Resembling Roald Dahl’s writing, and characterized by irreverent humour, the passage finishes by openly poking fun at adults (Greenhorn 2004: 5): This is a story from not long ago And a country not too far from here About the things that a boy must learn to let go And the things that he ought to hold dear. But before the beginning, a warning to all Of you grown-up women and men That this is a story for those who recall What is to be just nine or ten. Some of the chapters are gruesome and grim, Some of the characters wild, And your chances of liking it are pretty darn slim ’Cause it’s meant to be told to a child. But sometimes you can’t give a grown-up advice; There’s no way you can make them obey.

94 

M. Borodo

You can warn them the story is not very nice, But they won’t hear a word that you say. So, if you children agree, the grown-ups can stay; If you watch them, we’ll give them a chance. Just make sure your mum isn’t sick in her bag And your dad doesn’t pee in his pants.

The imaginative effort and the sheer length of the excerpt written by Greenhorn make his adaptation an impressive example of linguistic creativity. There are also several other distinctive features of Greenhorn’s adaptation. Although he follows Lourie with regard to names, opting for such names as Matt and Felek, and there are several almost direct quotations from Lourie in the text, Greenhorn’s is in essence a very creative and imaginative transformation of the 1986 American translation. It retains some of the crucial events and protagonists from the novel but also omits many (notably the Old Doctor, the African King and his daughter, princess Klu-Klu), adding new ideas, dynamic action, and fresh and lively humour to the text. In terms of language, the dialogues are mostly written in informal style, using vivid and colloquial English, which may be illustrated with, for example, “You’re a laugh. King? Wish I was King.”, “Now scarper!” (Greenhorn 2004: 10) or “Not so cocky today, are we, boy?” (ibid.: 74), which is nevertheless mixed with more formal honorific forms (such as “sire”, “your majesty” and “your highness”). It is certainly not a radical adaptation—it does not attempt to relocate Korczak’s novel to Scotland or to address Scottish themes or feature explicit cultural references. King Matt is rather a more universal, entertaining story about the boy who grows up to discover the complexities of life, accompanied throughout by the Greek chorus of narrative voices. Similar to Korczak’s novel, and Lourie’s American translation, Greenhorn’s King Matt ends somewhat abruptly, with an open ending, leaving it to the audience to decide what happens to the boy king after he loses the war and is taken prisoner. The other English-language adaptation, Itzchak Belfer’s King Matt the First was published in 2018. Recommended on the front cover for chil-

3  Sketching the Context: English Translations of Polish… 

95

dren from five to ten, illustrated by the author himself and published with the Amazon-owned CreateSpace self-publishing platform, it is a less intriguing text than Greenhorn’s adaptation. However, what makes this abridgement noteworthy is that it was written by Korczak’s former pupil from his Warsaw orphanage, currently an artist and sculptor living in Israel. Unlike Greenhorn’s version, Belfer’s text was adapted directly from the Polish and consists of a preface, ten short chapters loosely based on the much-condensed opening fourteen chapters of Korczak’s novel, and an epilogue. With regard to the protagonists’ names, Belfer uses Matt, Felek, Irenka and Tomac (most probably a modified version of the Polish Tomek). In the epilogue, Belfer notes, “Thus did Janusz Korczak tell us these tales at the orphanage” (n. pag.); he explains that the story is “but a small fragment of a larger work written by Janusz Korczak, entitled King Matt the First” and encourages the reader to read the complete novel and its sequel. The author also refers the reader to his other book, entitled The Man Who Knew How to Love Children, if they wish to learn more about his childhood spent in Korczak’s Warsaw orphanage.

Big Business Billy and Kaytek the Wizard The 1922 story about the boy king is Korczak’s novel with the largest number of English versions. The other children’s novels by Korczak translated into English include Big Business Billy, published in London in 1939, and Kaytek the Wizard, which came out in New York in 2012. In October 1939, shortly after the campaigns of military aggression of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union against Poland, at a time of escalating war and chaos in this part of Europe, a little known event occurred in the context of cultural exchange between Poland and Britain. Janusz Korczak’s 1924 children’s novel Bankructwo małego Dżeka [The Bankruptcy of Little Jack], the story of a young boy running a school shop and struggling with various down-to-earth, financial decisions, was published in London by Minerva Publishing under the title Big Business Billy. The novel was translated by Cyrus Brooks and illustrated with several black and white sketches created by an anonymous illustrator. Brooks is better

96 

M. Borodo

known as a prolific English-language translator from German10 and although this information does not appear in Brooks’s English translation from 1939, it may be hypothesized that he did not translate Korczak’s book from Polish but indirectly from its German translation Der Bankrott des kleinen Jack,11 published in Berlin in 1935. The novel tells the story of Dżek Fulton (Dżek is the phonetically assimilated Polish form of the English name Jack), renamed as Billy Fulton in the English translation. Billy runs a cooperative shop in an American school and dreams about becoming a shopkeeper one day. He has a talent for doing business, bargaining and planning, and his shop prospers until the unfortunate theft of the cooperative’s two bicycles leads to its bankruptcy. However, in the closing sentences of the novel it is revealed that the stolen bicycles have been recovered by the police. One could thus argue that the main character’s misfortune was somewhat unjustifiably foregrounded by Korczak in the Polish title. The bankruptcy is just a fleeting episode rather than the central motif of the novel. In contrast, Brooks’s eye-catching and alliterative title Big Business Billy foregrounds the boy’s evident talent for business rather than his partial failure. Korczak’s 1924 novel reflects his interest in the concept of the cooperative movement and in the idea of social commitment, his observations regarding relations among children and his concern for educating children to become responsible, industrious and resourceful individuals. The book is also a reflection of a general interest in American culture and the  Brooks is known as a translator of children’s books by Erich Kästner in the UK (Emil and the Three Twins and Lottie and Lisa), and is also credited with creating the play script of the 1935 British film version of Emil and the Detectives (Lathey 2004: 117). He also translated works by Alfred Neumann, Leonhard Frank and Friedrich Dürrenmatt. For many years he worked for the London Literary Agency A. M. Heath and is described as follows on the website dedicated to the history of this agency: “Cyrus Brooks was born in 1890 and, as a young man, had moved to Berlin to teach English as a foreign language, becoming fluent in German at the same time. Still there when the Great War began in July 1914, Cyrus found himself stranded – and, like the thousands of other male citizens of the Allied Powers who were, by chance, studying, working or holidaying in Germany at the outbreak of war, he was detained in the civilian internment camp Ruhleben, under the terms laid out by the Geneva Convention. It was here that Cyrus spent his war – and, by the time of the Armistice in 1918, he had fallen completely in love with German and European literature. It was a passion that would dictate the direction of his life” (https://amheath.com/ history). 11  Der Bankrott des kleinen Jack was translated by A. Gruszczyńska for the Berlin-based Williams & Co. publishing house specializing in children’s and young adults’ literature (Kowal 2016: 212). 10

3  Sketching the Context: English Translations of Polish… 

97

American way of life, popularized in the 1920s by the press, radio, silent movies and Polish immigrants returning to their homeland from the USA after the reconstitution of Poland in 1918—almost 140,000 Poles returned in the first five years after independence was regained (Korczak [1924] 1994: 345). The fact that the novel contains many references to American shops, markets, currency, school, language and names is one of the most interesting aspects from the perspective of translation. Most probably working from the intermediary German version, Brooks was confronted with the task of turning a novel about life in America originally written by a Pole for Polish readers into a novel about America directed at English-language readers. Due to the change of addressee, the translator decided to introduce numerous modifications. For example, while commenting on the American context, Korczak devotes a longer passage to the English ­language, which is presented as exceptionally difficult to learn. To emphasize this point, the author mentions three different languages, from the one that is easy to learn (Polish), through the one that may cause greater problems (French), to the one that is arguably the most complicated (English). Mentioning English at the end of the list might make sense to the Polish reader in the 1920s, but translating this passage verbatim and presenting Polish as unproblematic and English as enigmatic and incomprehensible would have been puzzling for the English-language reader of the translation. Brooks thus reversed the order, presenting English as easy to learn, French as more demanding, and then introduced the following reference to, arguably, the hardest language to learn (Table 3.2): Table 3.2  A reference to “exceptionally problematic” language in Cyrus Brooks’s 1939 translation Korczak (1924)

Brooks (1939)

But you can manage even French with an Ale od biedy i z tym można sobie effort. But in German the most awful dać radę. Za to w języku things happen. I only know one German angielskim dzieją się straszne word and that is enough to last me for rzeczy. Znam tylko jeden wyraz angielski i mam dosyć na całe życie. the rest of my life. When you remember that Goethe is pronounced something Bo pomyśleć tylko, że Shakespeare like “Gerter”, you must agree that there to znaczy Szekspir. Chyba już tylko couldn’t be anything harder, except chiński jest trudniejszy. (Korczak perhaps Chinese. (Korczak 1939: 36) [1924] 1994: 29)

98 

M. Borodo

Replacing English with German and Shakespeare with Goethe in this passage must be ascribed to Brooks. It could not be introduced in the intermediary German text because this is a reference to the foreign language that is arguably the most difficult to learn for the prospective reader (as English was for the Polish reader according to Korczak and German for the English reader according to Brooks). Had this modification been introduced in German translation, it would have been illogical and confusing, suggesting that for German readers the language of Goethe is a foreign language, which is difficult to learn. Thus, ironically, and humorously, this remark comes from a prolific German-to-English literary translator, translating Korczak’s novel from German. With many other passages one has to be cautious because of the highly probable use of the German translation as a pivot. Conducting a detailed analysis of Brooks’s treatment of culture-specific items, for example, would require consulting the intermediary German version, which is beyond the parameters of the present study. Released almost eighty years after the original publication, the translation of Korczak’s 1933 novel Kajtuś czarodziej by Antonia Lloyd-Jones was published in 2012 as Kaytek the Wizard by Penlight Publications, a New York-based publishing house, with financial support from the Polish Book Institute, which at the time owned the copyright to Korczak’s whole output. Kaytek the Wizard is the story of a restless boy with a vivid imagination, who dreams of mastering the art of magic. When this dream comes true, despite his best intentions, Kaytek is not always able to make good use of his magical abilities. Unable to predict the consequences of his actions, he causes chaos in Warsaw, turning all the clocks back a few hours, making the residents of the capital walk backwards and conjuring up a mysterious island and palace in the middle of the Vistula. After these extraordinary events, he sets off abroad on a journey full of fantastic adventures, during which he becomes a boxer in a circus in Paris, an actor in Hollywood and is even transformed into a dog, who then struggles to find his way home. Kaytek the Wizard is thus a novel about growing up, a story about a child hero who, through experience, matures and gains knowledge about human limitations, free will and responsibility for his own actions.

3  Sketching the Context: English Translations of Polish… 

99

Antonia Lloyd-Jones, a graduate of Oxford University, is a distinguished translator of Polish novels, biographies and reportage into English, including books by Zygmunt Miłoszewski, Paweł Huelle, Joanna Olczak-Ronikier and the 2019 Nobel laureate Olga Tokarczuk. She is a two-time recipient of the “Found in Translation” award, granted annually for the best translation of Polish literature into English. She received it for the first time in 2008 for her translation of Paweł Huelle’s novel The Last Supper, and then in 2012 for as many as seven translations published in that year. Grzegorz Gauden, then director of the Polish Book Institute, commented on this exceptional achievement as follows: I’m truly impressed by their quality on the one hand, and on the other by the translator’s extraordinary versatility. […] Within just one year she published a collection of short stories, a novel, a biography, a piece of reportage and a classic of youth literature. (Instytut Książki 2013)

The classic of youth literature in question is Korczak’s Kaytek the Wizard. In 2018, Lloyd-Jones also received the prestigious Transatlantyk Prize, awarded to distinguished ambassadors of Polish literature abroad. With regard to the publishing and institutional context in which the translation appeared, Kaytek the Wizard came out at a special time—the year 2012 was proclaimed the Year of Janusz Korczak by the Polish parliament and there were many initiatives and events devoted to the author. The translation was published by Penlight Publications in an elegant hardcover edition with black and white illustrations by Avi Katz and was co-financed by the Polish Book Institute as part of the @POLAND Translation Programme, which aims to increase the presence of Polish literature in translation internationally. Referring to the concepts proposed by André Lefevere (1992), the Polish Book Institute, the copyright owner subsidizing this translation project, held the patronage over the translation, potentially exerting an impact on the refraction of the source text. This may be illustrated with the choice of the main protagonist’s name, which also appears in the title. The proposals considered during the preparation of the translation included Willy the Wizard, Kazik and Casimir, which were advocated by the publisher, and the name Titus, proposed by the translator as partly rhyming with the Polish name Kajtuś

100 

M. Borodo

(Lloyd-Jones 2012). The Polish Book Institute, however, stressed that the titles of Korczak’s books should, as far as possible, remain unchanged. The translator finally opted for Kaytek, a name which remains close to the original title but will not necessarily sound familiar to native English speakers (ibid.). In an interview from 2012, Lloyd-Jones also suggests that she considered removing from her translation the expressions which would be today considered “politically incorrect”. In the Afterword to the English translation, she refers to this situation as follows: Some phrases in the book sound extremely politically incorrect to the modern ear, but would not have been considered unusual when the book was written, such as pejorative references to black people as cannibals or apes, and to Jews as inferiors. Wishing to remain faithful to Korczak’s original text, the publishers have chosen to leave these phrases as they were written. (Korczak 2012: 269)

The Afterword suggests that the translator may have felt uncomfortable about retaining some of the potentially controversial passages. In a 2012 interview, Lloyd-Jones states openly: “I wanted to remove a few phrases which are certainly politically incorrect for the contemporary reader, but the publisher wanted the text to remain as it was written by Korczak.” This again shows that while the translator may be the main decision-­ maker influencing the final shape of the translated text, she or he is not the only one and may not have the final say on all matters. Antonia Lloyd-Jones’s English translation constitutes exceptionally interesting analytical material for several reasons. First, it would be intriguing to discover how the potentially controversial source-text passages concerning racial issues were actually rendered by the translator in the context of the target culture, that is, multicultural American society. Did Lloyd-Jones closely reproduce Korczak’s way of thinking, following the official recommendations, or did she in fact modify and modernize such passages, partly subverting the recommendations of the institutional patrons of the translation? We will attempt to answer this question in Chap. 8. Second, it is worth analysing how culturally marked elements concerning Polish customs, history and folklore were treated and how

3  Sketching the Context: English Translations of Polish… 

101

Korczak’s laconic and elliptical style characterizing Kaytek the Wizard was rendered by the translator. This, in turn, will be the focus of Chap. 5, devoted to translation and explicitation. The following chapter, on the other hand, will be devoted to the cultural assimilation, foreignization, fairytalization and hyperbolization of Korczak’s most famous children’s novel.

References Primary Sources Borski Merecka, Lucia, and Kate B. Miller (Comp. and Trans.). [1928] 1958. The Jolly Tailor and Other Fairy Tales. New York: David McKay. Gliński, Antoni Józef. 1920. Polish Fairy Tales. Trans. Maude Ashurst Biggs. London/New York: John Lane. Greenhorn, Stephen. 2004. King Matt. Edinburgh: Capercaillie Books. Konopnicka, Maria. 1929. The Brownie Scouts. Trans. Kate Żuk-Skarszewska. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo M. Arcta. Korczak, Janusz. 1939. Big Business Billy. Trans. Cyrus Brooks. London: Minerva Publishing. ———. 1945. Matthew the Young King. Trans. Edith and Sidney Sulkin. New York: Roy Publishers. ———. 1986. King Matt the First. Trans. Richard Lourie. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ———. 1990. Little King Matty … and the Desert Island. Trans. Adam Czasak. London: Joanna Pinewood Enterprises. ———. [1924] 1994. Bankructwo małego Dżeka. Kiedy znów będę mały. Warszawa: Oficyna Wydawnicza Latona. ———. [1986] 2004. King Matt the First. Trans. Richard Lourie. New York: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill. ———. 2012. Kaytek the Wizard. Trans. Antonia Lloyd-Jones. New  York: Penlight Publications. ———. 2014. King Matthew the First. Trans. and Adapt. Adam Fisher and Ben Torrent. New York: Nanook Books. ———. [1986] 2015. King Matt the First. Trans. Richard Lourie. London: Penguin Random House.

102 

M. Borodo

———. 2018. King Matt the First. Adapt. Itzchak Belfer. No publ. Kossak, Zofia. [1926] 1958. Kłopoty Kacperka góreckiego skrzata. Warszawa: Nasza Księgarnia. Kossak-Szczucka, Zofia. 1928. The Troubles of a Gnome. Trans. Monica M. Gardner. London: A&C Black. Makuszyński, Kornel. 2006. 120 Adventures of Silly Billy the Goat. Trans. Teresa Bałuk-Ulewiczowa. Przekładaniec 16 (1): 24–37. Porazińska, Janina. 1944. In Voytus’ Little House. Trans. Lucia Merecka Borski. New York: Roy Publishers. Themerson, Stefan. [1938] 1960. Pan Tom buduje dom. Warszawa: Nasza Księgarnia. ———. [1950] 2013. Mr Rouse Builds His House. Trans. Stefan Themerson and Barbara Wright. London: Tate Publishing.

Secondary Sources Adamczyk-Garbowska, Monika. 1988. Polskie tłumaczenia angielskiej literatury dziecięcej. Problemy krytyki przekładu. Wrocław: Ossolineum. Aron Chilewich Is Dead at 84; Philanthropist and Importer. 1985. New York Times, September 3. Online at: http://www.nytimes.com/1985/09/03/nyregion/aron-chilewich-is-dead-at-84-philanthropist-and-importer.html. Accessed 23 Apr 2019. Biernacka-Licznar, Katarzyna, and Natalia Paprocka. 2016a. Children’s Books in Translation: An Ethnographic Case-Study of Polish Lilliputian Publishers’ Strategies. International Research in Children’s Literature 9 (2): 179–196. ———. 2016b. Polscy wydawcy lilipuci jako idea-makers. Przekładaniec 32: 145–162. Bilikiewicz-Blanc, Danuta, Tomasz Szubiakiewicz, and Beata Capik, eds. 2005. Literatura polska w przekładach/Polish Literature in Translations 1981–2004. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Biblioteki Narodowej. Borodo, Michał. 2015. Billy and Casp: Rediscovering Forgotten Translations in Polish-English Cultural Exchanges. In John Bull and the Continent, ed. Wojciech Jasiakiewicz and Jakub Lipski, 75–88. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang. ———. 2017a. Translation, Globalization and Younger Audiences: The Situation in Poland. Oxford: Peter Lang. ———. 2017b. Translation and Migration: Children’s Literature Authors, Translators and Publishers on the Move. In Moving Texts, Migrating People

3  Sketching the Context: English Translations of Polish… 

103

and Minority Languages, ed. Michał Borodo, Juliane House, and Wojciech Wachowski, 153–165. Singapore: Springer Nature. Brzózka, Aleksander. 2011. Czy strategia redukcji może służyć egzotyzacji, czyli gdzie się podziała sierotka Marysia w angielskim przekładzie. Przekładaniec 22–23: 146–158. Budrewicz, Aleksandra. 2018. Pan Tadeusz po angielsku. Spory wokół wydania i przekładu. Poznań: Wydawnictwo Poznańskiego Towarzystwa Przyjaciół Nauk. Davies, Laurence, and Gene M.  Moore. 2008. The Collected Letters of Joseph Conrad. Vol. 8. 1923–1924. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Edith Chilewich Exton, 92. 2013. Vineyard Gazette, November 26. Online at: https://vineyardgazette.com/obituaries/2013/11/26/edith-chilewichexton-92. Accessed 23 Apr 2019. Exton, Edith. 2001. An Invented Life. Lincoln: Authors Choice Press. Gąsiorek, Krystyna. 1997. Od słowa do tekstu: O języku i stylach Janusza Korczaka. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Naukowe WSP. Gliński, Mikołaj. 2011. 2012  – The Year of Janusz Korczak. Culture.pl, December 23. Online at: https://culture.pl/en/article/2012-the-year-ofjanusz-korczak. Accessed 10 Sept 2019. Greenhorn, Stephen. 2018. Curriculum vitae. Online at: http://www.rochellestevens.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Credits-Greenhorn.pdf. Accessed 15 Aug 2019. Gruszecka, Aniela. 1923. Review of Korczak (1922) Król Maciuś Pierwszy. Przegląd Warszawski 21 (June): 394–395. Harwood, Pam. 2005. Review of Korczak ([1986] 2005) King Matt the First. Books for Keeps (154). Online at: http://booksforkeeps.co.uk/issue/154/childrens-books/reviews/king-matt-the-first. Accessed 9 Sept 2019. Hughes, Alice. 1947. A Woman’s New  York. Reading Eagle, November 10. Online at: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1955&dat=19471110 &id=n8chAAAAIBAJ&sjid=_50FAAAAIBAJ&pg=2520,2108877&hl=pl. Accessed 14 Apr 2017. Instytut Książki. 2013. Found in Translation dla Antonii Lloyd-Jones. Online at: http://www.instytutksiazki.pl/wydarzenia,aktualnosci,29813,found-intranslation-dla-antonii-lloydjones.html. Accessed 18 Jan 2018. Jobe, Ronald. 2004. Translating for Children  – Practice. In International Companion Encyclopedia of Children’s Literature, ed. Peter Hunt, 912–926. London: Routledge. Joseph, Sandra. 2002. Pole Apart  – The Life and Work of Janusz Korczak. Young Minds Magazine 59. Online at: https://web.archive.org/web/

104 

M. Borodo

20070928035813/ http://www.youngminds.org.uk/magazine/59/joseph.php. Accessed 9 May 2019. Kister, Hanna. 1980. “Pegazy na Kredytowej”. Wspomnienia. Warszawa: Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy. Korczak, Janusz. 1929. Prawo dziecka do szacunku. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Jakuba Mortkowicza. ———. 1972. From the Ghetto 1939–1942. Trans. Zvi Arad. Tel Aviv: The Ytzchak Katznelson Beit Lochamei Haggetaot and the Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publications. Kowal, Grzegorz. 2016. Niemiecka recepcja Janusza Korczaka. Transfer. Reception Studies 1: 209–233. Lathey, Gillian. 2004. “What a Funny Name!”: Cultural Transition in Versions of Erich Kästner’s Emil and the Detectives. In Turning the Page: Children’s Literature in Performance and the Media, ed. Fiona M. Collins and Jeremy Ridgman, 115–132. Bern: Peter Lang. Lefevere, André. 1992. Translation, Rewriting, and the Manipulation of Literary Fame. London/New York: Routledge. Levy, Claudia. 1995. Writer, Editor Sidney Sulkin Dies at Age 77. The Washington Post, July 6. Online at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/ local/1995/07/06/writer-editor-sidney-sulkin-dies-at-age-77/3f1ddf9f992b-498d-bd06-f5d81ba0fee9/?utm_term=.15a21387a23d. Accessed 25 Apr 2019. Lloyd-Jones, Antonia. 2012. Kajtuś, Kaytek, Korczak  – wywiad z tłumaczką Antonią Lloyd-Jones. Interview by Mikołaj Gliński. Culture.pl, August 9. Online at: http://culture.pl/pl/artykul/kajtus-kaytek-korczak-wywiad-z-tlumaczka-antonia-lloyd-jones. Accessed 20 Sept 2018. Lourie, Richard. 1991. The Polish Particulars: A Review of Breathing under Water and Other East European Essays by Stanisław Barańczak. The New Criterion 9 (9): 75–77. Online at: https://newcriterion.com/issues/1991/5/ the-polish-particulars. Accessed 19 Sept 2019. ———. 2013a. Richard Lourie: historia nie jest sprawiedliwa. Interview by Agata Szwedowicz. Dzieje.pl, May 24. Online at: http://dzieje.pl/aktualnosci/richard-lourie-historia-nie-jest-sprawiedliwa. Accessed 17 Aug 2018. ———. 2013b. Richard Lourie – wywiad. Interview, July 26. Online at: https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ylQe6akGEI. Accessed 16 Aug 2018. ———. 2013c. Richard Lourie  – Writers in Motion  – Audiowizualna biblioteka pisarzy. Interview, July 17. Online at: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=8waIYFewS3A. Accessed 17 Aug 2018.

3  Sketching the Context: English Translations of Polish… 

105

Mikoś, Michał J. 2012. Zarys historii polonistyki w Ameryce Północnej. Katowice: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego. Mortkowicz-Olczakowa, Hanna. 1965. Mister Doctor: The Life of Janusz Korczak. Trans. Romuald Jan Kruk and Harold Gresswell. London: Peter Davies. Olczak-Ronikier, Joanna. 2011. Korczak. Próba biografii. WAB: Warszawa. Pinkowski, Edward. Kister, Marian. n.d. Poles in America Foundation. Online at: http://www.poles.org/db/K_names/Kister_MH/Kister_M.html. Accessed 26 Sept 2017. Polish Literature in English Translation 2007–2016. The Polish Book Institute/ Instytut Książki (no publ. date, no place of publ.). Online at: http://www. xn%2D%2Dinstytutksiki-ssb99o.pl/upload/Files/polish_translations_ost. pdf. Accessed 8 May 2019. Prodeus, Adriana. 2010. Themersonowie. Szkice biograficzne. Warszawa: Czuły Barbarzyńca Press. Rogoż, Michał. 2013. Polskie edycje dylogii o królu Maciusiu Janusza Korczaka. In Janusz Korczak. Pisarz, ed. Anna Maria Czernow, 11–26. Warszawa: SBP. Stambler, Moses. 1980. Janusz Korczak: His Perspectives on the Child. The Polish Review 25 (1): 3–33. Staniów, Bogumiła. 2006. Z uśmiechem przez wszystkie granice. Recepcja wydawnicza przekładów polskiej książki dla dzieci i młodzieży w latach 1945–1989. Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego. Sterling, Eric. 1998. Janusz Korczak: Scholar-Artist. The Polish Review 43 (1): 13–21. Sulkin, Edith. [1947] 2000. Continent in Limbo. San Jose/New York: Authors Choice Press. Szmydtowa, Zofia. 1925. Review of Korczak (1922) Król Maciuś Pierwszy. Bluszcz 9 (28 Feb): 203. Themerson Archive. Gaberbocchus Press. Online at: http://www.themersonarchive.com/page4med.htm. Accessed 12 Apr 2019. Tucker, Nicholas. 2005. Children’s Books in Translation; Why Is There a British Problem? In Outside In: Children’s Books in Translation, ed. Deborah Hallford and Edgardo Zaghini, 10–11. Chicago: Milet Publishing. Wincencjusz-Patyna, Anita. 2008. Stacja ilustracja. Polska ilustracja książkowa 1950–1980. Artystyczne kreacje i realizacje. Wrocław: Akademia Sztuk Pięknych im. Eugeniusza Gepperta, Instytut Historii Sztuki Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego. Zipes, Jack. 1986. Review of Korczak (1986) King Matt the First. The New York Times, July 20: 24. Online at: https://www.nytimes.com/1986/07/20/books/ children-s-books-066986.html. Accessed 22 Aug 2019.

4 Cultural Assimilation, Foreignization, Fairytalization and Hyperbolization

This chapter will initially focus on the strategies of cultural assimilation and foreignization, illustrating them with the first two American translations of Korczak’s classic tale—Matthew the Young King from 1945 and King Matt the First published in 1986. It will be demonstrated that in 1945 Edith and Sidney Sulkin created a version oriented towards American culture. Richard Lourie’s 1986 translation, on the other hand, is more source culture oriented, retaining some of the cultural references signalling Polishness, a strategy that to some extent exemplifies Venuti’s idea of foreignization. The chapter then focuses on the cultural specificity of the 1990 translation of Korczak’s novel, published in London under the title Little King Matty. Referring to Venuti’s (1995, 1998) concepts of domestication and foreignization, the chapter argues that its translator, Adam Czasak, prioritized the values of the target culture in his translation, though in a way that also problematizes the notion of domestication. The second part of the chapter illustrates the interrelated strategies of fairytalization, hyperbolization and sentimentalization. It is shown that in the first American translation the Sulkins included a number of motifs and expressions which may be associated with the fairy-tale convention, that they dramatized certain passages and that they wrote their own epilogue which refocuses the novel’s ending.

© The Author(s) 2020 M. Borodo, English Translations of Korczak’s Children’s Fiction, Palgrave Studies in Translating and Interpreting, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38117-2_4

107

108 

M. Borodo

“ Philip” or “Felek”? Cultural Specificity in Translation Certain differences between the first two American translations, Matthew the Young King and King Matt the First, are already noticeable in the titles. In 1986, Lourie is closer to the source text, rendering the name “Maciuś”, a diminutive form of the Polish “Maciej” [Matthias], as “Matt”. In 1945, the Sulkins use the full name “Matthew”, postmodified with “the young king” possibly to make up for the loss of the diminutive. “Matthew” is also the version of the name appearing throughout the 1945 translation and it is hard to say why the Sulkins did not use the English equivalent diminutive “Matt” or “Matty” instead. Nevertheless, there is some similarity between the versions by Lourie and the Sulkins here, as in both cases they use a name grounded in Anglo-American culture. With regard to the treatment of some other names, they decided on divergent translation strategies. The Sulkins culturally assimilate the young protagonists’ names, while Lourie usually retains such names in their original Polish forms. For example, one of the novel’s central characters bears the name “Felek” in the source text. The Sulkins rename him “Philip”, whereas Lourie retains the Polish name, as shown in Table 4.1. Table 4.1  The treatment of the name “Felek” in the translations by the Sulkins and Lourie Korczak (1922)

The Sulkins (1945)

Lourie (1986)

One day Matthew made up One day Matt got an Aż przyszło raz his mind about idea: when he Maciusiowi na myśl, że something. He was going learned how to jeśli nauczy się pisać, to learn how to read and write, he would napisze na kartce do write a letter to Felka – i może mu Felek write quickly so he would be able to write to Philip.a Felek, and maybe odpowie – i w ten Felek would write sposób będzie tak, Perhaps Philip would jakby z Felkiem answer and that would be back, and that would be almost like rozmawiał. (Korczak like talking to him. talking with Felek. [1922] 1992: 21) (Korczak 1945: 34) (Korczak 1986: 22) The bold type is always mine, italics are always in the original

a

4  Cultural Assimilation, Foreignization, Fairytalization… 

109

The Sulkins’ assimilative approach and Lourie’s foreignizing strategy are also noticeable in the case of other children’s names. The daughter of a captain in the fire department, “Irenka”, whom Matt1 meets in the royal gardens, and “Antek”, a pickpocket, are rendered as “Irene” and “Tony” by the Sulkins but as “Irenka” and “Antek” by Lourie. The Sulkins also use children’s names in the case of marginal characters who have no names in the source text, introducing “John”, “Mary” and “Jane” (Korczak 1945: 215–216). Then, when Matt runs away from the palace and goes to war disguised as an ordinary soldier, he adopts a new name, “Tomek”, which is retained by Lourie but changed into “Tommy” by the Sulkins, as shown in Table 4.2. Also note, in the second example in this table, how the names of Matt’s close friends “Staś” and “Helenka” are treated in translation. Lourie adopts a foreignizing strategy, retaining “Helenka”, a diminutive of the Polish “Helena”, and transliterating “Staś” as “Stash”. The Sulkins, on the other hand, use the domesticated names of “Helen”, “Matthew”, “Philip” and “Stan” (the full name “Stanislaus” is in fact its only occurrence in the whole translation and it is “Stan” that is used throughout). Surprisingly, in the first example in Table 4.2, Lourie and the Sulkins both omit the reference to a fairy-tale character, who originally appeared in Charles Perrault’s Contes de ma mère l’Oye (Korczak [1922] 1992: 448). The English equivalent of the original “Tomcio Paluch” would in fact be “Tom Thumb”. While the translators differ in their treatment of the names of most of the children, one can notice certain similarities with regard to other protagonists’ names. The name of the African princess Klu-Klu, one of Matt’s closest friends and allies, is rendered as Klu-Klu by the Sulkins and as Klu Klu by Lourie, and the name of her father, Bum-Drum, is retained untouched in both translations. Also, Lourie and the Sulkins gave a very similar treatment to Matt’s ancestors (using such names as Paul the Conqueror, Stephen the Wise), who are mentioned only sporadically in the context of discussing palace etiquette and historical events. Finally, it should  As this book discusses several English-language translations of Korczak’s novel in which different versions of the name appear, including Matt, Matthew and Matty, for reasons of consistency we will use only one version, the diminutive form Matt. 1

110 

M. Borodo

Table 4.2  The treatment of selected children’s names in the translations by the Sulkins and Lourie Korczak (1922)

The Sulkins (1945)

Lourie (1986)

I’m not the king any I am not a King any – Już nie jestem królem. more. Now I’m – wait a more, do you hear? Jestem – poczekaj, jak by second, what should my Wait, what will my się tu nazwać. Jestem name be? Now I’m name be? I know, Tomcio Paluch. Ja na Tomek. I’ll call you Felek ciebie – Felek, ty na mnie, ‘Tommy.’ I’ll call you and you’ll call me Philip and you call Tomek. (Korczak [1922] me Tommy. (Korczak Tomek. (Korczak 1986: 1992: 33) 38) 1945: 50–51) Because the captain lived The captain had Kapitan mieszkał daleko, far away, Matt moved into the więc Maciuś suggested that he and Palace, in fact, with zaproponował, żeby his family move into the his two children, zamieszkał w pałacu palace. The captain had Stanislaus and razem z rodziną. Kapitan a son, Stash, and a Helen. They studied miał syna Stasia i and played together, daughter, Helenka. So córeczkę Helenkę. Więc they all studied together Matthew, Stan and uczyli się razem i trochę and played together. Helen. And Philip razem bawili. Przychodził Sometimes Felek came i Felek na lekcję, ale dużo joined them sometimes, although to their classes, but he przepuszczał, bo się nie missed a lot of them. He he didn’t care much bardzo lubić uczyć. didn’t like school. for studying. (Korczak [1922] 1992: (Korczak 1986: 108) (Korczak 1945: 118) 82–83)

be noted that many other protagonists are not referred to by their proper names at all but identified by the roles they perform in Korczak’s fictional universe. This is the case with, for example, the journalist, the old doctor, the pilot, the old king, the sad king—in this respect Korczak’s novel bears a resemblance to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Le Petit Prince [The Little Prince]. Some of these characters are capitalized by the Sulkins, whereas Lourie retains the lower case from the source text. In the case of other cultural references in Lourie’s translation, it is more difficult to discern consistent patterns comparable to those noticeable in the treatment of children’s names. One can point to both foreignizing and assimilative translation solutions here. For example, Table 4.3 presents Lourie’s foreignizing decision in his treatment of the content of one of Felek’s letters to Matt. Also note the Sulkins’ decision to introduce spelling errors in the letter, with the aim of adding humour and emphasizing that the author is a young boy, unaccustomed to reading and writing.

4  Cultural Assimilation, Foreignization, Fairytalization… 

111

Table 4.3  The treatment of “kielbasa” and “vodka” in the translations by the Sulkins and Lourie Korczak (1922)

The Sulkins (1945)

Lourie (1986)

I’m running away from home I’m running away Dziś albo jutro w nocy tonight or tomorrow night. uciekam z domu. Byłem from home. The I was at the railroad soljers down at the na kolei. Żołnierze station. The soldiers railrod stashun sed obiecali mnie wziąć ze promised to take me with they would take me sobą. Jeśli wasza them. If Your Royal with them. King, if królewska mość chce Highness wishes to give me mi dać jakieś polecenie, you have a message any orders, I will be waiting for me I’ll be there czekam o godzinie at seven o’clock. The best at seven. I could use siódmej. Przydałaby mi dried kielbasa, a canteen a bottle of wine się na drogę kiełbasa, full of vodka, and a little and sum tobaco for najlepiej suszona, tobacco would come in the soljers. And sum flaszka wódki i trochę handy for the road. sausage for myself. tytoniu. (Korczak (Korczak 1986: 36–37) (Korczak 1945: 49) [1922] 1992: 32)

Instead of translating the Polish word as “sausage”, Lourie uses “kielbasa”, a borrowing rooted in Polish culture, but also a commonplace word in American English in the 1980s, not only among the Polish community in the USA. Thus, for a book translated into American English in 1986, the use of “kielbasa” would have introduced a Polish cultural element that nonetheless would have been widely recognizable and understood. The borrowing is used several times by Lourie and does not appear in the translation by the Sulkins. Lourie also retains the original reference to “vodka”, replaced by the Sulkins with “a bottle of wine”. In a similar vein, Lourie translates another Polish food item, “kasza” as “kasha” (Korczak 1986: 90), an alternative term for “buckwheat” which is used in English, but is nevertheless associated with Eastern Europe and Russia. Such lexical choices as “kielbasa”, “vodka”, “kasha”, “Stash”, “Tomek” and “Felek” as opposed to “wine”, “sausage” “buckwheat”, “Stan”, “Tommy” and “Philip” make Lourie’s translation more source-culture oriented in comparison with the translation by the Sulkins.2  A similar tendency is found in the German translations of Król Maciuś Pierwszy. The first of them, published in 1970, is a culturally assimilated text which replaces “Maciuś” with “Hans”. The second translation, from 1978, is a foreignized text, retaining the original name “Maciuś” with the diacritic (Fimiak-Chwiłkowska 2017: 100). 2

112 

M. Borodo

Lourie does not always make use of foreignization, however. In several other cases, he in fact Americanizes cultural references to Polish customs. Thus “śmigus”, better known in Poland as “Śmigus-Dyngus”, or “Wet Monday”,3 is replaced with a cultural reference more easily recognizable to the American reader—“Halloween” (Korczak 1986: 248). Then, a reference to “tłusty czwartek”, that is the last Thursday before Lent, known as “Fat Thursday”, is replaced with “Mardi Gras” (ibid.) and again “Halloween” (ibid.: 252), a quintessentially Anglo-American celebration (though this departs totally from calendar fidelity). This makes the notions of domestication and foreignization problematic, showing that translators often create hybrid texts which may gravitate to one of the poles of the domestication/foreignization continuum, but clear-cut examples of the adoption of only one of these strategies are more difficult to find. Even a deeply domesticated translation may have some features of Venuti’s foreignization, an argument that we will pursue in the following section.

“ Lads”, “Mates” and “Chaps”: Translation and Cultural Assimilation Adam Czasak’s Little King Matty is an example of a domesticated translation, which reads like a text originally written in English. Czasak adapts child protagonists’ names for the English reader, rendering Korczak’s “Maciuś”, “Felek”, “Staś”, “Helenka”, “Tomek” and “Antek” as “Matty”, “Feldo”, “Stan”, “Elly”, “Tommy” and “Andy”, respectively. Noteworthy patterns can also be observed with regard to the treatment of culture-­ specific items related to customs, traditions and food items. For example, Czasak replaces “śmigus” with “Easter-eggs”, certainly a more recognizable tradition in England. On several occasions, he omits references to vodka, replacing it with whisky, and he replaces the characteristically Polish “tłusty czwartek”, or Fat Thursday, with the English Pancake Tuesday. However, his 1990 translation of Korczak’s novel was not only  A traditional celebration taking place on Easter Monday, involving dousing others, especially young women, with water. 3

4  Cultural Assimilation, Foreignization, Fairytalization… 

113

linguistically and culturally assimilated in the more obvious sense of adapting child protagonists’ names and culture-specific items but, more interestingly, in its introduction of a wide array of lexical items, such as nouns, adjectives, adverbs, verbs, idioms, sayings and interjections, from British English. To better illustrate Czasak’s strategy, his 1990 English translation will be compared with Lourie’s 1986 American version. The translation by Czasak contains numerous personal references which may be primarily associated with England, such as the colloquial “lads”, “mates” or “chaps”. In Table 4.4 these English forms are compared with the same reference points in Lourie’s translation. In the first example, during a council meeting in the palace, one of the ministers addresses the other participants as “gentlemen” in the American version, a more formal term than the affectionate “moi kochani” in the Polish source text. In the corresponding line in Czasak, the same minister uses the old-fashioned informal British form of address “old chaps”. Its most common equivalents in American English might be “fellows” or Table 4.4  Examples of selected references to people in Czasak’s translation Korczak (1922)

Czasak (1990)

Lourie (1986)

A jak będzie wojna, moi kochani, ręczę wam, że z tego pałacu nic nie zostanie […]. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 12) Bądź no ostrożny, synek. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 38) – Ej, kamrat, a słyszałeś już nowinę? – Jaką? – pyta się Felek. (Korczak [1922] 1992, 234) Słuchajcie, chłopcy, czy wy naprawdę myślicie wojować? (Korczak [1922] 1992: 40) Już wy się nie bójcie: potrafię się obronić. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 152)

And as soon as war breaks out, old chaps, this palace won’t last a minute […]. (Korczak 1990: 15) Better watch it, mate. (Korczak 1990: 42) “Hey, mate, heard the news, have you?” “What news?” Feldo asked. (Korczak 1990: 241) Listen ‘ere, lads, you’re not serious about going to war, are you? (Korczak 1990: 45) Don’t worry, lads. I know how to defend myself. (Korczak 1990: 158)

And if there’s a war, gentlemen, I assure you that nothing will be left of this palace […]. (Korczak 1986: 9) Better be careful, sonny. (Korczak 1986: 45) “You heard the news?” “No, what?” asked Felek. (Korczak 1986: 311) Listen, are you boys really thinking of fighting in the war? (Korczak 1986: 48) Don’t worry, I can take care of myself. (Korczak 1986: 202)

114 

M. Borodo

“guys”, and the use of this phrase “by Britons seems affected to most Americans” (Schur 2001: 59). The next two examples in the table— “Better watch it, mate” and “Hey, mate, heard the news, have you?”— contain the informal interjection “mate”, the most typical common noun used as a vocative in British English according to John Algeo (2006: 210). Americans would instead use “bro”, “buddy”, “dude”, “guys”, “folks” or “man” (ibid.). The final two examples, on the other hand, contain the word “lad”, which does appear in American in the sense of a “boy” or a “youth”, but is nevertheless used more often in British English (Schur 2001: 182). “Listen ‘ere, lads”, said by one of the soldiers to Matt and his friend Feldo travelling to the front, and “Don’t worry, lads. I know how to defend myself ”, uttered by Matt to his friends while throwing snowballs in the royal park, both sound characteristically English. It may also be noted that some of the excerpts in the table contain tag questions (“going to war, are you?”, “heard the news, have you?”), which seem to be more frequent in British than in American English,4 and an example of h-dropping (“Listen ‘ere, lads”). The colloquial references to “lads”, “mates” or “chaps”, combined with the use of tag questions and h-­ dropping, reinforce the informal and conversational style of Czasak’s text. Other instances of typically British English expressions which appear in Czasak’s translation are “jolly”, “brilliant” and “smashing” (Table 4.5). Synonymous with “excellent”, the informal and slightly old-fashioned “smashing”, a “colloquialism of the 1950s [which] was revived, often with ironic overtones, after 2000” (Thorne 2007: 403), is used by Czasak to refer to Matt’s experience of playing with other children in the garden, while it does not appear in the translation by Lourie. Thus, King Matt has “a smashing time” in Czasak’s translation, but he has “a wonderful time” in Lourie’s American version. “Smashing” might have been a little passé in 1990, although the translation was prepared by Czasak already around 1980 (telephone conversation, 8 July 2019). It is also possible that the translator may intentionally have used slightly old-fashioned  In their large-scale corpus study of British and American English, Gunnel Tottie and Sebastian Hoffmann (2006: 306) argue that “there are nine times as many tag questions in British English as in similar types of American English”, especially in colloquial British English. 4

4  Cultural Assimilation, Foreignization, Fairytalization… 

115

Table 4.5  English adjectives and adverbs in Czasak’s translation: smashing, jolly and brilliant Korczak (1922)

Czasak (1990)

Król Maciuś bawił się doskonale. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 15) Dzielnie się spisaliście, moi panowie. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 67) A to niespodzianka. Doskonale! (Korczak [1922] 1992: 67) Gazeta przyznawała, że jeszcze nie ma wielkiego porządku […]. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 209)

And what a smashing King Matt had a wonderful time. time Matty had! (Korczak 1986: 14) (Korczak 1990: 18) Jolly good work! You acquitted yourselves (Korczak 1990: 72) valiantly, gentlemen. (Korczak 1986: 84) What a surprise! Well, how about Wonderful! (Korczak that! Brilliant, eh? 1986: 85) (Korczak 1990: 73) The article admitted that The paper admitted things were far from that it hadn’t been running smoothly […]. a brilliant start […]. (Korczak 1986: 277) (Korczak 1990: 217)

Lourie (1986)

l­anguage to reflect the fact that Korczak’s text was written many years before this translation and because the world Korczak describes in the book is a bygone world. The old-fashioned “jolly”, regarded by Algeo (2006: 139) as a distinctively British adverb, appears in Czasak’s translation when King Matt expresses his approval of the military, addressing them with the words “Jolly good work!” In Czasak, the reader will also encounter “brilliant”, a word which, “in all of its uses, is more frequent in British English than in American” (Algeo 2006: 208). Consequently, when Matt mentions the battle that will take place on the following day, the overjoyed officers use different words in the British (“Brilliant, eh?”) and American (“Wonderful!”) versions. In a similar vein, when Lourie’s translation observes that “things were far from running smoothly”, referring to one of Matt’s controversial reforms, the British text notes that “it hadn’t been a brilliant start”. The word “brilliant” does not appear at all in Lourie’s translation. Further examples of British English adjectives used by Czasak include “mingy”, “peckish” and “barmy”, which have been presented in Table 4.6. The portmanteau adjective “mingy” is “a term of childish criticism or abuse which is a blend of ‘mean’ and ‘stingy’ with which it rhymes” (Thorne 2007: 292). It appears in Czasak’s translation when Matt, having

116 

M. Borodo

Table 4.6  Distinctively English adjectives in Czasak’s translation: mingy, peckish and barmy Korczak (1922)

Czasak (1990)

Bardzo skąpi są wasi królowie. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 245) „Skąpy czy co?” – pomyślał Maciuś. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 91) Kiedy już posłowie się zmęczyli i byli głodni, Felek oddał pod głosowanie projekt. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 202) […] zawsze musieli być cicho. A teraz zupełnie jak wariaci… (Korczak [1922] 1992: 220)

What mingy kings! (Korczak 1990: 254)

– To niepotrzebne zupełnie – odpowiedział Maciuś. – Godzina jest późna, szkoda czasu: lepiej spać się położyć. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 248)

Lourie (1986)

Your kings are awfully stingy. (Korczak 1986: 327) Is he stingy or what? “Must be a bit mingy thought Matty. him,” Matty thought. (Korczak 1986: 118) (Korczak 1990: 99) When the delegates When everyone had were tired and hungry, finished complaining Felek put the proposal and started feeling a to a vote. (Korczak bit peckish, Feldo decided to call a vote. 1986: 269) (Korczak 1990: 211) So they’ve always had They’ve had to be quiet and obedient all their to be quiet. That’s lives. And so now why they’ve gone a they’re running wild. bit barmy now… (Korczak 1986: 292) (Korczak 1990: 228) “You must be barmy!” “There’s no need for that,” answered Matt. Matty answered. “It’s late now, why “Look how late it is, waste time? Better we it’s time we went to all get some sleep.” bed.” (Korczak 1990: (Korczak 1986: 330) 256)

lost the war with three other kings and being placed in a cell where he is not fed particularly well, observes in a mocking tone, “What mingy kings!” Similarly, when earlier on Matt is visiting one of the three kings for the first time he is surprised at the modesty of the reception and thinks to himself “Must be a bit mingy him”. It may be noted that, syntactically, the personal pronoun at the end sounds very English (in the sense of a UK variety) here, and that such sentences with emphatic syntactic constructions and omitting the subject pronoun, which abound in the translation by Czasak, contribute to the more informal style of the text. The adjective “peckish”, on the other hand, which means “hungry”, “wanting a snack” or “hankering after a little something to fill the void” (Schur 2001: 242), refers to the members of the children’s parliament, which was established by Matt. After a turbulent committee session

4  Cultural Assimilation, Foreignization, Fairytalization… 

117

devoted to educational reform, they become “hungry” in Lourie’s translation but “a bit peckish” in Czasak’s version. A typically British English expression, “barmy” relates to someone behaving in a very silly way, strangely or someone who is crazy (Schur 2001: 21). The adjective is used to refer to the unruly footmen who are “running wild” in Lourie, but have “gone a bit barmy” in Czasak. The word also appears during a trial by court-martial when the irritated Matt replies to one of the judge’s questions, “You must be barmy.” Czasak creatively transforms this passage. After all, Korczak’s original sentence, “To niepotrzebne zupełnie”, denotes “That is completely unnecessary”. However, using such forms as “You must be barmy!”, “feeling a bit peckish” and “Must be a bit mingy him”, the translator may be credited with breathing new life into Korczak’s classic, using lively and colloquial language as it was spoken in Britain. Czasak’s readers will also encounter such expressions as “righto”, “hey-­ presto”, “blimey” and “fancy that!” (Table 4.7). For example, Korczak’s “Dobrze, niech będzie wojna”, which could be rendered as “All right, let there be war”, was translated by Czasak as “Righto, let’s have war”, with “righto” being classified as a characteristically British interjection by Algeo (2006: 212). The next two examples in Table 4.7 contain the interjections “blimey” and “hey-presto”, referred to by Algeo as typically British forms (2006: 207, 209–210). “Blimey” appears in the passage describing a fight during a session of the children’s parliament and “hey-­ presto” is used in the excerpt describing Matt’s African friend, Klu-Klu, and her excursions into the forests and swamps. These two excerpts are also noteworthy for other reasons. They contain several other colloquial and typically English forms, such as the determiner “[a] load of ”, the non-standard use of “them” as a determiner in “them boys”, the qualifier “dead” in “dead far” and the English informal “slog”, denoting a hard effort. The final example in the table in turn contains the interjection “fancy that!” Used to express surprise in a similar way to “Wow!” or “Imagine that!”, this form may be associated with British rather than American English, and it is introduced several times in Czasak’s translation. In this example, “Fancy that!” appears in the village children’s conversations about the African princess Klu-Klu. At first, the children are afraid of her,

118 

M. Borodo

Table 4.7  Examples of “righto”, “hey-presto”, “blimey” and “fancy that!” in Czasak’s translation Korczak (1922)

Czasak (1990)

Lourie (1986)

Righto, let’s have war “Fine, let there be war” Dobrze, niech będzie […]. (Korczak 1990: 14) […]. (Korczak 1986: 7) wojna […]. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 11) And those boys, just look But blimey! They were Jak oni się biją! I to how they fought. The hopeless at it. chłopcy. Niezdary, clumsy ninnies, the Should’ve seen them niedołęgi, fujary. Biją boobs. They had already się już dziesięć minut, a boys. Load of pansies. been fighting for ten Ten minutes’ hard slog nikt nie zwyciężył. minutes, and nobody and still no winner. (Korczak [1922] 1992: had won yet. (Korczak (Korczak 1990: 203) 193) 1986: 256) Daleko może, ale nie dla Dead far? – maybe, but That might be far for some people, but not for not for Klu-Klu. All Klu-Klu. Zakradnie się Klu Klu. She broke into she’d do is creep into do kredensu, odłamie the storeroom, grabbed the pantry, take a bit pajdę chleba i kawał a hunk of bread and of bread and cheese sera, już jej nie ma. cheese, and off she and hey-presto! off (Korczak [1922] 1992: went. (Korczak 1986: she’d go. (Korczak 181) 239) 1990: 191) She may be a girl, but she Fancy that! Her just a Chociaż dziewucha, a outdoes all the boys. girl and better than us najpierwsza między Good God, can you lot! Wow, if they’re all chłopakami. Mój Boże, imagine what African like that, their lads jacy to muszą u nich boys are like? (Korczak must be brilliant! być chłopcy. (Korczak 1986: 238) (Korczak 1990: 190) [1922] 1992: 180)

though later they warm to her, in a brief passage filled with characteristically British English expressions: “Fancy that! Her just a girl and better than us lot!” The passage ends with a comment on African boys, that is, “their lads must be brilliant!” which also sounds distinctively English. Czasak’s translation culturally assimilated or, in Venutian terms, domesticated Korczak’s tale not only in the sense of adapting culture-­ specific items and protagonists’ names (see Matty, Stan, Elly, Tommy, Andy, whisky, Pancake Tuesday) but also in terms of introducing a number of lexical items characteristic of the English language as it is (or at least was) spoken in Britain. Some of the speech patterns he uses may also be associated with a particular social demographic, that of the lower middle class and working class and he uses such patterns for narration as well

4  Cultural Assimilation, Foreignization, Fairytalization… 

119

as for the language of children. Consider the translator’s use of such expressions as “lads”, “mates”, “mingy”, “barmy”, “hey-presto”, “righto” and “blimey” or the informal phonetic and grammatical patterns, such as h-dropping (“Listen ‘ere lads”), tag questions (“Hey, mate, heard the news, have you?”) and syntactic patterns used for adding emphasis and focusing information in a sentence (“Must be a bit mingy him”). This makes the comparison of Czasak and Lourie in terms of domestication and foreignization slightly more complex. On the one hand, Czasak’s is a domesticated translation: it reads fluently, it does not register the cultural and linguistic difference and it does reduce the foreign text to target-­ language cultural values. However, Czasak’s translation also activates a non-dominant, lower status, “marginal discourse”. In his review of Venuti’s The Translator’s Invisibility, Anthony Pym ([1996] 2010: 175) comments on Venuti’s recommendation to use heterogeneous and non-­ standard language which would show a wide diversity of English varieties and registers, foregrounding the marginal. Pym observes: It could blossom into a critique of the role played by translations in the centering or standardizing of languages, since there is indeed the peculiar assumed convention that our target language should be as neutral as possible. This is close to home: as an Australian I once rendered half a Spanish novel into Australian English (full of “mates” and “chooks”) but abandoned the project because no one took it seriously. Similarly, when I translate children’s stories into English, most of the expressions that come to me from my own regional childhood are automatically self-censored because I have no idea what kind of English my target readers will be speaking. My target language is nowhere, and this worries me. (Ibid.)

Czasak’s 1990 translation may be a noteworthy example of a text largely unaffected by the standardizing role played by translation conventions favouring neutral and “proper” linguistic forms over non-standard, marginal, regional and heterogeneous language varieties, which are either “not taken seriously” or “self-censored”. With regard to the standardizing role played by translations, Lathey (2016: 77) points to a tendency in the UK, especially in the first half of the twentieth century, though also later, “to choose a higher social register in translation than that used in the source text”. She illustrates this with the British translation of Erich

120 

M. Borodo

Kästner’s classic Emil und die Detektive, in which the “stylized Berlin street slang” was transformed by Margaret Goldsmith, in accordance with the literary and socio-cultural conventions of the day, into “the dialogue of the English boarding-school story” (ibid.: 76). As a result, the original sociolect of the lower middle class was replaced with that of the upper middle class. In some cases, Czasak did the opposite: he chose words and constructions belonging to a lower social register than that used in the source text, replacing Korczak’s relatively simple and colloquial language with lower-middle-class and working-class English. It should be noted that this does not relate to some other cases. For example, “jolly”, “brilliant” and “smashing” are not typically used by lower-­ middle-­ class or working-class speakers, with “jolly” being typically middle/upper middle class. This mixing of sociolects could perhaps even occasionally be confusing for British readers if uttered by the same characters. However, due to its distinctive features, Czasak’s translation clearly stands out among the English-language translations of Korczak, not only because it was produced in British English. The informal style of Czasak’s translation is not simply a matter of the intrinsic qualities of the target language and cannot be explained with exclusive reference to the style of the source-text author, but is rather the result of the translator’s choices and his artistic vision. This topic will be re-examined in Chap. 6.

“ The Little Tailor” and the Fairytalization Approach Confronted with the same source text in the USA of the 1940s, the Sulkins had a different artistic vision, metonymically activating and privileging different reserves of meaning from Korczak’s pre-war novel to those selected by Czasak. A distinctive pattern noticeable in their 1945 translation is the introduction and accentuation of expressions and motifs which may be associated with the fairy-tale convention. To use the English neologism, this strategy can be referred to as the fairytalization approach (see Chap. 2 for a discussion). This may be illustrated with the description of a tailor-soldier travelling with Matt and Felek (renamed as “Philip” by the Sulkins) to the front. Having nothing else to do on the

4  Cultural Assimilation, Foreignization, Fairytalization… 

121

Table 4.8 Exploiting the fairy-tale convention: the description of the tailor-soldier Korczak (1922)

The Sulkins (1945)

Lourie (1986)

Sprawdzano odzież – i tak się jakoś stało, że zbywało coś temu i tamtemu, a że w wagonie był jeden żołnierz-krawiec, a zamiłowany w swym zawodzie, więc z nudów wziął się chętnie do uszycia dla ochotników żołnierskiego uniformu. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 39–40)

It happened that there was a little tailor in the car and he was very sad because he had no tailoring to do. One of the soldiers found some cloth under a heap of rags and the little tailor set to work on it happily. When he had finished he held up two soldier uniforms for Philip and Matthew. (Korczak 1945: 58–59)

There was a uniform check, and it turned out that some of the soldiers lacked proper uniforms, but it also turned out that there was one soldier in their car who was a tailor and loved to work. The tailor was bored, and so he was glad to make army uniforms for the volunteers. (Korczak 1986: 48)

train, the tailor-solider starts sewing uniforms for others in the train car (Table 4.8). The Sulkins adjust this passage to the fairy-tale convention through several of their vocabulary choices. Whereas the source text and Lourie’s translation both start in a matter-of-fact way, informing the reader that there was an inspection of clothes (rendered “there was a uniform check” by Lourie), the translation by the Sulkins begins with a sentence characteristic of a fairy tale. The opening “It happened that there was a little tailor…” might be evocative of Beatrix Potter’s The Tailor of Gloucester, for instance. The clothing material also appears somewhat miraculously, “found under a heap of rags” by one of the soldiers, rather than gathered from the soldiers who had an excess of apparel, as in the original. The latter, by the way, appears to have been mistranslated by Lourie, who rendered “zbywało coś temu i tamtemu” as “some of the soldiers lacked proper uniforms”, whereas the original states that some soldiers in fact had more items of clothing than they needed and could spare some. In the Sulkins’ translation, it is also repeated that the tailor was “little”, although this information is absent from the source text, and, unlike in the original, it states that he was “very sad” rather than “bored” and that he set to work “happily”. As noted in Chap. 2, the addition of diminutives and words expressing affection and endearment, such as “little”,

122 

M. Borodo

“poor” or “dear”, amplifies the emotional tone of a text and may have a sentimentalizing and infantilizing effect on the translation. Another example of the Sulkins occasionally accentuating the fairy-­ tale character of the novel is their frequent usage of the word “land” in passages where it does not appear in the source text, as shown in Table 4.9. In the first example in Table  4.9, the Sulkins introduce the word “land”, although it does not appear in the source text. The second ­example Table 4.9  The use of the word “land” in the Sulkins’ translation Korczak (1922)

The Sulkins (1945)

Lourie (1986)

For if the King died, they […] for there could be trouble or even war if said, war and the king died. (Korczak misfortune would 1986: 8) come to the land. (Korczak 1945: 16) Upon the good doctor’s The ministers took his Ministrowie posłuchali advice. They advice Royal rady, wezwali sławnych summoned famous automobiles were doktorów na naradę, dispatched to bring the doctors to come jak uratować króla. consult on how to save most famous doctors Wysłali na miasto the king and sent all in the land to save the wszystkie królewskie the royal automobiles samochody […] (Korczak King’s life. (Korczak to the city to fetch 1945: 16) [1922] 1992: 11) them. (Korczak 1986: 8) “Oh, no,” said the king. “Oh, no,” the King – O nie – powiedział “If I gave all this wealth replied. “If I were to król – gdybym to chciał away to the citizens of divide this among all rozdać między my country, they’d the people of my land wszystkich obywateli each only get a few no one would receive mego państwa, na copper coins.” (Korczak more than a single każdego przypadłby 1986: 118) small coin.” (Korczak jeden zaledwie 1945: 128–9) pieniążek. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 91–92) Children only think Każde dziecko myśli tylko Each child has his about schoolwork and homework to think o swoich zajęciach games, but I don’t even about and his games. szkolnych i o swoich have time to study or But I cannot take time zabawkach, a ja nawet play, because I have to out for my lessons, let nie mam czasu się uczyć think about all the alone games. I must ani bawić, bo muszę care for all the children children in my country. myśleć o wszystkich (Korczak 1986: 173) in the land. (Korczak dzieciach mojego 1945: 170) państwa. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 132) […] bo może być wojna i nieszczęście, jeżeli król umrze. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 11)

4  Cultural Assimilation, Foreignization, Fairytalization… 

123

mentions “miasto” [the city], which is omitted by the Sulkins, who insert the word “land” in this sentence. The third and fourth examples both make reference to “państwo” [state], translated as “country” by Lourie, but again rendered as “land” by the Sulkins. The Sulkins could have followed the source text, or used, similar to Lourie, such geographically and politically grounded categories as “country”, “city” and “citizens”, but they did not. Their frequent use of the word “land” partly refocuses the original story. Korczak’s fictional universe becomes more of a fantasy land and less of a concrete, political and geographical entity anchored in the real world and partly modelled on the writer’s homeland in Central Eastern Europe. Yet another passage accentuating the fairy-tale nature of Korczak’s story appears at the beginning of the novel and describes a procession at the funeral of Matt’s father. Table 4.10 shows how differently this description is handled by Lourie and the Sulkins. In their translation, the Sulkins introduce certain expressions that could be associated with a fairy tale. For example, the original “jechały armaty” [cannon went by] is replaced with the extended description of anthropomorphized cannon, that is, “then came the big guns with their Table 4.10  The Sulkins’ use of fairy-tale convention: the description of king’s funeral Korczak (1922)

The Sulkins (1945)

Lourie (1986)

The King’s funeral was a long There was a great Pogrzeb króla odbył procession at the and very sad procession. All się z wielką paradą. king’s funeral. Black along the route the street Latarnie owinięte crepe was wound lamps were draped in black były czarną krepą. around the crepe; bells tolled Wszystkie dzwony streetlights and all throughout the land. A band biły. Orkiestra grała the bells were rung. came first playing the marsza żałobnego. The band played a funeral march; then came Jechały armaty, szło funeral march. the big guns with their long wojsko. Kwiaty Cannons and soldiers noses pointed toward the musiały specjalnie went by. Special ground, and then the przywozić pociągi z trains brought in soldiers with sad eyes. From najcieplejszych flowers from the distant tropical countries krajów. Wszyscy byli warmer countries. came special trains laden bardzo smutni. Everyone was sad. with many flowers. (Korczak (Korczak [1922] (Korczak 1986: 11) 1945: 21) 1992: 13)

124 

M. Borodo

long noses pointed toward the ground”. The 1945 translation also paints a more suggestive picture of the soldiers, who marched “with sad eyes”; it adds that the bells tolled “throughout the land” and specifies that the flowers arrived, not from “the warmest countries”, but from “distant tropical countries”, which adds a sense of adventure and wonder to the text. The Sulkins also transform this passage in other ways, clarifying certain spatial and temporal relations. While in the source text “the band played a funeral march. Cannon went by, soldiers marched”, the translation makes plain through adverbs of time that the “band came first”, “then came the big guns” and “then the soldiers”. It is interesting to see how the final sentence, “wszyscy byli bardzo smutni” [everyone was very sad], has been treated. On the one hand, it does not have an exact sentence-­rank equivalent. On the other, the references to sadness are added throughout the passage where they do not appear in the source text. Thus the king’s funeral was a “very sad” procession—the soldiers went by “with sad eyes” preceded by “the big guns with their long noses pointed toward the ground”, another reference contributing to the overwhelming sadness of this scene. To summarize, in this free and structurally reorganized translation, the slightly dry original passage, characterized by the use of simple syntax, is transformed by the Sulkins into a more syntactically complex and suggestive description, potentially more appealing to readers’ imagination. Other modifications accentuating the fairy-tale character of Korczak’s novel are discussed next.

Hyperbolization and the Addition of Physical Terms As observed by Knowles and Malmkjær (1996: 163), in fairy tales protagonists are often portrayed with tangible, physical traits and, as noted in Chap. 2, one of the characteristic features of a fairy tale may be hyperbolization, that is, the deliberately exaggerated use of language which creatively embellishes and elaborates the source text, builds tension and heightens suspense and unpredictability. Many such examples appear in the translation by the Sulkins, who, using vivid detail and predominantly

4  Cultural Assimilation, Foreignization, Fairytalization… 

125

physical language of characterization, expand a number of excerpts into more dramatic and entertaining passages of their own creation. This may be illustrated with the description provided in Table 4.11, in which Matt stamps his foot to emphasize his point and get what he wants from the prime minister. While Lourie’s translation is a close rendition of the original excerpt, the Sulkins add detail absent from the source text, reinforcing Matt’s words with descriptions of facial expressions and movements, creating a more evocative image of the young king. Matt first “begins to frown”, then he “stares hard”, “takes a deep breath” and “raises his right foot” to finally “stamp his foot” with “a loud bang”, with his “heart beating rapidly” and “his forehead wrinkled”. In Lourie, Matt simply “stamps his Table 4.11  Hyperbolization and physical terms in the Sulkins’ translation: Matt stamping his foot Korczak (1922)

The Sulkins (1945)

Lourie (1986)

Then Matt Matthew began to frown. What Przypomniał sobie remembered how could he do? At that instant he Maciuś, jak raz once that same remembered his father. Once the ojcu ten sam minister had same Minister had started to minister tak samo started to explain explain something to his father in zaczął coś something to his the same way and the old King tłumaczyć; wtedy father in the very had stamped his foot and król tupnął nogą i same way. The declared: “I demand this powiedział: king had stamped irrevocably!” And it was done. – Ja tego żądam his foot and said, Matthew stared hard at the nieodwołalnie. “That is my Minister so he would see that this Więc i Maciuś tak absolute wish.” was a real King; then he took a samo tupnął nogą And so Matt deep breath and raised his right i bardzo głośno stamped his foot foot. Just as the Minister opened powiedział: just like his father his mouth to speak, Matthew – Panie ministrze, used to, and said stamped his foot on the floor wiedz, że ja tego very loudly: “Mr. with a loud bang. His heart beat żądam Prime Minister, rapidly as he said, “Mr. Minister, nieodwołalnie. that is my absolute let me inform you that I, King Prezes ministrów wish.” spojrzał zdziwiony Matthew the First, demand this The Prime Minister ir-re-voc-ably!” He kept his na Maciusia […]. looked at Matt in forehead wrinkled very sternly. (Korczak [1922] surprise […]. The Prime Minister gasped and 1992: 17) stared at Matthew in amazement. (Korczak 1986: 16) (Korczak 1945: 28)

126 

M. Borodo

Table 4.12  Hyperbolization and physical terms in the Sulkins’ translation: learning to whistle Korczak (1922)

The Sulkins (1945)

Lourie (1986)

It’s not easy to learn to Wcale niełatwo nauczyć It was not as simple as he whistle if there’s no się gwizdać, jeśli nie ma thought. But Matthew one to show you had a strong will. He nikogo, kto by pokazał. how. But Matt had a blew through his lips Ale Maciuś miał silną strong will and he until his whole face wolę, więc się nauczył. worked at it. turned purple. And then I gwizdnął. He started whistling. Gwizdnął tylko na próbę, he took a deep breath One day, Matt whistled and tried again and żeby się przekonać, czy to test out his ability again. Suddenly his heart umie. I jakież było jego and see if he really leaped as a long low zdumienie, gdy w could. How whistling sound came chwilę później stanął astonished he was from his lips. And how przed nim wyciągnięty when, a moment great was his surprise jak struna – Felek we later, Felek was when a moment later he własnej osobie. standing in front of saw Philip in person (Korczak [1922] 1992: him, stiff as a ramrod. standing before him! 23) (Korczak 1986: 24) (Korczak 1945: 37)

foot” and speaks “very loudly”—an exact rendition of the original passage. The Sulkins also partly modify the reaction of the minister, who “looks at Matt in surprise” in the source text, but “opens his mouth to speak” and “gasps and stares in amazement” in the 1945 translation. Another example illustrating the same tendency (Table  4.12) is the description of Matt learning to whistle, an ability he needs to master in order to be able to communicate with his new friend. The Polish source text simply says “I gwizdnął”, that is, “And he whistled”. Lourie, following the original, describes learning how to whistle simply and straightforwardly, that is, “He started whistling”. The Sulkins, however, add more detail, creating a more evocative image. Thus Matt “blows through his lips until his whole face turns purple”, then “takes a deep breath”, repeats this “again and again” until “a long low whistling sound comes from his lips”, an example of a more creative and entertaining, child-oriented translation. In such extended descriptions of Matt stamping his foot or learning to whistle, the Sulkins use more vivid detail and physical language, reinforcing protagonists’ actions and mental states. Hyperbolization of protagonists’ physical activities is one of the distinguishing features of the 1945 translation. Running rather than walking,

4  Cultural Assimilation, Foreignization, Fairytalization… 

127

Table 4.13  The addition of dynamic terms to describe characters in the Sulkins’ translation Korczak (1922)

The Sulkins (1945)

Lourie (1986)

And so the ministers The Ministers ate and began eating and drank and patted their drinking and even stomachs with began to grow merry. satisfaction, while in the Meanwhile, the Council Chamber the doctors had gathered learned doctors held a in the hall. (Korczak consultation. (Korczak 1986: 8) 1945: 18) I ought to see what’s “Trzeba zobaczyć, co się “I’d better see what’s going on, thought going on down there,” tam dzieje” – pomyślał Matt. He rose from his he said to himself, and Maciuś, wstał z łóżka, leaping out of bed he ran bed, dressed quickly, prędko się ubrał i and went out to the down the hall. (Korczak wyszedł na korytarz. corridor. (Korczak 1945: 18) (Korczak [1922] 1992: 1986: 9) 12) […] the master of […] mistrz ceremonii od […] the Master of ceremonies realized at Ceremonies jumped. He razu zrozumiał, że once that Matt already saw that Matthew knew Maciuś wie już o knew about everything. wszystkim. everything. – Minister wojny jest na “The Minister of War is at “The Minister of War is a meeting,” he replied. posiedzeniu. in a meeting.” “Then I should be at the – To i ja będę na “Then I will attend that meeting, too,” King posiedzeniu – odparł Matthew retorted and he meeting, too,” król Maciuś i skierował responded King Matt, ran toward the Council swe kroki w stronę sali and started to leave Hall. (Korczak 1945: 42) sesjonalnej. (Korczak the room. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 26) 1986: 29)

Więc ministrowie tak sobie jedzą i piją, i już im nawet zrobiło się wesoło; a w sali tymczasem zebrali się doktorzy. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 11)

patting their stomachs, wrinkling foreheads, chewing pencils, screwing up their noses, scratching and sneezing, Korczak’s fictional characters are set in motion by the Sulkins and described in more dynamic and expressive terms. This tendency is further illustrated with the examples in Table 4.13. While in Lourie’s translation the ministers ate and drank and “began to grow merry”, the Sulkins rephrase this with “[they] patted their stomachs with satisfaction”, expressing the ministers’ state of mind with physical gestures. Then, when Matt is awoken by the noises from the night council of ministers and decides to check what is going on, his m ­ ovements

128 

M. Borodo

Table 4.14  References to characters’ facial expressions in the Sulkins’ translation Korczak (1922)

The Sulkins (1945)

When the door had been locked Drzwi ministrowie securely so that no one would zamknęli na klucz, disturb them, they switched on żeby nikt nie the lamps. For a long time they przeszkadzał – sat in silence chewing the tips zapalili lampy of their pencils; for not one of elektryczne – i nic them had anything to say. nie mówili. (Korczak 1945: 14) (Korczak [1922] 1992: 9) “Look at the boy playing – Patrzcie, chłopak hop-scotch with girls!” They bawi się z screwed up their noses and dziewczynkami! laughed. (Korczak 1945: 26) I zaczęli się śmiać. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 16) But whenever he asked this Ale i to pytanie nie znalazło życzliwego question the tutor munched his lips and tapped his ruler on the przyjęcia. (Korczak table impatiently and the [1922] 1992: 20) question remained unanswered. (Korczak 1945: 32)

Lourie (1986) The ministers had locked the door, so they wouldn’t be disturbed, and all the lights were turned on now. But no one was saying a word. (Korczak 1986: 5) “Look, a boy playing with girls.” They started laughing. (Korczak 1986: 15) But that question did not meet with a friendly response, either. (Korczak 1986: 20)

are again presented differently. The sequence of actions from the source text, in which he “rose”, “dressed quickly” and “went out”, is replaced with the Sulkins’ more dynamic description: “leaping out of bed he ran”. This approach is also noticeable in the third excerpt in the table, in the Sulkins’ more dynamic rendering of the actions of the master of ceremonies (who “jumped” rather than “realized at once”) and Matt (who “ran” rather than “started to leave”). Other examples illustrating this tendency, this time mainly related to characters’ facial expressions, are shown in Table 4.14. While only slight modifications are noticeable in Lourie’s translation in the first example, more profound changes can be found in the Sulkins’ version. The clause “i nic nie mówili” [and they didn’t say anything], rendered by Lourie as “but no one was saying a word”, is extended into a complex sentence: “For a long time they sat in silence chewing the tips of their pencils; for not one of them had anything to say.” The silence from the original is accompanied in the translation by the image of the ­ministers

4  Cultural Assimilation, Foreignization, Fairytalization… 

129

Table 4.15  Overdramatized passage in the Sulkins’ translation: scratching and sneezing Korczak (1922) The Sulkins (1945) Ale nie było czasu długo myśleć, bo nagle kapral zawołał: – Chowajcie się, porucznik idzie! Wepchnięto ich w kąt wagonu i przykryto. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 39)

Lourie (1986)

But there was no time for such thoughts. The But there was no time to corporal shouted suddenly, “Hide, the wonder, for officer is coming.” suddenly the The soldiers pushed the boys into a corner of corporal the car and covered them. They could hear shouted: the officer’s steps coming closer, closer. “Hide, the Suddenly Matthew wanted to sneeze. lieutenant’s Quickly Philip put his finger under coming!” Matthew’s nose. They could hear the Matt and officer’s voice scolding one of the soldiers. Felek were And then Matthew started to scratch. Philip shoved into seized his arm and held him for fear one corner of Matthew would tumble out of the hiding the freight place. Matthew’s nose and mouth were full car. (Korczak of dust. He sneezed and then scratched 1986: 48) himself where a flea had bitten him. He could see Philip scowling and he was sure that the other was angry at him for nearly betraying them. But Matthew looked so comical scratching himself that Philip burst out laughing and then Matthew laughed too. (Korczak 1945: 58)

who are engrossed in thought, which is implied by pencil chewing. In the second passage, Lourie has the boys in the royal gardens “start laughing” at Matt, but they “screw up their noses and laugh” in the Sulkins’ version. Then, in Lourie, Matt’s question “does not meet with a friendly response” from his tutor, whereas the Sulkins again add physical detail, presenting the tutor’s reaction in more concrete terms. He “munches his lips” and “taps his ruler on the table impatiently”, which is a more suggestive image, in line with the recurring strategy of reinforcing protagonists’ mental states through bodily activity. One of the most humorous additions introduced by the Sulkins is the lengthy paragraph describing Matt and Felek travelling by train as soldiers and hiding from the approaching lieutenant. Korczak devotes a very brief passage to this in the source text, and so does Lourie, but the Sulkins extend it, adding an entirely new scene of their own creation (Table 4.15).

130 

M. Borodo

This is an extraordinary addition from the Sulkins, most probably to create comical effect and make the description of the boys’ journey more entertaining and appealing to readers. The passage is in fact a brief and dramatized narration characterized by the gradual build-up of suspense, the boys’ comical and exaggerated actions reminiscent of a slapstick comedy, and the climax followed by comic relief. Although this is an instance of exceptionally free translation, or even adaptation, of the source text, the sheer length of the passage and the imaginative effort of the translators make it an impressive example of their creativity. In essence, the Sulkins tell Korczak’s classic tale anew, using it as a version to build on, rewriting the source text according to their whims and fancies and adding vivid detail. They use predominantly physical language of characterization and resort to hyperbolization, the strategies typical of a fairy tale. It could be noted that, although less exact in comparison with Lourie’s translation, the version created by the Sulkins could in this respect be even more appealing to younger readers, with certain scenes and characters delineated more explicitly, in a way that is easier to visualize and presented as more vibrant and compelling.

 More Fitting Farewell? Refocusing A the Novel’s Ending Some of the most intriguing and radical changes, which also illustrate the strategies of sentimentalization and hyperbolization, are introduced by the Sulkins at the end of the novel. One such modification appears in the closing lines; the other, more substantial modification, is the addition of an epilogue, where in fact no epilogue appears in the source text. The final lines of the novel, and their rendering by Lourie and the Sulkins, are shown in Table 4.16. It could be argued that the closing lines of Korczak’s novel are slightly disappointing. They are somewhat abrupt, as if unsuited to a novel of this length, which describes so many adventures and dramatic turns of events. This may have been the reason why the Sulkins extended the original ending, adding several details absent from the source text. Thus, in the

4  Cultural Assimilation, Foreignization, Fairytalization… 

131

Table 4.16  The closing lines of the novel in the translations by the Sulkins and Lourie Korczak (1922)

The Sulkins (1945)

Lourie (1986)

A car pulled up Zajechał samochód An automobile took him back and took Matt through the city, back through the i zabrał Maciusia back to prison. In silent streets to the prison. z powrotem do one week’s time, Matthew took one last look at the więzienia: za he would be Palace, at the Royal Park, at the tydzień go banished to the store where once a doll for the girl wywiozą na desert island. Irene had been displayed, at the bezludną wyspę. I’ll tell you what remains of the zoo and at the two Co robił Maciuś na happened to Parliament Buildings standing wyspie, jakie były Matt on that empty now. dalsze jego desert island just The prison gates closed on Matthew dzieje, napiszę, and he was taken to his cell there to as soon as I find gdy się dowiem. out. (Korczak await banishment to Noman’s Isle. (Korczak [1922] 1986: 332, italics (Korczak 1945: 254) 1992: 249) in Lourie’s original)

1945 version, Matt drives through the silent streets of the capital, passing the palace, the royal park, the zoo and the parliament—some of the landmarks important for him at different stages of his development as a boy and a king. Only after this final, nostalgic, retrospective trip do the prison gates close. The Sulkins use the strategy of sentimentalization here, skilfully rewriting this passage in an attempt to bid a more adequate farewell to the young king and to the reader. The Sulkins also decided on a much more radical solution, however, adding an epilogue which changes the ending of the novel significantly. The epilogue begins as follows: That is the story of King Matthew the First as Janusz Korczak wrote it. But it is not the whole story. If the author were alive today he would be the first to say that his tale deserved another ending. (Korczak 1945: 255)

Having attempted a justification of their decision by referring to Korczak himself, the translators then take the liberty of adding an entirely new ending of their own. Their dramatized epilogue informs the reader that although it is true that Matt was defeated and banished, and his country

132 

M. Borodo

overrun by the invader, “there was something the conquerors had overlooked, something they failed to conquer” (ibid.). The Sulkins continue by explaining that “a strange movement began in the conquered country. There were whisperings in the darkness. Little groups formed in cellars and forests. Secret newspapers passed from hand to hand” (ibid.), possibly a reference to the Polish underground. It then adds that “Matthew’s name began to appear on buildings, trees, streetcars, sidewalks” and gradually the “movement grew stronger” (ibid.: 256). This build-up of suspense is followed by the following climax: Children streamed into the highways. They came from villages, farms, and cities. They came from countries far away on rowboats and rafts. They came in goat-carts, on bicycles and roller skates, waving a green flag and singing. And at their head marched Philip and Klu-Klu. (Ibid.)

The epilogue then explains that Philip and Klu-Klu “drove out the invader […] rescued Matthew and brought him home and then set up a just and democratic government” (ibid.), thus putting an end to the enemy’s invasion of Matt’s country. This brief narration ends by asserting that “The enemy had overlooked something – something he knew nothing about: the fact that people – and especially children – like to be free” (ibid.). On the one hand, one could criticize the Sulkins here for considerably changing the book’s ending and justifying their decision by referring to Korczak’s alleged intentions. On the other hand, one could praise their ingenuity. In place of the brief and abrupt original ending, the Sulkins introduced an extended conclusion and a two-page-long epilogue, refocusing the final part of the novel entirely. Theirs is undoubtedly a more optimistic ending, offering hope and consolation to the reader, who, after reading the book in the original, may feel a sense of defeat and injustice. The decision could also be interpreted as an example of mitigation—when reading fairy tales to children, adults sometimes tend to avoid or modify the more disappointing, gruesome or pessimistic endings. The Sulkins’ claim that if Korczak “were alive today he would be the first to say that his tale deserved another ending” (ibid.: 255) may not have been ungrounded—Poland was a completely transformed place in 1945, ­compared to what it had been twenty years earlier. One can also understand

4  Cultural Assimilation, Foreignization, Fairytalization… 

133

that, instead of underscoring failure and defeat, in 1945 the translators felt compelled to emphasize that the invaded people had the right to rise from their knees, fight and regain freedom.

References Primary Sources Korczak, Janusz. 1945. Matthew the Young King. Trans. Edith and Sidney Sulkin. New York: Roy Publishers. ———. 1986. King Matt the First. Trans. Richard Lourie. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ———. 1990. Little King Matty …and the Desert Island. Trans. Adam Czasak. London: Joanna Pinewood Enterprises. ———. [1922] 1992. Król Maciuś Pierwszy. Król Maciuś na wyspie bezludnej. Warszawa: Oficyna Wydawnicza Latona.

Secondary Sources Algeo, John. 2006. British or American English? A Handbook of Word and Grammar Patterns. Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press. Fimiak-Chwiłkowska, Anna. 2017. O dwóch niemieckich przekładach powieści Janusza Korczaka Król Maciuć Pierwszy. In Między manipulacją a autonomicznością estetyczną – przekład literatury dla dzieci, ed. Eliza Pieciul-­ Karmińska, Beate Sommerfeld, and Anna Fimiak-Chwiłkowska, 87–114. Poznań: Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM. Knowles, Murray, and Kirsten Malmkjær. 1996. Language and Control in Children’s Literature. London/New York: Routledge. Lathey, Gillian. 2016. Translating Children’s Literature. New York: Routledge. Pym, Anthony. [1996] 2010. Venuti’s Visibility, Review of Venuti (1995). The Translator’s Invisibility: A History of Translation in Target 8 (2): 165–177. Online at: http://usuaris.tinet.cat/apym/on-line/translation/1996_Venuti. pdf?bookid=Target%208%3A1. Accessed 12 July 2019. Schur, Norman W. 2001. British English A to Zed (Revised by Eugene Ehrlich). New York: Facts on File, Inc.

134 

M. Borodo

Thorne, Tony. 2007. Dictionary of Contemporary Slang. 3rd ed. London: A&C Black. Tottie, Gunnel, and Sebastian Hoffmann. 2006. Tag Questions in British and American English. Journal of English Linguistics 34 (4): 283–311. Venuti, Lawrence. 1995. The Translator’s Invisibility: A History of Translation. London/New York: Routledge. ———. 1998. Strategies of Translation. In Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies, ed. Mona Baker, 240–244. London/New York: Routledge.

5 Mitigation, Standardization, Simplification and Explicitation

This chapter concentrates on the strategies of mitigation, standardization, simplification and explicitation, mainly using illustrations from the first two English-language translations of Korczak’s classic tale about King Matt from 1945 and 1986, and from the 2012 translation of his novel about Kaytek the Wizard. The chapter demonstrates that the first American translation, by Edith and Sidney Sulkin, contains various examples of mitigation, that is, of the manipulation of prose by deleting or toning down content regarded as inappropriate, as well as instances of standardizing the language. Another distinctive feature of the 1945 translation is that it was offered to American readers in a simplified version, with the translators often resorting to omission and condensation on sentence, paragraph and chapter levels. The chapter then examines the strategy of explicitation with reference to Richard Lourie’s translation of Korczak’s novel and, in particular, with reference to another book by Korczak which was translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones in 2012 as Kaytek the Wizard. It is demonstrated how the elliptical and laconic literary style of the source text is made more explicit by Lloyd-Jones both linguistically and culturally.

© The Author(s) 2020 M. Borodo, English Translations of Korczak’s Children’s Fiction, Palgrave Studies in Translating and Interpreting, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38117-2_5

135

136 

M. Borodo

“ Gimme some food, damn it!” Standardization, Mitigation and Censorship A characteristic feature of the 1945 translation is the Sulkins’ mitigation of a number of passages related to such subjects as death, blood, alcohol, improper behaviour and mildly vulgar or colloquial interjections. Korczak, who served as a military doctor and was familiar with the atrocities of war, makes no concessions for the young reader. For example, in chapter 6, when Matt and Felek are on their way to a military camp, the older boy who accompanies them quarrels with Felek demanding alcohol for himself, and then has an accident and ends up in a puddle of blood with a shattered leg. An irritated doctor inspecting the wounded boy mutters: “W domu ci było siedzieć, cycek ssać, smarkaczu” (Korczak [1922] 1992: 37), which was rendered by Lourie as “You should be home sucking a nipple, you little brat” (Korczak 1986: 43). Retained by Lourie, this passage is entirely omitted by the Sulkins, most probably with the intention of sparing children the gory details and “inappropriate” language. Moreover, in the source text the wounded boy is taken away on a stretcher, while in the 1945 version he safely arrives with Felek and Matt at their destination, and even engages in a brief conversation with the latter (Korczak 1945: 55). To provide another example, Korczak explicitly mentions “blood gurgling in the boots” of the young soldiers (Korczak [1922] 1992: 54). The Sulkins, on the other hand, only note that the soldiers’ “feet were sore and ached” (Korczak 1945: 76), a softer description, mitigated possibly with younger and more impressionable readers in mind. The 1945 translation contains various examples of linguistic standardization. As noted in Chap. 2, linguistic standardization, that is, the omission or modification of “improper”, slangy and vulgar expressions and translators’ changes in sociolects, dialects, idiolects and other non-­ standard language varieties, has often been found to occur in translated children’s fiction due to the pressure from adult decision-makers (editors, parents, educators) to use “proper, correct forms” and language of high stylistic quality (e.g. Fischer 2012: 58; Van Coillie 2012: 231–232; Looby 2015: 175; Lathey 2016: 75). Unlike Lourie, who is exact in rendering

5  Mitigation, Standardization, Simplification and Explicitation 

137

Table 5.1  The treatment of the colloquial interjection “do pioruna” by Lourie and the Sulkins Korczak (1922)

The Sulkins (1945)

Lourie (1986)

Damn it, it’s dark, we might run into the guards. (Korczak 1986: 40) Who the hell was this Who is this Matthew Co to – do pioruna – za Matt they were they are talking about, Maciuś, o którym ciągle anyway? (Korczak 1945: always talking mówią? (Korczak [1922] about? (Korczak 79) 1992: 57) 1986: 70) […] while they do A oni będą robili, co chcą?... […] and let them do whatever they damn what they please, eh? Do pioruna, mylą się please… Well, they Oh, they are deeply bardzo… (Korczak [1922] are sadly mistaken! mistaken, Mr. Minister. 1992: 71) (Korczak 1986: 91) (Korczak 1945: 100) “I demand that the “I demand that the Żądam natychmiastowego paper be written announcement be napisania papieru, do immediately, damn issued immediately,” pioruna! – huknął Maciuś. it!” roared Matt. Matthew rumbled. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 72) (Korczak 1986: 92) (Korczak 1945: 101) Do pioruna, ciemno: jeszcze It’s so dark, we’ll bump na straż gdzie wpadniemy. into one of the guards. (Korczak 1945: 52) (Korczak [1922] 1992: 34)

various mildly vulgar interjections from the source text, the Sulkins consistently omit them and replace them with more “appropriate” language, as shown in Table 5.1. After returning from war, Matt has matured and gained confidence, which is emphasized by the robust and unceremonious language he uses to address his ministers. The young king now uses soldier’s slang, which is markedly accentuated by Korczak in the source text. Lourie skilfully recreates such uncouth, colloquial language, making use of such expressions as “who the hell” or “damn it”. As a result, in 1986 the king speaks like a seasoned soldier. The Sulkins standardize and mitigate such language. For example, Korczak’s mildly vulgar and archaic “do pioruna” is never recreated in their version. In 1945, Matt’s English is more refined than the original Polish, his idiolect may be associated with a more courteous and polite boy, and his metamorphosis is not fully reflected in his linguistic choices. Another example of mildly vulgar language, again handled differently by the translators, is presented in Table  5.2. After returning from the

138 

M. Borodo

Table 5.2  The treatment of Matt’s language in the translations by Lourie and the Sulkins Korczak (1922)

The Sulkins (1945)

Lourie (1986)

“Gimme some food, damn “Food, food,” he – Źryć dawajcie, do stu it!” Matt bellowed. His shouted when he piorunów! – huknął terrified footmen turned woke. The servants Maciuś, aż lokaje white as ghosts. paled with fright. A zbledli ze strachu jak One minute later, there few minutes later papier. were a hundred dishes there were platters of W minutę na łóżku, with food and dainty delicacies heaped on koło łóżka i pod tidbits on his bed, beside the bed, beside the łóżkiem stało już ze sto his bed, and even under półmisków z jedzeniem bed and even under his bed. the bed. i przysmakami. “Take those fancy things “Take these foreign – Zabrać mi w tej chwili fricassees away this away,” Matthew te zamorskie frykasy! – minute,” roared Matt. “I shouted. “I want plain huknął Maciuś – chcę want kielbasa, cabbage, sausage with kiełbasy z kapustą i and beer.” (Korczak cabbage!” (Korczak piwa. (Korczak [1922] 1986: 89) 1945: 98–99) 1992: 70)

front to the capital, Matt wakes up in his palace and in a robust, soldier-­ like manner communicates to his servants that he is hungry. Compare “‘Gimme some food, damn it!’ Matt bellowed” from 1986 with the standardized and more restrained “‘Food, food’, he shouted” from 1945. Equally interesting are the translations of the closing sentence, in which Lourie uses the word “kielbasa”, a more culture-specific expression than “sausage”, while the Sulkins characteristically omit a reference to Matt demanding beer for himself. Also, the word “fricassees” is very seldom used in English (perhaps with the exception of restricted contexts in English, such as recipes or on menus), and one would find it hard to imagine it being used by someone whose use of language otherwise was colloquial and uncouth. To use culinary terms, the translation served to the American reader by the Sulkins may be characterized as ‘bland’, lacking the flavour of the source text. On the other hand, their translation might be more suitable for younger children in comparison with Lourie’s “savoury” version, which contains strong language, a foreignized expression and a reference to alcohol. It may also be noted that as a result of these differences the idiolect and overall image of the central protagonist is modified. Matt comes across as no more than a naughty

5  Mitigation, Standardization, Simplification and Explicitation 

139

young boy in the 1945 version, but he is more of a rude and troublesome teenager in the 1986 translation. A stronger form of intervention than mitigation is censorship, which is discussed in more detail in Chap. 2. Created in the UK and the USA, the English translations of Korczak do not contain examples of censorship, but a brief discussion of this intervention from the post-war edition of Korczak’s Król Maciuś Pierwszy published in socialist Poland in 1955 is provided below to demonstrate its applicability to children’s fiction. The example in Table 5.3 describes a situation when Matt, who is going to attend a special meeting with his ministers, takes advantage of the confusion in the palace and, recalling his mother’s words that every important decision should be preceded by a prayer, slips out to the royal gardens to pray to God. Paradoxically, while a fervent prayer of the young king asking God for guidance is mentioned in the American translations from 1945 and 1986, Table 5.3  Example of omission of religion in the post-war edition of Król Maciuś Pierwszy Korczak (1922)

The Sulkins (1945)

Lourie (1986)

Korczak ([1922]1955)

[omitted] “I am a little boy,” “I am a small boy,” – Jestem małym prayed Matt. “I he prayed, “and chłopcem – modlił cannot manage without Your help, się Maciuś – bez without your help, Lord, I can’t twojej, Boże, oh God. It was manage. With Your pomocy, nie dam your will that I blessing, I received rady. Z twojej woli the Royal Crown, so wear the royal otrzymałem crown, and so now help me now, koronę królewską, help me, because więc pomóż mi, bo please.” I am in great w wielkim jestem For a long time trouble.” Matthew talked to frasunku. God, begging Him Matt prayed to God Długo prosił Maciuś for help for a long Boga o pomoc i łzy for help while the time, hot tears tears ran down his gorące spływały running down his cheeks. For before mu po twarzy. Ale face. Even a king is God not even a przed Bogiem not ashamed to let King is ashamed to nawet królowi nie God see him cry. weep. (Korczak wstyd płakać. (Korczak 1986: 1945: 45) (Korczak [1922] 32–33) 1992: 29)

140 

M. Borodo

as well as in the other two English translations from 1990 and 2014, it was eliminated from the 1955 Polish edition published under conditions of censorship (Korczak [1922] 1955: 26), as incongruent with socialist ideology. This textual intervention is clearly in line with similar findings concerning translated children’s fiction from socialist and communist countries (Thomson-Wohlgemuth 2009: 150; Pokorn 2012). Religion was particularly vulnerable to institutional censorship, with such references being either attenuated or completely eliminated, as in the example mentioned above.

 lcohol, Violence and Bad Manners: A The Translation of Problematic Passages Few subjects seem to be more controversial in children’s fiction than young children drinking alcohol, and the stronger the alcohol, the more problematic such examples might seem. When Matt and Felek join the army, they learn the soldiers’ ways, which involves using barrack-room slang, smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol. Lourie retains such passages, while the Sulkins often mitigate them, as illustrated in Table 5.4. Considered unsuitable for young readers in the America of the 1940s, the reference to Felek drinking vodka and smoking cigarettes was omitted by the Sulkins, attempting to protect the more vulnerable readers from the “evils” of the outer world. Influenced by different socio-cultural norms, Lourie makes no concessions for the child reader and possibly also caters for mature readers who might be interested in the book for its pedagogical value and because of the reputation of the author. Lourie’s was also a second translation, and if he was aware of the Sulkins’ version, he may have decided to take it as his goal to produce a closer translation. This would be in line with the so-called retranslation hypothesis, according to which first translations are sometimes culturally assimilated and less literal than the retranslations that follow (Bensimon 1990; Gambier 1994) (though see Chap. 2 for a discussion of its limitations). While the excerpt in Table 5.4 implies that, unlike his friend Felek, Matt neither smokes nor drinks alcohol, another passage, shown in Table 5.5, reveals that this is not entirely true.

5  Mitigation, Standardization, Simplification and Explicitation 

141

Table 5.4  The treatment of a reference to Felek drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes Korczak (1922)

The Sulkins (1945)

Lourie (1986)

Felek was the only one Felek jeden jedyny wiedział, For Philip was the who knew that Matt was only one who knew że Maciuś jest królem. the king. True, Matt had that Matthew was Prawda, Maciuś sam go asked him to call him King. It was true prosił, żeby nazywał Tomek. But it wasn’t right Matthew himself Tomkiem. Ale zawsze nie for Felek to treat him as had asked Philip to było to w porządku, że go call him Tommy, but an equal. And he didn’t Felek traktował jak even do that. Matt was it wasn’t quite right równego sobie. I żeby to younger, and so Felek for Philip to treat jak równego, ale nie. was disrespectful to him. him as a perfect Ponieważ Maciuś był equal or worse. Also Felek drank vodka and młodszy, więc Felek go smoked cigarettes, but Matthew was lekceważył. Felek pił whenever someone younger and Philip wódkę i palił papierosy, a wanted to treat Matt to made a point of it jak Maciusia chciał kto some, Felek would say always, forgetting poczęstować, zaraz right away: “Don’t give that Matthew was mówił: him any, he’s too little.” King. (Korczak – Jemu nie dawajcie, on (Korczak 1986: 73) 1945: 82) mały. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 59) Table 5.5  The treatment by Lourie and the Sulkins of a reference to Matt drinking alcohol Korczak (1922)

The Sulkins (1945) Lourie (1986)

[omitted] Nie bez radości przyglądał się Maciuś, jak koniak guwernera zapijali żołnierze. – No, mały kamracie, golnij i ty krzynę; zobaczymy, czy umiesz wojować. Nareszcie Maciuś pije to, co pijali królowie. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 38)

It gave Matt pleasure to watch the soldiers drink his tutor’s cognac. “All right, then, little buddy, have a drink of this, we’ll see if you know how to fight.” At last, Matt was drinking what kings drink. (Korczak 1986: 45)

In the 1945 translation, the idea of a ten-year-old drinking alcohol together with grown-ups, indeed, more contentiously, drinking the cognac originally belonging to Matt’s tutor and stolen by the boy from the royal pantry, was evidently too much for the Sulkins. They omitted this excerpt altogether, most probably in order not to set a bad example for younger readers. The Sulkins’ Matt is a non-smoker and a teetotaller.

142 

M. Borodo

Table 5.6  The treatment of references to alcohol and spanking by Lourie and the Sulkins Korczak (1922)

The Sulkins (1945)

Prezes ministrów wrócił do The Prime Minister was so domu taki zły, że żona enraged when bała się nawet zapytać, he came home co się stało. Prezes jadł that his wife obiad i nic nie mówił, a was afraid to dzieci siedziały cichutko, ask what was żeby nie oberwać. Prezes ministrów przed obiadem the matter. His wypijał kieliszek wódki, a children sat in silence for fear podczas obiadu pił tylko of being wino. A dziś wino scolded. odepchnął i wypił pięć (Korczak 1945: kieliszków wódki. 139) (Korczak [1922] 1992: 103)

Lourie (1986) The Prime Minister returned home in such a bad mood that his wife was even afraid to ask him what happened. The Prime Minister ate his dinner without saying a word. His children were very quiet, so they wouldn’t be spanked. The Prime Minister usually drank a glass of vodka before dinner but only drank wine with his meal. That day, he pushed the wine aside and drank five glasses of vodka. (Korczak 1986: 135)

Another telling example illustrating the divergent translation strategies adopted by Lourie and the Sulkins with regard to problematic content is presented in Table 5.6. The original contains references to drinking alcohol but also corporal punishment. In the source text, Korczak makes it clear that the Prime Minister’s children are quiet for fear of getting a beating, and so does Lourie. In the Sulkins’ version, the children merely fear being scolded—the possibility of corporal punishment is replaced with a verbal reprimand. The Sulkins also leave out the reference to the Prime Minister’s habit of drinking alcohol with his meal, perhaps again not to present a bad habit to the young reader. Thus the information about the Prime Minister drinking a glass of vodka and wine on a regular basis, and five glasses of vodka on this occasion, does not appear in their translation. The Sulkins’ aversion to vodka is also noticeable in other passages, for example, in chapter 11. When Matt triumphantly returns from a reconnaissance mission behind the enemy lines, his division is awarded “a whole keg of vodka” (Korczak 1986: 75), which is a source of great joy for the soldiers. The passage is eliminated by the Sulkins, who also significantly condense this chapter’s ending.

5  Mitigation, Standardization, Simplification and Explicitation 

143

Table 5.7  The treatment of a reference to beating in the translations by Lourie and the Sulkins Korczak (1922)

The Sulkins (1945)

– Wiele złego narobiłeś “You’ve caused a great deal of serious harm, Felku. Ale ja Philip, but I’ll forgive przebaczam. – Co? Przebaczyć? Jeżeli you.” “Forgive me? I know mi wasza królewska mość przebaczy, to już what I’ll do. I’ll tell my dad all about it and wiem, co zrobię. he’ll give me – No co? – zapytał something to Maciuś. remember.” (Korczak – Wszystko powiem 1945: 226) ojcu; już on mi sprawi łaźnię taką, że popamiętam. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 221)

Lourie (1986) “You have done a lot of bad things, Felek. But I forgive you.” “What? You forgive me? If your royal highness really forgives me, I know what I should do.” “What?” asked Matt. “I’ll tell my father everything. Then he’ll give me such a beating I’ll never forget what I’ve done as long as I live.” (Korczak 1986: 293)

In Korczak’s book, there are several other references to children getting a beating, related in particular to Felek’s treatment by his father. For example, at the end of the novel Felek suggests that as a penance for his sins he will admit all that he has done to his father, who will know how to punish him. Felek’s exact words, and their translations, are presented in Table 5.7. Lourie is at pains to recreate exactly the sense of Felek’s original words. For example, he uses a long string of words, “I’ll never forget what I’ve done as long as I live”, for Korczak’s brief “że popamiętam” [that I’ll never forget]. Lourie’s Felek will also clearly be punished with a beating. The Sulkins, on the other hand, mitigate Felek’s words. The result is a euphemism—Felek’s dad will give him “something to remember”, a covert reference to corporal punishment. Due to this, the translation by the Sulkins sounds less threatening to the young reader, an example of the greater child-orientedness of this version. One final example illustrating this contrast between the two translations is given in Table 5.8 and is related to Matt’s inappropriate conduct. Lourie’s Matt is a seasoned soldier who has forgotten about court etiquette and spits on the carpet like a peasant rather than a king, in line with Korczak’s description of him in this passage. The Sulkins’ Matt has been hardened by his war experiences, but has nevertheless retained some

144 

M. Borodo

Table 5.8  The treatment of inappropriate conduct in the translations by Lourie and the Sulkins Korczak (1922)

The Sulkins (1945)

Matthew smacked his Oblizał się Maciuś po lips after the sausage. kiełbasie, splunął na He asked the servants dywan i kazał wylać to pour a pail of cold na siebie kubeł water over his head zimnej wody. and said, “This is a – To jest kąpiel soldier’s bath, and the żołnierska – best there is.” Then he powiedział put on his crown and zadowolony. entered the Council Włożył koronę na głowę i wszedł do sali Hall. (Korczak 1945: 100) posiedzeń. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 71)

Lourie (1986) Matt licked his lips after the kielbasa, spat on the carpet, and ordered a bucket of cold water to be poured over him. “That’s how a soldier takes a shower,” he said with satisfaction. He put his crown on his head and went into the conference room. (Korczak 1986: 90–91)

of his good manners. Although he does ask his servants to pour of a pail of cold water over him, he only smacks his lips after the sausage rather than spitting on the carpet, another example of inappropriate conduct the Sulkins did not want their American readers to learn about. To summarize, the American translators of Korczak’s classic novel adopted different strategies with regard to potentially problematic content. While Lourie retains the original references to alcohol, death, physical violence, inappropriate conduct and mildly vulgar language, the Sulkins use the strategy of mitigation. The reason for this might be that the Sulkins envisaged a younger age group for their book than that anticipated by Korczak and Lourie. To follow Oittinen (1990: 49), they entered into a dialogical relationship with the source text, appropriating it and expressing it in new ways for the younger reader, and following O’Sullivan (2005: 109), here the voice of the narrator of the translation becomes “dislocated from the original narrator, taking control of the original text and appropriating it”. Of course, it is possible the Sulkins might also have been subject to external pressures—perhaps from their publisher— though here we are merely speculating. The Sulkins’ and Lourie’s divergent ways of communicating the same source text to the new reader in new cultural milieux clearly demonstrate that translators have their own convictions, worldviews and experiences of the target culture, in addition to being influenced by the publishing world and a specific socio-­historical

5  Mitigation, Standardization, Simplification and Explicitation 

145

context. This could be perceived as an asset, an example of human creativity, ingenuity, individuality and diversity.

 hildren’s Fiction, Translation C and Simplification Another strategy employed in the translation of children’s literature is simplification. According to Shavit (1986: 113), the use of this strategy is related to one of the principles on which translating for children is based, that is the necessity to adjust “plot, characterization, and language” to how “the child’s ability to read and comprehend” is construed in society. Linguistic and textual simplification of translated children’s fiction can take many forms. Translators may simplify complex syntax, remove difficult or specialized vocabulary, omit detail, replace culture-specific notions with more easily understandable superordinate terms or phrase more abstract concepts in more tangible and straightforward terms. The source text may also be simplified by condensing or omitting whole paragraphs and longer passages, even entire chapters, if they are regarded as potentially too demanding, confusing or digressive. As will be demonstrated below, simplification is a characteristic feature of the Sulkins’ 1945 translation. The Sulkins often express Korczak’s style in a more straightforward and succinct manner. For example, in the source text Matt mentions to the Minster of War that he would like “to learn military drill” (“chciałby się uczyć musztry”) (Korczak [1922] 1992: 24), whereas in the Sulkins’ version he would like “to learn to be a soldier” (Korczak 1945: 40). The translators replace what is presumably a more abstract concept from a child’s perspective with a more concrete and straightforward one. On another occasion, the source text mentions the fate of an unfortunate footman of one of Matt’s ancestors, beheaded because of his carelessness when “a flea hopped from this footman onto the king’s sceptre” (“skoczyła pchła na berło królewskie”) (Korczak [1922] 1992: 21). In the Sulkins’ version the flea hopped “into the King’s beard” (Korczak 1945: 36), a more comical but presumably also a simpler reference to understand.

146 

M. Borodo

Table 5.9  Example of simplification in the Sulkins’ translation: burning a letter Korczak (1922)

The Sulkins (1945)

Maciuś szybko przeczytał list, When he had finished the zapalił świecę, przytknął koniec papieru. Papier zaczął letter, Matthew się tlić, buchnął płomieniem, zwijał się w trąbkę: sczerniał. burned it carefully. Płomień parzył Maciusiowi (Korczak palce, ale on na to nie 1945: 224) zważał. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 219)

Lourie (1986) Matt read the letter through quickly, lit a candle, and held the edge of the paper to the flame. The paper began to smolder, burst into flame, and curled into a blackened scroll. The flame singed Matt’s fingers, but he paid no attention to the pain. (Korczak 1986: 290)

The tendency to omit detail and express the source text in a more straightforward manner is observable in the example presented in Table 5.9. After Matt receives a secret letter from his friend, the sad king, he reads it and then burns it instantly, so that no one else has a chance to read it. This is rendered very differently in the two translations. Lourie is careful to follow the exact words from the original and makes the text slightly more explicit when he renders “przytknął koniec papieru” [held the edge of the paper] as “held the edge of the paper to the flame” or “ale on na to nie zważał” [but he did not pay attention to this] as “but he paid no attention to the pain”. In contrast, the Sulkins provide the reader with a shortened and simplified message (i.e. Matt read the letter, then burnt it), using only one sentence in place of three. At a different point, when Matt visits the sad king’s palace, he is surprised about how modest it is in comparison to other kings’ residences. Table 5.10 shows that the two translations again express Matt’s reaction differently. On closer analysis it becomes clear that the Sulkins, unlike Lourie, omit some information from the source text. In particular, they eliminate the clause “prawie się nie różnił od ładniejszych domów miasta” [it almost did not differ from the nicer houses in the city] and the postmodifier “zręcznie zaszyta jedwabiem” [neatly sewn up with silk thread]. Lexically sparse, their translation is more definite and straightforward: “pałac nie bardzo wyglądał” [the palace did not quite look like] simply becomes “the

5  Mitigation, Standardization, Simplification and Explicitation 

147

Table 5.10  Example of simplification in the Sulkins’ translation: a visit to the sad king Korczak (1922)

The Sulkins (1945)

Lourie (1986)

Pałac nawet nie bardzo wyglądał na zamek królewski, prawie się nie różnił od ładniejszych domów miasta. Jeden lokaj miał nawet trochę przybrudzone rękawiczki, a na obrusie była mała wprawdzie, ale – jednak – dziurka, zręcznie zaszyta jedwabiem. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 91)

The Royal Palace didn’t resemble a King’s residence. One of the servants wore soiled gloves and Matthew even discovered a hole in the tablecloth. (Korczak 1945: 128)

Even his palace doesn’t look like a castle, it’s not all that much better than a nice house. One footman even had slightly soiled gloves, and there was a small hole in the tablecloth which had been neatly sewn up with silk thread. (Korczak 1986: 118)

royal palace didn’t resemble”, “trochę przybrudzone” [slightly soiled] is shortened to “soiled” and “mała wprawdzie ale  – jednak  – dziurka” [a small one, but—still—a hole] simply becomes “a hole”. While the Sulkins simplify the original description, Lourie is at pains to recreate it as closely as possible, retaining the original paragraph breaks and even the original punctuation from the opening sentence, which results in a slightly awkward fused sentence. A noteworthy example of simplification expressing only the gist of the original passage is the description of the battle that Matt fights in, which is provided in Table 5.11. Lourie, just like Korczak, uses four sentences, closely following the Polish source text, whereas the Sulkins use only two sentences, their version being nearly two thirds shorter than Lourie’s. The Sulkins once again look for the essence, omitting such passages as “finally, the enemy realized that they could not manage” or “they could not reach them because they were impeded by the barbed wire”. They retain the main idea of the paragraph, expressed in Lourie’s translation with the words marked in bold in the table. The Sulkins’ tendency to use a straightforward style and condense the source text may be illustrated with one other example. Consider how the explanation of the notion of etiquette has been treated in the translation by Lourie and the Sulkins in Table 5.12.

148 

M. Borodo

Table 5.11  Simplification in the Sulkins’ translation: the description of a battle Korczak (1922)

The Sulkins (1945) Lourie (1986)

All day the battle The battle lasted an entire Bitwa cały dzień trwała. day. Finally, the enemy raged. Finally Nareszcie nieprzyjaciel realized that there was no the enemy had zrozumiał, że nic nie point in continuing, lost so many poradzi, bo tylko traci because they were just men that they ludzi, a dojść do nich nie losing men, and they could retreated and może, bo przeszkadzają not even reach Matt’s army began to dig druty kolczaste. Więc because of the barbed wire. trenches for cofnął się i zaczął So they retreated and themselves. okopywać. Ale inna began digging in. But it’s (Korczak 1945: rzecz – kopać spokojnie, one thing to dig trenches gdy nikt nie przeszkadza, a 74) calmly when no one’s inna kopać pod strzałami, hampering you and quite gdy zewsząd kule padają. another when bullets are (Korczak [1922] 1992: 52) flying from all sides. (Korczak 1986: 63) Table 5.12  Example of simplification in the Sulkins’ translation: royal etiquette Korczak (1922)

The Sulkins (1945)

Lourie (1986)

Dziwne się może wydać, że Does it seem strange It may seem strange that so many things were that so many things królowi tyle rzeczy może forbidden to the king. are forbidden to być zabronione. Muszę And so I must explain Kings? You must więc wyjaśnić, że na that there is a very strict understand that dworach królewskich jest etiquette at royal courts. there is a very strict bardzo surowa – etykieta. Etiquette tells how kings etiquette in Royal Etykieta – to znaczy, have always acted. A palaces. That is to że – tak zawsze królowie new king cannot do say, Kings have a robili i inaczej nowemu otherwise without losing certain way of królowi nie wolno, bo his honor and without doing things and gdyby chciał coś zrobić everyone ceasing to fear no King must do inaczej, to straciłby honor and respect him for not them differently. i wszyscy przestaliby go respecting his father the (Korczak 1945: 34, się bać i szanować. Bo to italics in the Sulkins’ king, or his grandfather by znaczyło, że nie the king, or his great-­ original) szanuje swojego grandfather the king. wielkiego ojca-króla albo (Korczak 1986: 21) dziadka czy pradziadka-­ króla. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 20)

5  Mitigation, Standardization, Simplification and Explicitation 

149

An examination of the words in bold reveals that the translators adopt markedly different approaches. The Sulkins condense and simplify the source text, explaining the notion of etiquette in plain, easily understandable language: “That is to say, Kings have a certain way of doing things and no King must do them differently”. Lourie, on the other hand, makes the passage slightly more complex in terms of syntax: “A new king cannot act otherwise without losing his honor and without everyone ceasing to fear and respect him for not respecting […]”. It is used to replace the more explicit because… + because… pattern in the source text, which is arguably more characteristic of children’s language: “because if he wanted to act otherwise, he would lose his honour and everybody would cease to fear and respect him. Because this would mean […]”. It may be noted that this passage is followed in the source text by four other paragraphs describing the discomforts and intricacies of royal etiquette. Retained by Lourie, these paragraphs are omitted by the Sulkins, who not only omit and condense at sentence and paragraph level, but also leave out longer passages. These longer passages can even be as long as entire chapters. The Sulkins eliminate several of them from their translation and sometimes combine two chapters into one. The first omitted chapter is chapter 20, which describes what happens to Matt after he returns to his kingdom from abroad, where he had been visiting foreign kings. The chapter is relatively uneventful, being an account of Matt’s holiday at the seaside, where he travels incognito together with the old doctor, the captain and two other children. The Sulkins also omit chapters 30, 31 and 32, which describe Matt’s journey to Africa. In contrast with the uneventful chapter 20, these three chapters are very dramatic and action-packed—Matt and his one-eyed pilot manage to foil the sabotage attempt against them, to get lost above the desert and to arrive just in time to save the African king, who is to be burnt at the stake by witch doctors. One might speculate that it is exactly the references to “savage” rituals and “cannibals” that led to these chapters being left out. It is possible that the chapters were simply regarded as too scary, especially considering the more general tendency in the 1945 translation towards mitigation with younger readers in mind. These examples suggest that the Sulkins had a tendency to simplify and leave out longer and more detailed descriptive passages which do not

150 

M. Borodo

add significantly to the overall narrative, along with the more violent and potentially controversial parts of Korczak’s novel. Such a macro-strategy as leaving out entire chapters is certainly a radical intervention according to our contemporary notions of translation, although chapter reorganization may have been less uncommon in relation to children’s literature translations in the early- and mid-twentieth century.

Explicitation of Korczak’s Style Apart from simplifying children’s fiction, translators may also make the source text more explicit. As demonstrated in Chap. 2, research on explicitation dates back to the 1950s, when the concept was introduced by Vinay and Darbelnet ([1958] 1995: 342), who defined it as “[a] stylistic translation technique which consists of making explicit in the target language what remains implicit in the source language because it is apparent from either the context or the situation”. The term was further investigated by many other translation scholars, for example, Nida (1964), Blum-Kulka ([1986] 2001), Séguinot (1988), Englund Dimitrova (2005) and Klaudy (2009). Séguinot’s (1988: 108) understanding of explicitation is wider than that of Vinay and Darbelnet and she observes that it can take three forms: (a) “something is expressed in the translation which was not in the original”, (b) “something which was implied or understood through presupposition in the source text is overtly expressed in the translation” and finally (c) “an element in the source text is given greater importance in the translation through focus, emphasis, or lexical choice”. Klaudy (2009: 106–107) lists as many as four types, namely (a) obligatory explicitation, which is dictated by structural differences in language systems themselves, (b) optional explicitation, which relates to stylistic and cohesive patterns characteristic of specific languages, (c) pragmatic explicitation, which involves adding explanations of implicit cultural references, as well as (d) translation-inherent explicitation, which is related to the translation process itself. In the context of translated children’s literature, House (2004: 696) writes of “a strong tendency in German translations of English children’s books to be more explicit”. Explicitation is also a characteristic linguistic pattern in Lourie’s 1986 translation of

5  Mitigation, Standardization, Simplification and Explicitation 

151

King Matt the First and in particular in Lloyd-Jones’s translation of Kaytek the Wizard, from 2012. This may be partly attributable to Korczak’s literary style, which is occasionally elliptical and laconic, with certain descriptions and dialogues being slightly imprecise and incoherent. The sense of many of these passages may be inferred from the context, however, and explicitation was not absolutely necessary in many such cases. Consider the examples in Table 5.13, for instance (in this section Lourie’s translations are not juxtaposed with those by the Sulkins as the passages in question were omitted from their 1945 translation). The first three sentences in Table  5.13 are examples of explicitation introduced by Lourie to clarify what remains implicit in the source text. The fourth example is an instance of obligatory explicitation, required by the rules of grammar. Thus in the first three examples Lourie adds precision to the translated sentences. Instead of simply referring to “this stupid law about schools”, he specifies that it is “the stupid law about sending grownups to school”. In the second example, Matt is not ashamed because Table 5.13  Examples of optional and obligatory explicitation in the translation by Lourie Korczak (1922)

Literal translation

– A to głupie prawo o szkołach? (Korczak [1922] 1992: 217) Aż wstyd było Maciusiowi, że tak mało wie, ale co wiedział, to wytłumaczył. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 211) Wrócił Felek, wszystko opowiedział – i nowa otucha wstąpiła w Maciusia. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 235) Rano wsiedli i pojechali. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 114)

And this stupid law And whose idea was it to make about schools? that stupid law about sending grownups to school? (Korczak 1986: 287) Matt was ashamed that he Matt was even knew so little about wolves, ashamed that he but he told her what he knew so little, but could. he explained (Korczak 1986: 279) what he knew.

Lourie (1986)

Felek crawled back and told Felek returned, Matt how well Klu Klu’s idea recounted was working. Matt could feel everything – and a new courage rising in him. new hope entered (Korczak 1986: 312) into Matt. In the morning they The next morning, they climbed up on their camels mounted [sic] and and started on their way. departed. (Korczak 1986: 151)

152 

M. Borodo

he “knew so little”, but, more specifically, because he “knew so little about wolves”. In the third example, instead of the laconic “Felek returned, recounted everything”, Lourie specifies in what way he returned (Felek crawled back), who he reported to (he told Matt) and what the report was about (how well Klu Klu’s idea was working). This information can be inferred from the source text, but Lourie nevertheless decides to make these passages more explicit. The fourth example, that is Korczak’s elliptical “rano wsiedli i pojechali”, refers to Matt and the other travellers getting up in the morning, mounting their camels and leaving King Brum Drum’s African kingdom. Lourie again uses explicitation here, although this time it is obligatory, as “mount” is transitive in the sentence and must be followed by an object. The literal equivalent such as “in the morning they mounted [sic] and departed” would be ungrammatical. Making Korczak’s style more explicit is one of the features of Lourie’s translation. This linguistic pattern is much more apparent in Lloyd-Jones’s 2012 translation of Korczak’s 1933 novel Kajtuś czarodziej, published in New York almost eighty years after the original publication, under the title Kaytek the Wizard. One of the most characteristic features of Kaytek the Wizard, the story of a mischievous boy who becomes a magician, is the author’s elliptical and inexplicit writing style. Although it might have been Korczak’s intention to imitate the sometimes unrefined speech of children, some of the passages in the book appear to be so inexplicit and laconic that they might potentially be difficult to follow even in Polish, particularly for younger readers. On many occasions Lloyd-Jones makes up for this, rendering slightly obscure passages more clearly and making a number of excerpts more cohesive. For example, in some of the dialogues it is not entirely clear who speaks due to the low frequency of dialogue tags which would identify interlocutors. This information cannot always be easily inferred from the text, especially considering that Korczak uses dialogues which are characterized by relatively short utterances and a high degree of turn-taking. The translator frequently makes such exchanges more intelligible by attributing particular utterances to concrete characters. This is especially noticeable in chapter 1 and chapter 9, filled with such speech tags as “says the Colonel”, “says the Chief ”, “says his dad”, “says the gentleman”, “say the ladies”, “he says”, “says one of them”, “says the doctor”,

5  Mitigation, Standardization, Simplification and Explicitation 

153

Table 5.14  Examples of explicitation in Lloyd-Jones’s translation Korczak (1933)

Literal translation

Lloyd-Jones (2012)

Ano, schody, podwórko. Potem brama. I już ulica. (Korczak [1933] 1985: 6) Krzyk, groźby – awantura. (Korczak [1933] 1985: 88) Na cmentarzu. Groby, krzyże. (Korczak [1933] 1985: 71)

So, the stairs, the schoolyard. Then the gate. And then the street. Screams, threats – a fuss.

Down the stairs and into the schoolyard. Then through the gate. And they’re in the street. (Korczak 2012: 10) People start screaming and making threats – there’s quite a fuss. (Korczak 2012: 109) He goes to the cemetery. There are graves and crosses. (Korczak 2012: 89)

At the cemetery. Graves, crosses.

“confirms the man”, “thinks Kaytek”, which are absent from the source text. Thanks to Lloyd-Jones, the frequency of tags in the text increases significantly, and so does the ease of reading. The translator also makes the source text more explicit on many other planes by adding a variety of cohesive devices and explaining implicit logical links and causal, temporal and spatial relations. This may be illustrated with the examples in Table 5.14. In the first example, the translator, having omitted the opening particle “Ano”, introduces as many as four different prepositions, a conjunction, as well as a verb and a pronoun in order to render the directionality of the characters’ actions in a more explicit manner. A characteristic feature of Korczak’s laconic style is the use of sentence fragments and strings of several single nouns or verbs each followed by a punctuation mark. In such cases, Lloyd-Jones sometimes makes the source text more explicit and cohesive. For example, in the second example in the table, instead of recreating the three nouns “Krzyk, groźby  – awantura” literally as “Scream, threats – a fuss”, she adds subjects and verbs, clarifying the inexplicit relations from the source text as “People start screaming and making threats – there’s quite a fuss”. The translator follows a similar pattern in the third example, rendering Korczak’s elliptical style in a more accessible and intelligible manner. More examples illustrating this tendency are presented in Table 5.15. In many cases, the translator transforms Korczak’s syntax and writing style, making potentially ambiguous passages more explicit. Although

154 

M. Borodo

Table 5.15  More examples of explicitation in Lloyd-Jones’s translation Korczak (1933)

Literal translation

Spróbowała. (Korczak [1933] 1985: 71) Odczytał napis. (Korczak [1933] 1985: 71) Nie powiesz? (Korczak [1933] 1985: 14) Były słonie-mamuty. Są wykopaliska. (Korczak [1933] 1985: 36)

She tried.

Lloyd-Jones (2012)

She does try again to stop him. (Korczak 2012: 89) He read the He reads out the inscription inscription. on his grandma’s grave. (Korczak 2012: 90) Aren’t you going to Aren’t you going to tell me tell me? what happened? (Korczak 2012: 20) There were elephant-­ And there were mammoths. There are archeological mammoths. There excavations to prove it. are archeological (Korczak 2012: 47) excavations.

their meaning could be inferred from the context, Lloyd-Jones’s additions make such passages more cohesive and easier to process. The four examples in Table 5.15 illustrate the translator’s tendency to insert adverbials and subordinate clauses. The first two examples additionally illustrate yet another trend, that is, the fact that Lloyd-Jones occasionally replaces the past tense with the historic present, which may increase the immediacy of experiencing the described events from the reader’s perspective (Lathey 2003).

 he Robber Chief and the Devil: Explicitation T of Cultural References In her translation of Kaytek the Wizard, Lloyd-Jones also retains and makes clearer numerous cultural references to Polish legends, traditions, history, currency and geography, which appear in Korczak’s novel. This type of explicitation, which involves adding explanations of implicit cultural references, is referred to as “pragmatic explicitation” by Klaudy (2009: 106–107). Lloyd-Jones foregrounds the cultural specificity of the source text, introducing in-text explanatory expressions and a large number of footnotes, sometimes employing both strategies simultaneously. As a result,

5  Mitigation, Standardization, Simplification and Explicitation 

155

Table 5.16  Examples of “pragmatic explicitation” in Lloyd-Jones’s translation Korczak (1933)

Lloyd-Jones (2012)

Did the strongmen Samson and Hercules really live? And Madey, the robber chief? And Master Twardowski, the legendary Polish nobleman? And Boruta the devil? (Korczak 2012: 47) The great Polish poet Mickiewicz wrote Sam Mickiewicz pisał o about Master Twardowski, who knew Twardowskim. (Korczak [1933] magic. (Korczak 2012: 49) 1985: 38) A zaczęło się jakoś od smoka na Somehow it began with the dragon on Wawel Hill, in the famous legend about Wawelu – od Krakusa. Krakus, the prince who killed it. (Korczak (Korczak [1933] 1985: 36) 2012: 46) Czy żyli siłacze: Samson i Herkules? I Madej? I mistrz Twardowski? I Boruta? (Korczak [1933] 1985: 30)

instead of being muted or erased in translation, cultural references clearly stand out but also become intelligible. The translator’s explicitation approach may be illustrated with the examples presented in Table 5.16. Since in the first example such names as “Madej”, “Twardowski” and “Boruta” would sound enigmatic to the English reader, Lloyd-Jones adds explanatory expressions such as “the robber chief ” or “the legendary Polish gentleman” to shed more light on these distinctly Polish characters. Moreover, she inserts an explanatory footnote additionally informing the reader that “Madey the robber chief, Master Twardowski, and Boruta the devil are all characters from Polish folklore” (Korczak 2012: 47). The same strategy is observable in the next example. While such names as “Mickiewicz” and “Twardowski” would be perfectly intelligible to Polish readers, they will again most probably sound inscrutable to the English-language reader. This time Lloyd-Jones refers to “Twardowski” as “Master Twardowski, who knew magic”, which is indeed justifiable and relevant in the context of the preceding sentences, which mention magic spells and the occult. The explicitation strategy is also observable in the final example in this table, which is similarly clarified in a footnote. Unlike the source text, the translation informs us that “Wawel” is a hill, that “Krakus” is a prince and that they both appear in a legend. This passage is then further elaborated on in a footnote: “Wawel Hill is a real place in the Polish city of Krakow. Krakus was the legendary founder of the city” (ibid.: 46). Incidentally, if Korczak’s original words—“zaczęło się

156 

M. Borodo

jakoś od smoka na Wawelu – od Krakusa”—were translated literally, they would misleadingly suggest to the English reader that “Krakus” is in fact the name of the dragon rather than the dragon slayer. Lloyd-Jones skilfully disambiguates this potentially ambiguous sentence. Apart from shedding light on Polish folklore and legends, Lloyd-Jones also explicates various historical and geographical references. She consistently retains every mention of Polish history, from the passages describing such figures as King John Sobieski or Copernicus, to excerpts concerning insurrections, wars and the Partitions of Poland, which are usually elucidated in footnotes. For example, the sentence “Why were people sent to a freezing cold country as a punishment for having books like that?” (ibid.: 103) is further explained in a footnote: “This is a reference to the Polish insurgents who were exiled to Siberia for trying to revolt against the Russian Empire in the period when, together with the Prussian and Austro-Hungarian Empires, Russia had occupied and enslaved Poland” (ibid.). To provide another example, the sentence “On the desk there was a black cat, an owl, a skull, and the round thing the statue of Copernicus is holding” (ibid.: 77) is accompanied by the following meticulous footnote: Copernicus (1473–1543) was the founder of modern astronomy who first discovered that the Earth revolves around the sun. There is a famous statue of him in Warsaw holding a round device called an astrolabe, which is a model showing the relative positions of the planets in the sky. (Ibid.: 77–78)

Polish geography and Warsaw topography received a similar treatment in translation, being not only retained in Kaytek the Wizard but also on many occasions explained in a footnote. This applies to, for example, the River Vistula (ibid.: 44), the Tatra mountain range (ibid.: 134) or such Warsaw locations as Nowy Świat Street (ibid.: 147) or Teatralny Square (ibid.: 108), briefly commented on in a footnote: “Teatralny Square – or Theatre Square – is in downtown Warsaw” (ibid.). The English reader is thus continuously reminded about the fact that the story about Kaytek is unfolding in a specific cultural milieu. In some cases, one may wonder whether the translator is not excessively meticulous in footnoting cultural references. For example, it is

5  Mitigation, Standardization, Simplification and Explicitation 

157

debatable whether it is necessary to explicate the excerpt “Next time he was left at home, he tried to light the gas-lamp in front of the holy icon” (ibid.: 27) with the footnote “Some Polish homes used to have holy pictures with a light or a candle burning in front of them” (ibid.) or whether it is fully justifiable to explain “He stops at an advertising pillar” (ibid. 92) in the footnote informing “A big cylindrical post in the street, on which advertisements are pasted” (ibid.). However, Lloyd-Jones may be right that such advertising pillars, or Litfaßsäulen, originally invented in Germany by Ernst Litfaß, are not known in the UK and the USA and deserve to be commented on in a footnote. Finally, as Lloyd-Jones herself admits in the Afterword, adding footnotes “may look a little academic” (ibid.: 271). The twenty-eight footnotes, some of which merely refer the reader to the Translator’s Afterword, indeed make the book appear somewhat academic and contribute to the impression that the translation is aimed at a more mature audience. To summarize, Lloyd-Jones consistently renders Korczak’s 1933 classic novel in a more explicit manner. She makes use of pragmatic explicitation, inserting footnotes and introducing in-text explanatory expressions regarding cultural specificity, and makes frequent use of optional explicitation, introducing cohesive and stylistic devices to overtly express what remains inexplicit in the source text. Overall, perhaps with the exception of her meticulous use of footnotes, Lloyd-Jones’s strategy has a positive impact on readability. She attempts to mediate the source text by making Korczak’s laconic and elliptical style less challenging linguistically. Lloyd-­ Jones’s Kaytek the Wizard is written in a style which is easier to follow than that of the original and it abounds in many cultural references and explanatory expressions that celebrate and vibrantly resonate with Polishness.

References Primary Sources Korczak, Janusz. 1945. Matthew the Young King. Trans. Edith and Sidney Sulkin. New York: Roy Publishers. ———. [1922] 1955. Król Maciuś Pierwszy. Warszawa: Nasza Księgarnia.

158 

M. Borodo

———. [1933] 1985. Kajtuś czarodziej. Warszawa: Nasza Księgarnia. ———. 1986. King Matt the First. Trans. Richard Lourie. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ———. [1922] 1992. Król Maciuś Pierwszy. Król Maciuś na wyspie bezludnej. Warszawa: Oficyna Wydawnicza Latona. ———. 2012. Kaytek the Wizard. Trans. Antonia Lloyd-Jones. New  York: Penlight Publications.

Secondary Sources Bensimon, Paul. 1990. Présentation. Palimpsestes 13 (4): ix–xiii. Blum-Kulka, Shoshana. [1986] 2001. Shifts in Cohesion and Coherence in Translation. In The Translation Studies Reader, ed. Venuti, Lawrence, 298–313. London/New York: Routledge. Englund Dimitrova, Birgitta. 2005. Expertise and Explicitation in the Translation Process. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Fischer, Martin B. 2012. “Gulpin’ Gargoyles” – Language Varieties in the Harry Potter Novels and Their Translations. In Translating Fictional Dialogue for Children and Young People, ed. Martin B.  Fischer and Maria Wirf Naro, 43–79. Berlin: Frank and Timme. Gambier, Yves. 1994. La retraduction, retour et detour. Meta 39 (3): 413–417. House, Juliane. 2004. Linguistic Aspects of the Translation of Children’s Literature. In Übersetzung  – Translation  – Traduction. An International Encyclopedia of Translation Studies, ed. Kittel Harald, Paul Armin Frank, Norbert Greiner, Theo Hermans, Werner Koller, José Lambert, and Fritz Paul, 683–697. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. Klaudy, Kinga. 2009. Explicitation. In Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies, ed. Mona Baker and Gabriela Saldanha, 2nd ed., 104–108. London/ New York: Routledge. Lathey, Gillian. 2003. Time, Narrative Intimacy and the Child. Meta 48 (1/2): 233–240. ———. 2016. Translating Children’s Literature. New York: Routledge. Looby, Robert. 2015. Censorship, Translation and English Language Fiction in People’s Poland. Leiden/Boston: Brill/Rodopi. Nida, Eugene. 1964. Toward a Science of Translating. Leiden: Brill. Oittinen, Riitta. 1990. The Dialogic Relation of Text and Illustration: A Translatological View. TextConText 1: 40–53. O’Sullivan, Emer. 2005. Comparative Children’s Literature. London: Routledge.

5  Mitigation, Standardization, Simplification and Explicitation 

159

Pokorn, Nike K. 2012. Post-Socialist Translation Practices: Ideological Struggle in Children’s Literature. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Séguinot, Candace. 1988. Pragmatics and the Explicitation Hypothesis. In TTR: Traduction, Terminologie, Rédaction, vol. 2, 106–113. Shavit, Zohar. 1986. Poetics of Children’s Literature. London: The University of Georgia Press. Thomson-Wohlgemuth, Gabriele. 2009. Translation Under State Control: Books for Young People in the German Democratic Republic. New York: Routledge. Van Coillie, Jan. 2012. Cool, Geil, Gaaf, Chouette or Super. The Challenges of Translating Teenage Speech. In Translating Fictional Dialogue for Children and Young People, ed. Martin B.  Fischer and Maria Wirf Naro, 217–234. Berlin: Frank and Timme. Vinay, Jean-Paul, and Jean Darbelnet. [1958] 1995. Comparative Stylistics of French and English: A Methodology for Translation. Trans. J.  C. Sager and M.-J. Hamel. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

6 Style and Sociolect: A Corpus-Based Study

This chapter concentrates on the notions of translator style and sociolect in translated children’s fiction, with particular reference to Little King Matty, Adam Czasak’s version of Korczak’s tale published in London in 1990. Adam Czasak translated the book ten years earlier, however, when he was in his early twenties, and when asked about his translation strategy, he revealed that it was his intention to use a straightforward and accessible style rather than sophisticated, “literary” language in the text (telephone conversation, 8 July 2019). The translation is indeed written in colloquial British English, which is not only more informal than the language of the American translations but sometimes even more informal than that of the source text. Moreover, some of the speech patterns used in the translation may be associated with a particular social demographic, that is, the lower middle class or working class, and the translator uses such patterns for narration as well as in the fictional dialogues of children. Using traditional analytical methods and a corpus-based methodology, the chapter traces the translation’s prominent stylistic features, examining the recurrent use of characteristic lexical items and distinctive phonetic and grammatical patterns, such as h-dropping, tag questions and syntactic patterns for adding emphasis and focusing information in a sentence. © The Author(s) 2020 M. Borodo, English Translations of Korczak’s Children’s Fiction, Palgrave Studies in Translating and Interpreting, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38117-2_6

161

162 

M. Borodo

“ Dead good” and “Dreadfully rich”: Tracing the Translator’s Fingerprints Back in 2000, Baker explained the relative lack of interest in researching translator style up to that point by noting that translation had been traditionally perceived as a derivative rather than a creative activity: “[t]he implication is that a translator cannot have, indeed should not have, a style of his or her own, the translator’s task being simply to reproduce as closely as possible the style of the original” (2000: 244, emphasis in original). Baker questions these assumptions, observing that “it is as impossible to produce a stretch of language in a totally impersonal way as it is to handle an object without leaving one’s fingerprints on it” (ibid.). We will follow this line of thought in an attempt to trace the translator’s fingerprints by examining their distinctive translation choices. The “fingerprint” metaphor is not used to suggest that the translator is a culprit, guilty of the distortion of the source text, but rather to emphasize that their work is unique and to draw attention to their creative efforts and mediating role, which can be tracked and made visible by close examination of the translated text. Three small auxiliary corpora have also been compiled using Sketch Engine for purposes of analysis. Each corpus consists of the first fifteen chapters of the text (i.e. almost 30 per cent of Korczak’s novel) from the 1945, 1986 and 1990 translations by the Sulkins, Lourie and Czasak. The reason for not including the complete texts is the Sulkins’ departures from the source text in terms of macro-­strategies such as omission of chapters, which would render comparison difficult. We will begin with a focus on one aspect of the translated language, that is, Czasak’s characteristic use of certain adverbs, adjectives and determiners, some of which appear in his translation with a very high frequency. One of the most distinctive features of the translation is the translator’s frequent use of the qualifier “dead” as an adjective premodifier, in the sense of “very” or “extremely”, which is more typical of British than American English (Algeo 2006: 154; Schur 2001: 91). Selected examples of such usage are compared with Lourie’s version in Table 6.1. Czasak frequently inserts the adverb “dead”, whereas Lourie uses “very”, “extremely” or “terribly”. In total, in the Czasak corpus there are thirty-nine occurrences of “very” and as many as twenty-nine occurrences

6  Style and Sociolect: A Corpus-Based Study 

163

Table 6.1  Examples of the adverb “dead” as an adjective premodifier in Czasak’s translation Korczak (1922)

Czasak (1990)

Ministra wojny bardzo się bali wszyscy ministrowie […]. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 9) Musieli się bardzo pilnować […]. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 21) Mój ojciec jest plutonowym i ma bardzo dobry wzrok. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 24) Maciuś był bardzo smutny, a Felek promieniał. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 32) Tak, to musi bardzo drogo kosztować. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 46) Maciuś się strasznie zawstydził […]. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 94) Tylko że on nie lubi wojować, wojska ma niewiele. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 226)

All the ministers were Everyone was dead very afraid of the scared of the Minister Minister of War […]. of War […]. (Korczak (Korczak 1986: 6) 1990: 11) They all had to be dead They had to be very careful […]. (Korczak careful […]. (Korczak 1986: 22) 1990: 25) My father is a platoon My dad’s a platoon-­ leader and he has very commander and his eye-sight’s dead good. sharp eyes. (Korczak 1986: 26) (Korczak 1990: 28)

Matty was dead sad, whilst Feldo couldn’t have been happier. (Korczak 1990: 35) Yes, but it’d be dead expensive. (Korczak 1990: 52) Matty felt dead embarrassed […]. (Korczak 1990: 101) The only problem was he didn’t like war and his army was dead small. (Korczak 1990: 233) Those that found Ci, których wybierano, themselves on the list strasznie się cieszyli, a ci, were dead happy, and których król nie those that didn’t, wybierał, byli bardzo were dead sad. zmartwieni. (Korczak (Korczak 1990: 121) [1922] 1992: 112)

Lourie (1986)

Matt was very sad, but Felek was beaming. (Korczak 1986: 37) Yes, it was going to be extremely expensive. (Korczak 1986: 57) Matt felt terribly embarrassed […]. (Korczak 1986: 121) But he doesn’t like going to war and doesn’t have many soldiers. (Korczak 1986: 299) The people who were chosen were terribly happy, and those whom the king did not choose were very upset. (Korczak 1986: 148)

of “dead”, most of them functioning as adjective premodifiers. In contrast, in the corresponding fifteen chapters in Lourie, there are only four occurrences of “dead”, none of them used as an adjective premodifier, and as many as sixty-five uses of “very”. In the corresponding chapters in the Sulkins’ translation, “very” appears fifty-eight times and “dead” appears only once—a significant disproportion in comparison with the twenty-nine occurrences of “dead” in Czasak. The translator mainly uses

164 

M. Borodo

“dead” in front of negatively valenced adjectives (scared, boring, bored) and, to a lesser extent, in front of positively valenced adjectives (brainy, exciting, clever). The adjectives in the corpus which have been premodified most often include “scared”, “careful”, “boring”, “bored” and “hard”. Interestingly, in some cases “dead” is added by Czasak for emphasis even when such emphasis does not appear in the source text. Thus, while in the original Korczak simply observes that “Maciuś był ostrożny” ([1922] 1992: 22), which was translated by Lourie as “Matt was careful” (Korczak 1986: 24), Czasak stresses that “he was dead careful” (Korczak 1990: 26). Similarly, when in several other cases Lourie uses “boring”, “intelligent”, “difficult”, “weary”, “bored”, “hard”, “angry” and “envious”, Czasak adds extra emphasis using “dead boring”, “dead clever”, “dead hard”, “dead tired”, “dead bored”, “dead angry” and “dead jealous”. Inserting these intensifiers cannot be explained with reference to Korczak’s style, as they are absent from the source text. It was the translator’s choice to introduce them, probably in an attempt to evoke an emotional response from the reader through the use of more dramatic and compelling language. This is also an interesting transformation in terms of style and formality, as the use of adverbial qualifier “dead” makes the text more informal. This feature of Czasak’s style cannot be simply explained with reference to the style of the source text, but is the result of the translator’s idiosyncratic decisions, an example of his “linguistic fingerprints”. Apart from his frequent use of “dead” Czasak also exhibits a preference for “dreadful” and “dreadfully”. It may be worth distinguishing the two cases, as the distribution and formality of “dead” and “dreadfully” are different. For example, both “dead” and “dreadfully” are used for narration, but “dead” is more often used in fictional dialogues. The register of “dreadful” is also more formal. Used in the sense of “very bad/great/disagreeable” and “extremely” respectively, and mainly associated with British English, they appear in his translation particularly frequently (Table 6.2). For example, while in Lourie’s version Matt feels a “terrible sadness” and “great anger”, he experiences a “dreadful sorrow” and a “dreadful anger” in the translation by Czasak. While in Lourie’s translation Matt is “deeply hurt” and cannot sleep because of “dark thoughts”, in Czasak’s version he is “dreadfully offended” and cannot sleep because of “dreadful thoughts”. Other examples, juxtaposed with Lourie’s lexical

6  Style and Sociolect: A Corpus-Based Study 

165

Table 6.2  Examples of “dreadful” and “dreadfully” in Czasak’s translation Korczak (1922)

Czasak (1990)

Lourie (1986)

A terrible sadness tugged at his heart, and he felt a great anger and resentment for the ministers […]. (Korczak 1986: 10) Matt returned to the palace, his feelings deeply hurt. (Korczak 1986: 258) So dark thoughts are even driving sleep from the eyes of little kings? (Korczak 1986: 121) Your Majesty’s dreadfully Your Royal Majesty is Wasza królewska mość rich. (Korczak 1990: 99) awfully rich. (Korczak strasznie jest bogaty. 1986: 118) (Korczak [1922] 1992: 91) the room became nastała wielka cisza. and a dreadful silence perfectly silent. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 79) descended. (Korczak (Korczak 1986: 103) 1990: 87) the window was open, the window was wide okno otwarte, łóżko the bed looked slept open, the bed was a rozrzucone, a Maciusia in, but there was no dreadful mess and the ani śladu. (Korczak trace of Matt. (Korczak king – was gone. [1922] 1992: 44) 1986: 54) (Korczak 1990: 49) Right then, Matt heard W tej samej chwili usłyszał And at that very same a cry from behind him. moment a dreadful Maciuś za sobą krzyk. (Korczak 1986: 195) scream reached his (Korczak [1922] 1992: ears. (Korczak 1990: 147) 154) Matt didn’t really Matty was dreadfully Maciuś nie bardzo understand what they baffled […]. (Korczak rozumiał, co oni mówili were saying […]. 1990: 15) […]. (Korczak [1922] (Korczak 1986: 9) 1992: 12) And a dreadful sorrow I straszny smutek zwalił squeezed his heart – mu się na piersi – i wielki gniew, i żal do ministrów and then a dreadful anger at all those […]. (Korczak [1922] ministers […]. (Korczak 1992: 13) 1990: 15) Never in his life had Śmiertelnie obrażony Matty been so wrócił Maciuś do pałacu. dreadfully offended. (Korczak [1922] 1992: (Korczak 1990: 204) 194) So even little kings can’t Więc i małym królom sleep because of ciemne myśli spędzają dreadful thoughts, sen z powiek? (Korczak (Korczak 1990: 101) [1922] 1992: 94)

choices in Table 6.2, include “dreadfully rich”, “dreadful silence”, “dreadful scream”, “dreadful mess” and “dreadfully baffled”. Once again, Czasak sometimes uses “dreadful” and “dreadfully” to add extra emphasis. This is the case with the final three examples in the table. Thus, while Lourie’s “Matt didn’t really understand” is an accurate equivalent of Korczak’s original, Czasak’s “Matty was dreadfully baffled” is emphatic. The word “krzyk” [cry/scream] from the source text is simply

166 

M. Borodo

rendered as “a cry” by Lourie but amplified into “a dreadful scream” by Czasak. Similarly, in Lourie’s translation we come across “the bed looked slept in”, but in Czasak’s version “the bed was a dreadful mess”. Applying the strategy of hyperbolization (see Chaps. 2 and 4), the translator intensifies and dramatizes certain passages through the inclusion of emphatic expressions absent from the source text, a tendency previously found in his use of the word “dead”, although, as noted earlier, these words differ in terms of formality. With regard to the frequency of “dreadful” and “dreadfully” in the first fifteen chapters of Czasak’s translation, the adjective appears ten times and the adverb occurs five times. In the corpora consisting of Lourie’s and the Sulkins’ translations these lexical items do not appear. Another distinctive feature of the 1990 translation is the use of the colloquial determiners “loads of ” and “a load of ”, which again are more common in British than in American English (Algeo 2006: 65). This feature becomes particularly prominent when Czasak’s version is compared with Lourie’s (Table 6.3). For example, while Lourie’s translation mentions “many enemy soldiers” and “constant strikes”, Czasak’s text refers to “a load of strikes” and “loads of enemy soldiers”. The reader of the American translation will encounter such forms as “much homework” and “a lot of gold”, whereas the reader of the British version will come across “loads of homework”, “loads of gold”. When the greedy manufacturer (who, incidentally, becomes “dead greedy” in the British version) is negotiating an order with one of the ministers he is “up to his ears in work” according to Lourie but has “loads of work” according to Czasak. With its frequent use of “loads of ” and “a load of ”, Czasak’s translation is thus far more colloquial than the American version, and also more colloquial than Korczak’s source text. In the final three examples in the table, Czasak amplifies the original excerpts, adding “loads of ” and “a load of ” when no such emphasis appears in the source text, which is similar to his use of “dead” and “dreadful”. Thus, when Lourie renders “niegrzeczne dzieci” as “naughty children”, Czasak rephrases it as “loads of naughty children”. While Lourie refers to “lies” and “thick raspberry bushes”, Czasak replaces them with “a load of lies” and “loads of thick raspberry bushes”. This also results in a change in the degree of formality. It is not just that Czasak’s translation is very English (or British) while Lourie’s is American—the more

6  Style and Sociolect: A Corpus-Based Study 

167

Table 6.3  Examples of “loads of” and “a load of” in Czasak’s translation Korczak (1922)

Czasak (1990)

Tamtych tylu zabitych (Korczak [1922] 1992: 53) Będziemy mieli ciągle strejki i bunty. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 10) Oj, ja mam tyle lekcji zadanych na jutro […]. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 220) Maciuś przywiózł dużo złota […]. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 126) A przy tym zawalony jestem robotą […]. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 46) Wszystko zrobią, co król zechce, ale do ogrodu zwyczajnego chodzić nie może, bo tam są niegrzeczne dzieci […]. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 17) bardzo gęste maliny (Korczak [1922] 1992: 23) więc kłamią (Korczak [1922] 1992: 41)

Loads of enemy soldiers So many enemy soldiers dead (Korczak 1986: shot and killed 64) (Korczak 1990: 56) We’ll have constant it’ll be a load of strikes strikes. (Korczak 1986: and rebellions as well. 7) (Korczak 1990: 12) Oh, but I’ve got loads of But I’ve got so much homework for homework to do […]. tomorrow […]. (Korczak 1990: 228) (Korczak 1986: 292) Matt had brought back a Matty had brought loads of gold. (Korczak lot of gold […]. (Korczak 1986: 168) 1990: 136) Besides, I am up to my And anyway, I’ve ears in work […]. already got loads of (Korczak 1986: 56) work as it is. (Korczak 1990: 50–52) They would do All the king’s other everything the king wishes would be wanted, but he could granted, but not this not go to regular parks one, because the because there were garden contained naughty children […]. loads of naughty kids […]. (Korczak 1990: 20) (Korczak 1986: 15) loads of thick raspberry thick raspberry bushes (Korczak 1986: 24) bushes (Korczak 1990: 26) [they] made up a load of and now they tell us lies lies (Korczak 1990: 46) (Korczak 1986: 49)

Lourie (1986)

apparent trait is that the style of the British translation, with its frequent use of “dead” and “loads of ”, is more informal.

“ This is anarchy!” or “What the flippin’ ’eck?” Translation and Social Class When adults in Matt’s kingdom learn that they will be sent by children to school again, many of them react with irritation and consternation. In the source text, their reaction to the surprising news is “Co to za nowe

168 

M. Borodo

Table 6.4  Examples of distinctively British English expressions linked to formality and sociolect Korczak (1922)

Czasak (1990)

Lourie (1986)

“This is anarchy!” said “What the flippin’ some people angrily. ’eck’s this supposed “Who are they giving to mean?!” growled orders to? […]” (Korczak some of the adults. 1986: 270) “They’re not bossing us about! […]” (Korczak 1990: 212) “Take these foreign – Zabrać mi w tej chwili te “Titbits! I ain’t eatin’ fricassees away this this rubbish!” Matty zamorskie frykasy! – bawled at them. “Giz minute,” roared Matt. “I huknął Maciuś – chcę want kielbasa, cabbage, some sausage and kiełbasy z kapustą i and beer.” beer!” piwa. But, good Lord, there Oh lor! Sausage and Rety babskie, w wasn’t a single piece of beer—just when it pałacowym kredensie kielbasa in the entire was all gone! ani kawałka kiełbasy. royal pantry. (Korczak (Korczak [1922] 1992: 70) (Korczak 1990: 76) 1986: 89)

– Co to za nowe porządki – złościli się jedni. – Dlaczego mają rozkazywać? (Korczak [1922] 1992: 203)

porządki” [What sort of new orders are these?]. The difference between the British and the American translations in rendering this passage is particularly striking (Table 6.4). Lourie’s formal “This is anarchy!” followed by “Who are they giving orders to?” diverges significantly from Czasak’s informal “What the flippin’ ’eck’s this supposed to mean?!” followed by the colloquial “They are not bossing us about!”, with both versions departing significantly from the source text. Czasak combines the euphemistic “what the heck” with the distinctively British and euphemistic qualifier “flipping” (Algeo 2006: 155), used in a pejorative sense similar to “bloody” (Schur 2001: 123) and mainly used as a mild intensifier in such expressions as “flipping hell” or “flipping heck” (Thorne 2007: 165). This is one of the best examples in the 1990 translation of a British English colloquialism that is linked to class. “Flippin’ ’eck” suggests that the speaker is lower middle class or working class. It should also be noted that a qualifier such as “flipping” is now somewhat dated as English has changed in the nearly four decades since Czasak completed his translation (as noted earlier, he worked on it ten years prior to its publication, around 1980)—a fact to be borne in mind in considering this and the

6  Style and Sociolect: A Corpus-Based Study 

169

similarly dated expressions from the text, such as “bossy-boots” or “my foot!” (Korczak 1990: 82). The second excerpt in Table  6.4 is also thoroughly transformed in Czasak’s translation, which becomes immediately apparent when it is compared with the American version. While Lourie’s “Take these foreign fricassees away this minute” is close to the source text (although the word “fricassees” in English seems more unusual than “frykasy” in Polish), Czasak rephrases it as “Titbits! I ain’t eatin’ this rubbish!” This is far more colloquial due to the use of the informal “I ain’t eatin’” and the replacement of “te zamorskie frykasy” with “titbits” and “rubbish”. The rest of this passage is marked by the omission of a reference to cabbage (but not beer)1 and, more interestingly, Czasak’s use of the non-standard form “giz”, a contraction of “give us”, where plural “us” is used for singular “me”2 (as in “gizza job” for “give us a job” where “us” is used for “me”), and his use of “Oh lor”, an informal British interjection (Algeo 2006: 210). With regard to Lourie’s translation, it is interesting how foreignizing it is. It not only uses the borrowing “kielbasa”, but if it is regarded as a translation to be read by children, then it seems odd to regard the majority of children in the USA of the 1980s, or other Anglophone countries, as being familiar with “fricassees”. In fact, Lourie’s translation, more formal and closer to the source text, may sometimes appear more unusual than Czasak’s when considered in the genre of children’s literature. It may also be noted that unlike Antonia Lloyd-Jones in her ­translation of Kaytek the Wizard (see Chap. 5) he does not use footnotes to explain the foreign references—the reader is left to fend for themself. The following passage describes the scene in which Matt and his friend Feldo (Czasak’s translation of Felek, one of the novel’s central protagonists) have arrived at a train station. As they are waiting for the train that will take them to the front, the young king’s friend is having a conversa The omission of cabbage, but not beer, is interesting. A reference to beer in a children’s book might be unusual, but in terms of cuisine, sausage and beer would probably not raise an eyebrow in the UK. Sausage and cabbage probably would. 2  As noted by Michael Swan (1996: 432), in “very informal British speech, us is quite often used instead of me”, as in, for example, “Give us a kiss” or “Lend us a fiver”, and it is widely used this way in non-standard English, for example, in the north-east (Trudgill 1990: 82). Also, as observed by Algeo (2006: 107), “the contraction of us to ’s in such constructions is an additional British feature.” 1

170 

M. Borodo

Table 6.5  Sociolect and the informal style of Czasak’s translation Korczak (1922)

Czasak (1990)

Lourie (1986)

“I’m tellin’ y’, here we “I’ll tell you what happened – Powiadam wam, my to us. There were three of we trzech idziem, a tu was the three of us, us on the way here. Then and then all of a jak nie huknie: there was this big myślałem, że bomba z sudden this dead big explosion. I thought it was bang. Thought it was areoplanu. A to tylko a bomb from an airplane. a plane bombing us. skrzynia z rakietami. But it was only a box of But it was only a box Potem gwiazdy takie of flares. Filled the sky flares. It looked like stars spadły z nieba. falling out of the sky.” with stars, they did.” – A po diabła im “What the devil do they “What the ’ell d’ they rakiety do wojny. need flares for in a war?” – Żeby oświetlać drogę, need flares for, “To light up the road when anyway?” jak nie ma there are no searchlights.” “To light the way when reflektorów. (Korczak 1986: 45) there’s no (Korczak [1922] 1992: floodlights.” 38) (Korczak 1990: 42)

tion with soldiers, recounting what has just happened on the way to the military camp. Presented in Table 6.5, this verbal account illustrates several linguistic phenomena linked to formality and sociolect. In the boy’s speech, one can identify the instances of contractions and g-dropping (“I’m tellin’ y’”, “d’ they”), h-dropping (“what the ’ell”), ellipsis (“Thought” instead of “I thought”), non-standard grammar (“here we was”, “there’s no floodlights”) and syntax (“Filled the sky, they did”), and the adverbial qualifier “dead” (“dead big bang”). Arguably, Czasak’s translation sounds even more colloquial than the source text, even though it also contains colloquialisms. Czasak metonymically privileges different reserves of meaning than Lourie, accentuating Korczak’s simple, unembellished and informal language. Moreover, some of the speech patterns used by the translator signal social identity. They may be associated with a particular social demographic, that is, informal British English ­associated with lower middle class or working class, and he also uses such patterns to stylize the language of children. One of the reforms introduced by Matt assumes that children and adults should change places, which leads to many serious problems, as the children cannot perform their adult duties properly. The passage in Table 6.6 presents a typical situation in Matt’s kingdom after the unfor-

6  Style and Sociolect: A Corpus-Based Study 

171

Table 6.6  Examples of very informal British English used in Czasak’s translation Korczak (1922)

Czasak (1990)

Lourie (1986)

– Patrz, co ty za milicjant. Wpadli do sklepu, złapali garść suszonych śliwek i uciekli. – A dokąd uciekli? – A bo ja wiem. – No, jak nie wiesz, więc co ja ci poradzę? – Jak jesteś milicjant, to powinieneś patrzeć. […] – Także pretensja: chce, żeby aresztować złodzieja, a nie wie, gdzie jest. Psia służba. Stój jak ten slup i patrz na wszystko. I żeby mi choć dała jabłko albo co, to nie. Powiem, że nie chcę być więcej milicjantem i koniec. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 206)

“Flippin’ ’eck, what a hopeless copper. They’ve just nicked some plums.” “Who has?” “How am I supposed to know?” “Well, how d’you expect me to find ’em, if y’ don’t know who they are?” “You’re a copper, aren’t you? Open your eyes.” […] “The things they ask for! How am I supposed to catch ‘em if I don’t know where they’ve gone? It’s rubbish this job. Can’t see everyone, can I? Come screamin’ for help, they do, but they never give you nowt. No chance. Packing this job in, I am. (Korczak 1990: 215)

“What kind of policeman are you, anyway! Some bad kids ran into my store, grabbed a handful of dried plums, and then ran out without paying,” said one salesgirl. “Which way did they run?” “How should I know?” “Well, if you don’t know, how can I help you?” “You’re the policeman, you should be watching.” […] “Listen to her. She wants me to catch the thief, but she doesn’t even know which way he went. This is a lousy job. All you do is stand around like a dope. And that stingy salesgirl didn’t even offer me an apple. I don’t want to be a policeman any more, and that’s final. (Korczak 1986: 274)

tunate reform has been introduced. Two children, who have assumed the new roles of a shop assistant and a policeman, are arguing, accusing each other of neglecting their duties. Both Czasak and Lourie skilfully recreate the informal style of the source text. For example, Lourie’s translation mentions the “bad kids” who “grabbed” some plums and the boy’s complaints about the “stingy” salesgirl, the “lousy” job and “standing around like a dope”. In Czasak’s version, on the other hand, the arguing children use characteristically British contractions and syntactic constructions. This may be illustrated with, for example, the boy saying: “Well, how d’you expect me to find ’em”, “Can’t see everyone, can I?” and “Packing this job in, I am”. The 1990 translation also contains a number of colloquial expressions which

172 

M. Borodo

may be associated with informal British English. An obvious example is the use of the verb “to nick”, which means “to steal” in British English and which “has been used in this sense since at least the 1820s” being “rare in the USA” (Thorne 2007: 308), where the form “to pinch” would be more common (Schur 2001: 219). This may be also illustrated with the class-related, contracted form of “flipping heck”, the informal British “copper” and the pronoun “nowt”, a variant of “nothing” associated with Northern England (Algeo 2006: 155). The 1990 translation also contains many other colloquial expressions in addition to those presented in the table. These are colloquial references to food, alcohol, tobacco and cigarettes, such as “grub” (Korczak 1990: 36), “booze” (ibid.: 14), “fag” (ibid.: 63) and “baccy” (ibid.: 35), an informal British expression for tobacco. Still other examples indicative of the colloquial character of Czasak’s translation include the informal “softie” (ibid.: 221), “hankie” (ibid.: 197, 203), “comfy” (ibid.: 1990: 193) and “lingo” (ibid.: 149). Next, let us examine in more detail the translator’s recurrent use of contractions and h-dropping.

“ Eh, soldier, ‘ow old are y‘!” Contractions and H-dropping “Take this, y’ dirty spy!” roars Matt, pointing his revolver at the journalist who turned out to be a traitor responsible for the chaos and misinformation in the kingdom. “Bloody starvin’, I am! Where’s m’ grub?!” exclaims the young king to his servants after he has returned to the royal palace from the front. In these and other examples in Table 6.7, the boy uses contracted forms, which are typical of informal language. Note also the translator’s use of a characteristically British adverb intensifier “bloody” (Schur 2001: 32, Algeo 2006: 136). Currently regarded as “fairly mild” (Thorne 2007: 45), it is a syntactically versatile “all-purpose British vulgarism”, which has lost its power to shock and would be classified by a contemporary lexicographer as slangy or only slightly rude (Algeo 2006: 126). Uttered by a young boy in a book addressed to children, it might nevertheless strike some readers as an example of strong language,

6  Style and Sociolect: A Corpus-Based Study 

173

Table 6.7  Examples of contracted forms in Czasak’s translation Korczak (1922)

Czasak (1990)

Lourie (1986)

– A masz, ty szpiegu! – krzyknął Maciuś […]. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 216) – Źryć dawajcie, do stu piorunów! (Korczak [1922] 1992: 70) – Słuchaj, Felek, co ty byś zrobił na moim miejscu? (Korczak [1922] 1992: 75) – A gdzie reszta? (Korczak [1922] 1992: 71) – Gdzieś się wałęsał, kundlu jeden? Chodź no tu, gadaj. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 73)

“Take this, y’ dirty spy!” Matty roared […]. (Korczak 1990: 224)

“Take this, you spy!” cried Matt […]. (Korczak 1986: 287)

“Bloody starvin’, I am! Where’s m’ grub?!” (Korczak 1990: 76)

“Gimme some food, damn it!” (Korczak 1986: 89)

“Felek, tell me, what would you do in my place?” (Korczak 1986: 97) “Right, where’s the rest of “But where are the ’em?” (Korczak 1990: 78) others?” (Korczak 1986: 91) “Come here, y’ little devil! “Where’ve you been, you mongrel? Come on, out What’ve y’ been up to with it.” (Korczak 1986: now?” (Korczak 1990: 93) 79) “Listen, Feldo, what d’you think I should do?” (Korczak 1990: 83)

although it is also not necessarily any stronger than “damn” (which Lourie uses). In the 1990 British translation, contracted forms of such verbs and pronouns as “is”, “my”, “do”, “them”, “have” and “you” appear quite often, and also include examples of double contraction, as in “What’ve y’ been up to now?” or “Where’s m’ grub”. The American translations by Lourie and the Sulkins use contractions more sparingly. This is confirmed by statistics. For example, examination of the three respective corpora reveals that the contracted “’ll” appears 38 times in the Sulkins, 49 times in Lourie and 69 times in Czasak, whereas the contracted “’s” occurs 34 times in the Sulkins, 116 times in Lourie and as many as 226 times in Czasak. Comparison of the 1945, 1986 and 1990 translations may suggest that there has been a tendency to use contracted forms increasingly frequently over time. On the other hand, there is only a four-year period between the publication of Czasak’s and Lourie’s translations and rather than being suggestive of the changing tendencies in children’s literature

174 

M. Borodo

translation in general, this may also be indicative of the idiosyncratic styles of the individual translators. Then, contracted forms of “them” (as in “the rest of ’em?”) and “you” (as in “tell y’”, “y’ know” or “y’ little devil”) also often appear in the British translation, especially in soldiers’ speech. For example, there are twenty-four occurrences of contracted “y” in the first fifteen chapters on which the Czasak corpus is based. In the American translations, contracted forms of “them” and “you” do not appear. Another important linguistic manifestation of social identity, introduced by Czasak primarily in the conversations among the soldiers, is h-dropping. According to Lynda Mugglestone (2003: 95): The use of /h/ in modern English has come to stand as one of the foremost signals of social identity, its presence in initial positions associated almost inevitably with the ‘educated’ and ‘polite’ while its loss commonly triggers popular connotations with the ‘vulgar’, the ‘ignorant’, and the ‘lower class’.

While the soldiers’ language sometimes departs from standard Polish in the source text, it acquires new meanings in the British translation, being filled with colloquialisms and possessing features of a specific sociolect. This pattern is presented in Table 6.8. Thus Korczak’s “Ej, wojak, ile masz lat?” and “Buty macie dziurawe” appear as “Hey, soldier, ’how old are you?” and “You’ve got ’holes in your boots” in Lourie, but as “Eh, soldier, ’ow old are y’!” and “Got ’oles in y’ boots!” in Czasak’s version, with /h/ in initial positions omitted. The same applies to the translator’s spelling of “here” in “this one stays ’ere” and “’ere comes lieutenant”, uttered again by soldiers, and his spelling of “holidays” in “our ’olidays were a load of rubbish”, uttered by a young delegate during a session of children’s parliament. Present in Czasak’s translation, h-dropping is absent from the other English translations of Korczak’s novel. The last two examples in Table  6.8 show that Czasak introduces h-dropping not only in the language of adults but also in the fictional dialogues of children and teenagers. The final example describes a situation in which a crowd of enraged teenagers have gathered in front of the parliament. Dissatisfied with too much power being granted to the younger children, they are protesting against Matt’s reforms. In Lourie’s

6  Style and Sociolect: A Corpus-Based Study 

175

Table 6.8  Examples of h-dropping in Czasak’s translation Korczak (1922)

Czasak (1990)

– Ej, wojak, ile masz lat? – Dziesięć. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 37) – Wy dziady. Buty macie dziurawe. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 58) […] a mały za szpiegostwo będzie powieszony. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 63) – Chowajcie się, porucznik idzie! (Korczak [1922] 1992: 39) Ja jestem posłem i chcę odpowiedzieć, że nam wcale nie było dobrze. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 186–187) – Oni mają rządzić. – Precz z takim rządem! (Korczak [1922] 1992: 199)

“Eh, soldier, ’ow old are “Hey, soldier, how old are you?” y’!” “Ten.” (Korczak 1986: 44) “Ten.” (Korczak 1990: 42) “You’re the beggars! Got “You’re the beggars. You’ve got holes in your ’oles in y’ boots!” boots.” (Korczak 1986: (Korczak 1990: 62) 72) […] and the little one is to This one stays ’ere and be hanged for spying. gets the rope for (Korczak 1986: 79) spying. (Korczak 1990: 68)

Lourie (1986)

“Look out! ’ere comes lieutenant!” (Korczak 1990: 44)

“Hide, the lieutenant’s coming!” (Korczak 1986: 48)

If y’ ask me, our ’olidays were a load of rubbish. (Korczak 1990: 197)

I’m a delegate and I want to say that we didn’t have a good time at all. (Korczak 1986: 247)

“And this lot supposed to “They’re supposed to govern the country?” rule.” “Down with their “To ’ell with ’em!” government!” (Korczak 1990: 208) (Korczak 1986: 264)

translation one of the teenagers acerbically asks “They’re supposed to govern the country?” while another exclaims “Down with their government!”, which is close to the source text. This strongly contrasts with Czasak’s much more colloquial “And this lot supposed to rule” followed by “To ’ell with ’em!”, containing the contracted pronoun “them” and an example of h-dropping in the word “hell”. This final excerpt clearly demonstrates the difference in formality between Lourie’s and Czasak’s translations. To recap, consider again Czasak’s exceptionally colloquial “To ’ell with ’em!”, “What the flippin’ ’eck” and “I ain’t eatin’ this rubbish!” with Lourie’s much more formal “Down with their government!”, “This is anarchy!” and “Take these foreign fricassees away”. Finally, used on a

176 

M. Borodo

smaller scale than h-dropping, another pattern found in Czasak’s version is the omission of /g/ in final positions in present participles and gerunds—so-called g-dropping. It is also primarily found in soldiers’ speech and may be illustrated with such examples as “always starvin’”, “started runnin’”, “gave you a thrashin’” (Korczak 1990: 62) or the already mentioned “I ain’t eatin’ this rubbish” and “Bloody starvin’, I am!” (ibid.: 76) spoken by Matt.

“ Done well, we ‘ave”: Recurring Syntactic Patterns A characteristic pattern which appears throughout Czasak’s translation is the use of tag questions, which seem to be more frequent in British than in American English (Algeo 2006: 296; Tottie and Hoffmann 2006: 306). The reader of the 1990 translation will also encounter several other syntactic constructions which may be associated with British English. Diverse in form, such constructions are presented in Tables 6.9 and 6.10. Table 6.9  Examples of tag questions in Czasak’s translation Korczak (1922)

Czasak (1990)

Lourie (1986)

i w tym nasza wspaniałomyślność i dobroć. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 73) – A może nie starczyć? – przestraszył się nie na żarty Maciuś. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 164)

Now surely that’s being more than generous, isn’t it? (Korczak 1990: 80) “You don’t mean we’ve run out of money, do you?” Matty was almost sweating. (Korczak 1990: 172) But there’s no point driving him around all the time, is there? (Korczak 1990: 52) But not to worry, we’ve all got brains, haven’t we. And experience. (Korczak 1990: 80) “Badly injured, was he?” (Korczak 1990: 42)

Which shows our generosity and our goodness. (Korczak 1986: 95) “You mean we might run short?” asked Matt, truly frightened. (Korczak 1986: 218) But why should a young child ride around so much? (Korczak 1986: 57) We can deal with this because we have experience […]. (Korczak 1986: 95) “Was he hurt bad?” (Korczak 1986: 45)

A po co dziecko wozić tak ciągle po mieście. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 46) My sobie z tym poradzimy, bo mamy doświadczenie […]. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 73) – I bardzo go poraniło? (Korczak [1922] 1992: 38)

6  Style and Sociolect: A Corpus-Based Study 

177

Table 6.10  Examples of selected syntactic patterns in Czasak’s translation Korczak (1922)

Czasak (1990)

gdyby cię tam przyłapano, If they catch you in there, I’ll flay you alive, skórę z ciebie zedrę, I will. żywego z rąk nie puszczę. (Korczak 1990: 28) (Korczak [1922] 1992: 24) “Done well, we ’ave,” – Nie daliśmy się – mówili the soldiers were all zadowoleni żołnierze. satisfied. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 52) (Korczak 1990: 56) Good old king, never Nieboszczyk nie lubił wanted war, he didn’t. wojen. (Korczak 1990: 46) (Korczak [1922] 1992: 41) Dajcie mu spokój, kiedy nie Stop bothering him will you. chce. (Korczak [1922] (Korczak 1990: 60) 1992: 57) Panowie, dziwne jest nasze Gentlemen, it’s strange this meeting is. posiedzenie. (Korczak 1990: 80) (Korczak [1922] 1992: 73)

Lourie (1986) If you’re ever caught over there, I’ll skin you alive. (Korczak 1986: 26) “We’re holding the line,” said the soldiers, pleased. (Korczak 1986: 63) The old king didn’t like war. (Korczak 1986: 50) Leave him alone if he doesn’t want to. (Korczak 1986: 69) Gentlemen, this is a strange meeting. (Korczak 1986: 94)

The first four examples in Table 6.9 are the instances of the most common type of tag question characterized by the so-called reverse polarity, which means that “if the preceding clause operator is affirmative, the tag-­ clause operator is negative, and vice versa” (Algeo 2006: 293). Thus, when the prime minister notes “that’s being more than generous”, this is followed by the negative tag-clause operator “isn’t it?” Similarly when King Matt observes “You don’t mean we’ve run out of money”, what follows is the positive tag-clause operator “do you?” The same applies to the next two examples, containing the tag questions “is there?” and “haven’t we” (in which the translator omits the question mark). The final example in the table, on the other hand, Czasak’s informal and elliptical “Badly injured, was he?” belongs to the category of tag questions characterized by constant affirmative polarity, in which “tag questions ask for confirmation of a statement whose truth is assumed” (ibid.). Other characteristically British syntactic patterns found in Czasak’s translation are shown in Table 6.10. Algeo (2006: 305–307) mentions eleven syntactic patterns used for adding emphasis and focusing information in a sentence which are typical of British English, some of which appear in Czasak’s translation. One

178 

M. Borodo

such example is “I’ll flay you alive, I will”, in which the tag consisting of the operator and the extraposed subject identical with the pronoun in the subject position emphasize the annoyance of Feldo’s father. The pronoun subject and auxiliary verb were also shifted to the end of a sentence in “Done well, we ’ave”, uttered by one of the soldiers. In “Good old king, never wanted war, he didn’t”, another example of soldiers’ speech, the negation was similarly replicated in the tag. Then, the sentence “Stop bothering him will you”, from which the translator omits the comma and the question mark, illustrates yet another pattern associated with British English, in which the tag “will you” is used for emphasis after an affirmative imperative (Algeo 2006: 302). In the final example, “it’s strange this meeting is”, the extraposed subject followed by the operator appears at the end of the sentence, which as a result again sounds more emphatic. It is not exactly the style of the author that Czasak recreates in his translation—he rather amplifies the simple and unrefined language of the source text. The patterns in question are examples of translator style and of the translator’s artistic vision of how Korczak’s classic should be mediated to English readers.

“ Want to play?” and “Got head-ache”: Informal and Conversational Style It has so far been demonstrated that Czasak’s translation is characterized by an informal style. Below we will further illustrate this feature of the British translation and examine it from more than one angle, looking specifically at discourse markers and fillers in dialogues, the use of ellipsis and the translator’s handling of punctuation. Conversational style is a term used in discourse analysis and concerns the ways in which meaning is created and communicated by speakers in verbal interaction. It may be applied to examine patterns of conversational discourse characteristic of a verbal exchange between friends (e.g. Deborah Tannen’s [2005] analysis of a Thanksgiving single dinner-table conversation), but it may also be used in the context of fictional dialogue. One characteristic feature of conversational style is the use of various discourse markers. Defined by Deborah Schiffrin (1996: 31) as “sequentially dependent elements which

6  Style and Sociolect: A Corpus-Based Study 

179

Table 6.11 Examples of the informal and conversational style of Czasak’s translation Korczak (1922)

Czasak (1990)

Lourie (1986)

Matt doesn’t even I mean, he can’t even know how to write write yet. (Korczak yet. (Korczak 1986: 6) 1990: 12) Mind you, if there was a If there really was a war, you could at war, then at least you least fight. (Korczak could go and do some 1986: 12) fighting. (Korczak 1990: 16) Oh yes, it’d been easy to Back then, it had been Łatwo było udawać easy to pretend to be play the hero then […]. odważnego wtedy […]. brave […]. (Korczak (Korczak 1990: 31) (Korczak [1922] 1992: 27) 1986: 30) I’m the Prime Minister Jestem prezesem ministrów I’m not the Prime and my head isn’t just Minister for nothing, i głowę mam nie od a decoration. you know. parady. (Korczak 1986: 55) (Korczak 1990: 50) (Korczak [1922] 1992: 45) Since I’m young, I Ja jestem sam mały i wiem, You see, I know what know what young kids need, because I’m co jest potrzebne dla people need. a kid myself. (Korczak malców. (Korczak [1922] (Korczak 1986: 101) 1990: 86) 1992: 78) Maciuś nawet pisać jeszcze nie umie. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 10) Gdyby naprawdę była wojna, można by się bić przynajmniej. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 14)

bracket units of talk”, they have various interactional, cohesive and ideational functions and include such linguistic forms as “oh, well, and, but, or, so, because, now, then, I mean, y’know”. The 1990 translation clearly stands out among all the English-language versions of Korczak’s classic novel because of its conversational style. This may be exemplified with Czasak’s use of various discourse markers and fillers, such as “you know”, “mind you”, “I mean”, “anyway”, “well”, “so”, “hm” or “eh”. Some of these phrases are added by Czasak, as shown in Table 6.11, and do not appear with comparable frequency either in the source text or in other translations. Consider, for instance, Lourie’s handling of the same sentences. While Lourie translates a sentence literally as “Matt doesn’t even know how to write yet”, Czasak transforms it into “I mean, he can’t even write yet”. Czasak’s “I mean”, “mind you”, “oh yes”, “you know” and “you see” cannot be traced back to any equivalents in Korczak’s source text. They are inserted by the translator and are examples of his distinctive style.

180 

M. Borodo

Lourie’s “my head isn’t just a decoration”, by the way, seems to be an example of (perhaps unwitting) foreignization—it is difficult to imagine anyone saying it, although it is not too far removed the Polish idiom “głowę mam nie od parady”. Compare also the translators’ treatment of the final sentence in the table. Lourie’s formal “Since I’m young, I know what young people need” contrasts with Czasak’s colloquial “You see, I know what kids need, because I’m a kid myself ”. It is also the corpus of Czasak’s version that contains the largest number of the occurrences of “kid” or “kids” and fewer occurrences of “child” and “children” (seventeen “kid/kids” vs. twelve “child/children”). The opposite tendency can be found in the corresponding fifteen chapters of the American translations by Lourie (seven “kid/kids” vs. twenty-three “child/children”) and the Sulkins (zero “kid/kids” vs. twenty-four “child/children”). Czasak’s informal and conversational style is also confirmed by other statistics. For comparison, there are eight occurrences of “you know” and its contracted form “y’ know” in Czasak, whereas there are no instances of this discourse marker in the other two corpora based on Lourie or the Sulkins. A similar tendency is observable in the use of the Polish conjunction “i” and its English equivalent “and” in sentence initial position, which, at least in Polish, is more characteristic of informal language. The “i/and” conjunction appears 58 times in the Sulkins, 89 times in Lourie, 104 times in the source text and 187 times in this position in Czasak. This shows the trend to diminish the colloquial and conversational tone in the American versions, which thus seem to have made the text more formal, and amplify it in Czasak’s version. Even more striking results are obtained with regard to the use of the Polish “i” and its English ­equivalent “and” throughout the corpora, with 672 occurrences of “i” in Korczak, 649 occurrences of “and” in the Sulkins, 819 instances of “and” in Lourie and a total of 1010 occurrences of “and” in Czasak. Finally, there are significant differences in punctuation. This is noticeable in the use of exclamation marks, which are associated with emotional, conversational English, with the highest number appearing in Czasak (171), followed by the Sulkins (50) and Lourie (49), in comparison with only 20 exclamation marks in the source text. This indicates that although each translator increased the frequency of exclamation marks in their versions, they did it to a varying degree. In the case of Lourie and the Sulkins it was an

6  Style and Sociolect: A Corpus-Based Study 

181

Table 6.12  Examples of elliptical constructions in Czasak’s translation Korczak (1922)

Czasak (1990)

Lourie (1986)

„Trzeba zobaczyć, co się tam dzieje” – pomyślał Maciuś. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 12) – Czy kawaler chce się bawić w koło? […] – Czy kawaler ma siostrzyczkę? – Nie, nie mam. – A czym jest kawalera tatuś? – Mój tatuś umarł: on był królem. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 16) – Głowa mnie boli. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 39)

“Better see what’s going on,” thought Matty. (Korczak 1990: 14) “Want to play at ring?” […] “Got a sister?” “No.” “What’s your daddy do?” “He’s dead. Used to be the king.” (Korczak 1990: 18)

I ought to see what’s going on, thought Matt. (Korczak 1986: 9) “Do you want to play?” […] “Do you have a little sister?” “No, I don’t.” “What does your daddy do?” “My daddy is dead. He was the king.” (Korczak 1986: 14)

“Got head-­ache.” (Korczak 1990: 44)

– Jakeś ty się tu dostał? – Przelazłem przez kratę. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 23)

“How’d you get here?” “Squeezed through the fence.” (Korczak 1990: 26) “Any cherry-trees here?” (Korczak 1990: 27)

“I have a headache,” said Matt. (Korczak 1986: 47) “How did you get in here?” “I climbed over the fence.” (Korczak 1986: 24) “Are there any cherry trees in the royal gardens?” (Korczak 1986: 26)

– Czy w ogrodzie królewskim są wiśnie? (Korczak [1922] 1992: 24)

increase by 150 per cent, whereas in the case of Czasak it was an extraordinary 750 per cent increase. A characteristic pattern, presented in Table 6.12, is Czasak’s frequent use of elliptical constructions, especially subject and verb omission. For example, when Matt is woken up by the noises in the royal palace, he jumps out of his bed thinking “Better see what’s going on” (rather than “I had better see”); when he is having a conversation with a girl he meets on a walk, he is asked such questions as “Got a sister?” (instead of “Have you got a sister?”) and “Want to play?” (instead of “Do you want to play”); and when he is travelling on the train to the front feeling achy all over, he confesses to Feldo, “Got head-ache” (instead of “I have got a head-ache”). Not using the indefinite article before “headache” sounds unusual, resem-

182 

M. Borodo

Table 6.13  Examples of the use of “lot” in Czasak’s translation Korczak (1923)

Czasak (1990)

Lourie (1986)

– Słuchajcie – powiedział oficer małego garnizonu. – Wy mnie nie oszukujcie, bo ja jestem cwaniak. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 106) – No, trudno. Bawcie się beze mnie – powiedział Maciuś do chłopców. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 153) – Co wy tu robicie? – Ano, przysłali tu nas pięciuset, żeby robić. Tamci powiedzieli: „nie ma głupich” i poszli sobie na wagary. A nas tak ze trzydziestu, no przyszliśmy. Nic nie wiemy, wszystko zepsute. Tamci odeszli, a my trochę zamiatamy. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 215)

“Hey, you lot,” said the officer in charge of the white garrison. “Don’t go fooling me, I’m too smart for that.” (Korczak 1990: 114)

“Listen,” said the officer of the little garrison. “You can’t fool me. I know what’s what.” (Korczak 1986: 139)

“Oh, alright. You lot will have to play without me,” Matty called to his friends. (Korczak 1990: 159) “What’re you lot doing?” “Told to work here. Five hundred of us. But most of ’em couldn’t be bothered, so they went off skiving, that’s why there’s just thirty odd left. Anyhow, everything’s bust so we don’t know what to do. And with them lot gone we just do a bit of sweeping up and things.” (Korczak 1990: 223)

“That’s my tough luck. Play without me,” said Matt to the boys. (Korczak 1986: 203) “What are you doing here?” “Well, they sent five hundred of us over here to work. But the other boys said ‘We’re nobody’s fools,’ and they took off. About thirty of us stayed. We don’t know what to do, everything’s busted. The rest of the guys left, but we’re sweeping up a little. (Korczak 1986: 285)

bling telegraphese or the way a very young child would speak. Similarly, when Feldo explains to Matt how he managed to get to the royal garden, he explains “Squeezed through the fence” to then ask Matt “Any cherry-­ trees here?” These conversations are sometimes even more colloquial than in the source text (compare in particular Korczak’s old-fashioned and elegant “Czy kawaler ma siotrzyczkę?”, in which Matt is politely addressed in the third person, with Czasak’s colloquial and direct “Got a sister?”). In Czasak’s translation, the reader will also encounter the informal “lot”, used in the sense of a “group” or “bunch” or people, appearing in this translation in such variants as “you lot”, “the lot”, “this lot” or “them lot”. Selected uses of this expression have been documented in Table 6.13.

6  Style and Sociolect: A Corpus-Based Study 

183

With regard to the first two examples in the table, the straightforward “Słuchajcie” uttered by an officer in a garrison in Africa, phrased as “Listen” by Lourie, was expressed with the colloquial “Hey, you lot” by Czasak. Then, when Matt has to quit playing with his friends to return to the serious matters of ruling the country, he addresses the other boys, merrily throwing snowballs in the royal garden, as “Bawcie się beze mnie”. Lourie’s version renders this with the unembellished “Play without me”, but Czasak’s version expresses it differently with “You lot will have to play without me”. The instances of “lot” in Czasak’s translation have not been conditioned by the textual features of the source text but are related to the translator’s idiosyncratic linguistic choices. The third example in the table, on the other hand, refers to the moment when Matt, inspecting a number of locations in his kingdom, finally realizes what harm his unfortunate reforms have done to the country. When he encounters a group of boys in a ruined factory, he addresses them with “What are you doing here”, to learn that the place is not functioning properly and most of the workers have already left, which was phrased by Lourie as “The rest of the guys left”. Czasak, however, expresses the same lines with “What’re you lot doing?” and “with them lot gone”, respectively. Employing the personal pronoun “them” as a demonstrative pronoun is, by the way, a common feature of non-standard modern English dialects (Trudgill 1990: 79). The latter passage also contains the informal “to skive”, a typically British term denoting avoiding work or duty without permission (Schur 2001: 303; Thorne 2007: 398). In her discussion of style, Baker (2000) makes a distinction between “style in translation” and “style of translation”. Similarly, Saldanha (2011) distinguishes between the style of the original and the style of the translator. The two will not necessarily be convergent and Czasak’s translation is a good illustration of this. His translation choices cannot be simply explained with reference to the style of the source-text author. The recurrent and coherent patterns of choice found in his translation are motivated and deliberate and distinguish his translation from the style of the source text and also from the work of others such as Lourie. However, the differences in translation cannot simply be attributed to the linguistic differences between British and American English. The patterns in Czasak’s translation have discernible functions—they are assimilative in

184 

M. Borodo

cultural terms, introduce an even more informal style than that of the original and sometimes accentuate a specific target-culture sociolect. As noted by Baker (2000: 258), “[i]dentifying linguistic habits and stylistic patterns is not an end in itself: it is only worthwhile if it tells us something about the cultural and ideological positioning of the translator.” To refer to translation history, Czasak’s translation strategy brings to mind Martin Luther’s recommendations regarding Bible translation: “one ought to ask the mothers at home, the children on the streets, the common man at the market place, and look them in the mouth and listen to how they talk, and then translate in that way” (as cited in Füssel 2007: 234). Czasak’s translation accentuates the informal and conversational nature of the speech of “the common man at the market place” and resonates with the language of “the children on the streets”. This is congruent with Korczak’s philosophy of respecting and giving voice to every child. Through his translation decisions Adam Czasak gives vibrancy and authenticity to the children’s speech, and although it is Lourie’s translation that is the more literal, if we were to look at Korczak’s philosophy of giving a voice to every child, then Czasak’s strategy—in prioritizing this aspect—might be seen to be more faithful to Korczak’s vision. Korczak’s original was written in colloquial Polish, resembling informal spoken language and partially reflecting children’s authentic speech (Gąsiorek 1997), which met with some criticism from the Polish reviewers of the book after its publication (e.g. Szmydtowa 1925; Gruszecka 1923). In Czasak’s translation, the child’s voice also comes across as real and authentic, a voice that does not refer to the “fricassees” that one finds in Lourie, or that presents the child in the somewhat “angelic” or idealized terms that the Sulkins’ translation does.

References Primary Sources Korczak, Janusz. 1986. King Matt the First. Trans. Richard Lourie. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

6  Style and Sociolect: A Corpus-Based Study 

185

———. 1990. Little King Matty …and the Desert Island. Trans. Adam Czasak. London: Joanna Pinewood Enterprises. ———. [1922] 1992. Król Maciuś Pierwszy. Król Maciuś na wyspie bezludnej. Warszawa: Oficyna Wydawnicza Latona.

Secondary Sources Algeo, John. 2006. British or American English? A Handbook of Word and Grammar Patterns. Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press. Baker, Mona. 2000. Towards a Methodology for Investigating the Style of a Literary Translator. Target 12 (2): 241–266. Füssel, Stephan. 2007. Early Modern German Printing. In Early Modern German Literature, ed. Max Reinhart, 217–246. Rochester: Camden House. Gąsiorek, Krystyna. 1997. Od słowa do tekstu: O języku i stylach Janusza Korczaka. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Naukowe WSP. Gruszecka, Aniela. 1923. Review of Korczak (1922). Król Maciuś Pierwszy in Przegląd Warszawski (21) (June 1923): 394–395. Mugglestone, Lynda. 2003. ‘Talking Proper’. The Rise of Accent as Social Symbol. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Saldanha, Gabriela. 2011. Translator Style. The Translator 17 (1): 25–50. Schiffrin, Deborah. 1996. Discourse Markers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Schur, Norman W. 2001. British English A to Zed (Revised by Eugene Ehrlich). New York: Facts on File, Inc. Swan, Michael. 1996. Practical English Usage. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Szmydtowa, Zofia. 1925. Review of Korczak (1922). Król Maciuś Pierwszy in Bluszcz (9) (28 February 1925): 203. Tannen, Deborah. 2005. Conversational Style: Analyzing Talk Among Friends. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Thorne, Tony. 2007. Dictionary of Contemporary Slang. 3rd ed. London: A&C Black. Tottie, Gunnel, and Sebastian Hoffmann. 2006. Tag Questions in British and American English. Journal of English Linguistics 34 (4): 283–311. Trudgill, Peter. 1990. The Dialects of England. Oxford: Blackwell.

7 Formal Literary Style and Modern American Idiom

In contrast to the informal style of Czasak’s translation, the most recent English-language translation of Korczak’s novel—King Matthew the First, completed by Adam Fisher and Ben Torrent and published in New York in 2014—is characterized by lexical sophistication and formal style, qualities which are missing from Korczak’s original novel, which was mostly written in plain, unembellished Polish. It would be reductive, however, to characterize Fisher and Torrent’s translation exclusively by its high literary style as it also contains a large number of idiomatic expressions. These differences in formality partially map onto dialogue, which is more colloquial, and narrative, which is more formal. This chapter will examine these differences and will also investigate how Korczak’s fictional universe was partly modernized in translation. Finally, we will briefly focus on the application of the strategies of hyperbolization, fairytalization and infantilization in the American text. In essence, the 2014 translation of Korczak’s classic tale is an intriguing combination of mixing informal and idiomatic English with an ornate style, marked by the use of sophisticated lexical items.

© The Author(s) 2020 M. Borodo, English Translations of Korczak’s Children’s Fiction, Palgrave Studies in Translating and Interpreting, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38117-2_7

187

188 

M. Borodo

Formal Literary Style of the Translation One of the distinctive features of Fisher and Torrent’s translation is the replacement of Korczak’s informal, simple and colloquial style (Gąsiorek 1997; Olczak-Ronikier 2011: 224) with much more formal language. Such language appears throughout the American translation, although particularly frequently in the opening chapters of the text, and it will be compared below with the translations by Adam Czasak, Richard Lourie and Edith and Sidney Sulkin. Fisher and Torrent also opt for the more formal version of the boy’s name, Matthew, just like the Sulkins, who consistently used it in 1945, unlike Lourie, who decided on Matt, and Czasak, who opted for Matty. Fisher and Torrent’s style can be illustrated with the closing lines of chapter 1, describing Matt’s final moments with his dying father (Table  7.1). While the ministers are having a vociferous night council meeting in the palace, devastated Matt, sitting on the doctor’s lap in the king’s bedroom, bursts into tears, pleading for his ill father not to die. The boy then has a déjà vu moment—he remembers that he lost his mother in a similar way, sitting on his father’s lap and watching her dying. This touching scene contains an autobiographical element—the author also lost his father at an early age, a terrible loss for the young Korczak. In the source text, Korczak uses plain language in this passage, whereas Fisher and Torrent introduce a more formal, literary style. Korczak’s straightforward style is recreated more closely in Lourie’s version, in which Matt uses such words as “Daddy will die like Mommy did”. Fisher and Torrent’s translation is more formal and their language more nominal. The boy has “a sudden recollection of another bedside vigil” (rather than: “remembers that he had already done something like this once before”), sits by “the king on his deathbed”, is referred to by his full name, Matthew, and is finally called “the future ruler”—a more formal expression, which contrasts with Lourie’s use of the diminutive form Matt in the corresponding line of his translation. Whereas Lourie’s 1986 version, similar to the source text, is characterized by a more emotional tone and tenderness, Fisher and Torrent’s version is more neutral, aloof and detached.

7  Formal Literary Style and Modern American Idiom 

189

Table 7.1  The formal style of Fisher and Torrent’s translation: “the king on his deathbed” Korczak (1922)

Lourie (1986)

Fisher and Torrent (2014)

A Maciuś przypomniał sobie, że już raz siedział tak przy łóżku. Wtedy ojciec trzymał go na kolanach, a na łóżku leżała mamusia, tak samo blada – tak samo ciężko oddychała. „Tatuś umrze, jak mamusia umarła” – pomyślał Maciuś. I straszny smutek zwalił mu się na piersi – i wielki gniew, i żal do ministrów, którzy tam się śmieją z niego, Maciusia – i ze śmierci jego ojczulka. „Już ja im odpłacę, jak będę królem” – pomyślał Maciuś. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 13)

Matt remembered that he had already done something like this once before. That time it was his father who had put him on his lap and it was his mother in the bed, pale and breathing with difficulty. Daddy will die like Mommy did, thought Matt. A terrible sadness tugged at his heart, and he felt a great anger and resentment for the ministers who were laughing at him, Matt, and at his daddy’s death. I’ll pay them back when I’m the king, thought Matt. (Korczak 1986: 10)

Then Matthew had a sudden recollection of another bedside vigil. His father had held him tight as they looked upon the prince’s mother, as pale as his father was now, her breath just as labored. My father will die just as my mother did, thought the boy. Sorrow welled up in his heart, joined by a growing hatred for the ministers who were laughing at him and at the king on his deathbed. When I’m king, I’ll make them pay for this! thought the future ruler. (Korczak 2014: 9, italics in Fisher and Torrent’s original)

The style of the 2014 translation may be illustrated with another passage, which describes King Matt’s dilemmas about how to make friends with lively and cheerful Felix (which is how Fisher and Torrent rendered the Polish name Felek), whom the lonely boy king often observes playing happily in the courtyard (Table  7.2). Korczak’s informal style is again more closely recreated by Lourie, who renders “czy wolno i czy wypada” [if he was allowed to and if it was appropriate] from the source text as “if he was allowed to and what would happen if he did”. Fisher and Torrent choose a more formal style: “whether such an association was seemly for a member of the royal family”. Similarly, Korczak’s “co powiedzieć, jak zacząć rozmowę” is simply phrased as “what to say to start a conversation” by Lourie, but, more formally, as “How would he initiate such an

190 

M. Borodo

Table 7.2  Fisher and Torrent’s formal style: “a seemly association” and “an unassisted monarch” Korczak (1922)

Lourie (1986)

Fisher and Torrent (2014)

Matthew had always Many times Matt had Chciał go Maciuś wanted to call him over wanted to call out to Felix wiele razy zawołać i and talk to him, but he and even talk with him choć przez kratę was never sure if he was trochę porozmawiać, a little through the allowed, whether such an gate, but he did not ale nie wiedział, czy association was seemly for know if he was wolno i czy wypada, a member of the royal allowed to and what i nie wiedział, co family… Most of all, he would happen if he powiedzieć, jak worried about what to did, and he did not zacząć rozmowę. say. How would he initiate know what to say to (Korczak [1922] such an awkward start a conversation. 1992: 14) conversation? (Korczak (Korczak 1986: 12) 2014: 11) He embarked on a long and The Prime Minister I zaczął długą windy speech in which he began a long speech. przemowę o tym, że explained why he could He said he could not nie może dłużej not do his work anymore. work any more and he pracować, że He felt sorry to have to was sad to leave the przykro mu zostawić leave the young monarch king alone at such a króla samego w tak unassisted in such tragic difficult hour, but he ciężkiej chwili, że circumstances, but his ill had to, because he was jednak musi odejść, health simply left him no sick. (Korczak 1986: 34) że jest chory. alternative. (Korczak 2014: (Korczak [1922] 1992: 28) 30)

a­ wkward conversation” by Fisher and Torrent. These expressions are characterized by different degrees of formality and are indicative of the differences between the two translations. The same tendency is also apparent in the second example in Table 7.2. During a special cabinet session held in the royal conference hall, the prime minister requests the floor and begins a speech in which he explains the reasons for his resignation. Whereas Lourie’s prime minister “began a long speech” and was sorry to “leave the king alone at such a difficult hour, although he had to”, in Fisher and Torrent’s translation he “embarked” on a “windy” speech and had “no alternative” but to “leave the young monarch unassisted in such tragic circumstances”. For comparison, the verb “to embark” is characterized by a higher degree of ­formality, similar to such nouns as “alternative”, “monarch” and “circumstances”.

7  Formal Literary Style and Modern American Idiom 

191

Table 7.3  Fisher and Torrent’s figurative language: “pristine blanket of snow” and “ocean of sand” Korczak (1922)

Czasak (1990)

I tak skończyła się jesień – i nadeszła zima. Śnieg upadł. Przysłano im ciepłe odzienie. Biało było i cicho. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 61) Ale zamiast lasu zobaczyli pustynię. Nic tylko piasek i piasek. Jak w morzu woda, tak tu piasek. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 105)

Thus, autumn came to an end and And slowly autumn winter arrived in its full glory. passed – and winter They were sent winter clothing. came. It was peaceful and white all It started snowing and they were given around. The ground was carpeted with a pristine blanket warmer clothes. of snow. (Korczak 2014: 63) Everything grew white and quiet. (Korczak 1990: 66) But instead of jungle they saw But instead of the desert – nothing but endless forest they saw the sand. The ocean of sand had the desert. Nothing but sand and same unbelievable vastness as that of the water they had seen sand. Just as in the sea there was water, when crossing the Mediterranean Sea. (Korczak here there was 2014: 112) sand. (Korczak 1990: 113)

Fisher and Torrent (2014)

Fisher and Torrent also introduce more figurative language in their translation. Consider the examples in Table 7.3, for instance. The first appears at the end of chapter 11 and informs the reader in a matter-of-­ fact way that autumn came to an end, winter began and snow fell. Fisher and Torrent paint a more evocative picture of this scene. In their translation “winter arrives in its full glory” and the earth is covered with “a pristine blanket of snow”. The decision to embellish the original and the choice of words are meaningful here, connoting majestic beauty and serene scenery of pure snow, which contrasts with the matter-of-fact descriptions from both Korczak’s source text and Czasak’s translation. One may even get the impression that, apart from being characterized by a higher degree of formality than the source text, the American translation also alludes to the fairy-tale convention in this passage, creating the aura of “winter magic”. The second example in Table 7.3 illustrates a similar tendency. Korczak uses a simple style, and so does Czasak, but Fisher and Torrent introduce a metaphorical reference to the “ocean of sand of unbelievable vastness”, an instance of linguistic hyperbolization, expressing the original in an

192 

M. Borodo

exaggerated and more elegant style. Another noteworthy aspect of their translation is the insertion of a concrete reference to the real world—the Mediterranean Sea—which is absent from Korczak’s source text. It is true that Matt’s kingdom, partly modelled on Poland, to some extent reflects the reality of an unspecified European parliamentary monarchy and it is correct that the boy travels to Africa, but in his novel Korczak never mentions such geographical locations as the Baltic or the Mediterranean Sea. As a result of this insertion, Fisher and Torrent’s translation becomes in this instance less of a fantastic literary tale and more of a verifiable text anchored in the real world. One other noteworthy comparison is shown in Table 7.4. It describes a situation in which the old doctor enters the hall in which a turbulent Table 7.4  Fisher and Torrent’s formal style: “a beseeching chorus of voices” and “conferring on a cure” Korczak (1922)

The Sulkins (1945)

Fisher and Torrent (2014)

As the Ambassador left, At that moment, the W tej chwili wszedł na doctor entered the hall the doctor entered salę doktór i wszyscy to a chorus of voices as the Council Chamber. ministrowie zaczęli go the ministers beseeched The Ministers prosić, żeby uratował him to save the king, crowded about him króla, bo może być averting certain war and begging him to save wojna i nieszczęście, indescribable disaster. the King’s life. For if jeżeli król umrze. […] the King died, they […] The ministers followed his said, war and Ministrowie posłuchali advice, summoning the misfortune would rady, wezwali sławnych most eminent doctors in come to the land. doktorów na naradę, the capital to confer on a […] jak uratować króla. cure for the sick king. Upon the good doctor’s Wysłali na miasto The entire fleet of royal advice Royal wszystkie królewskie vehicles was dispatched automobiles were samochody, a sami in all directions and, the dispatched to bring tymczasem poprosili feat accomplished, the the most famous królewskiego kucharza ministers asked the royal doctors in the land to o kolację, bo byli cook to prepare a great save the King’s life. bardzo głodni, bo nie supper. Not expecting In the meantime, the wiedzieli, że narada the meeting to last so Ministers requested będzie taka długa – i long, few had dined at that the King’s cook nawet nie jedli obiadu home and all were prepare a meal, since w domu. (Korczak starving. (Korczak 2014: most of them had not [1922] 1992: 11) 8) eaten. (Korczak 1945: 16)

7  Formal Literary Style and Modern American Idiom 

193

ministerial council is being held and is begged by the ministers to save Matt’s dying father. The doctor suggests that they send for other doctors to ask their opinion and the ministers follow his advice. Fisher and Torrent again use more formal words, such as the literary and formal “beseech”, “avert” and “a chorus of voices” and apply hyperbolization, rendering “war and disaster” from the source text as “certain war and indescribable disaster”. This stands in marked contrast to the simpler and more informal styles of Korczak and the Sulkins. The second paragraph in Table 7.4 is also more formal and written in a more elevated style in Fisher and Torrent’s translation: the ministers, few of whom “had dined”, “dispatch the entire fleet of royal vehicles”, “summoning the most eminent doctors”, who are expected to “confer on a cure”. The Sulkins not only apply the strategy of fairytalization here, introducing the word “land” (see Chap. 4 for a discussion), but their version is also less formal—their doctors are “famous” rather than “eminent” and their ministers “had not eaten” rather than “had not dined”. This passage is followed by more examples illustrating the translators’ use of different styles. In Czasak’s version, for instance, “It was getting late […]”, the royal cook prepared a fine supper because he “didn’t want to lose his job when the king died” and “the ministers started guzzling away […]” (Korczak 1990: 14). In the corresponding lines of Fisher and Torrent’s translation, the reader is informed that “Outside night had fallen […]”, the cook wanted to “retain his position in the court after the death of the old king”, which is followed by the formal and extended “Oblivious to the drama in the king’s bedroom […] the ministers wined and dined” (Korczak 2014: 8). These excerpts from the Sulkins’ and Czasak’s versions differ from Fisher and Torrent’s translation in terms of formality and lexical sophistication, an aspect which will be discussed in more detail next.

Lexical Sophistication of the Translation In comparison with Korczak, Fisher and Torrent use more formal lexis, which is illustrated by Tables 7.5 and 7.6, where Lourie’s and Czasak’s translations are also provided for reference. It is worth considering the first two examples in Table 7.5, for instance. Sitting alone in his room in

194 

M. Borodo

Table 7.5  Fisher and Torrent’s lexical sophistication: “a white steed” and “overwhelming melancholy” Korczak (1922)

Lourie (1986)

Fisher and Torrent (2014)

Matt was sad when Matthew felt really overwhelmed by he was alone in his melancholy, sitting in his room […]. room all by himself […]. (Korczak 1986: 12) (Korczak 2014: 11) riding a white horse mounted on his white steed, he, Matthew the First, at the head of his would be riding at the head valiant troops. of his brave army. (Korczak (Korczak 1986: 35) 2014: 29) and he threw himself into and then [he] gave mastering the art of all his energy to teaching himself to whistling. (Korczak 2014: 20) whistle. (Korczak 1986: 24) In the wake of this Everyone was very Wszyscy się bardzo statement, the court was worried. (Korczak zmartwili […]. (Korczak rife with worry. (Korczak 1986: 5) [1922] 1992: 9) 2014: 6) Your task is to unscrew some Then you can Więc masz wykręcić part or find another way to unfasten a bolt to jedno kółko, żeby immobilize the airplane. keep the plane zepsuć aeroplan. (Korczak 2014: 148) from flying. (Korczak [1922] 1992: (Korczak 1986: 184) 139)

Smutno było Maciusiowi, gdy siedział samotny w swoim pokoju […]. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 14) że na białym koniu jechać będzie na czele dzielnego wojska. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 30) i zaczął się gorliwie uczyć gwizdać. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 22)

the royal palace, the boy king feels “overwhelmed by melancholy” rather than “sad”, and he dreams of leading his army on a “white steed” rather than a “white horse”. Unlike a “horse”, a “steed” is a literary, archaic expression, and “melancholy” is a more formal term which can be traced back to the Old French “melancolie”, Latin “melancholia” and Greek “melankholia”. The last three examples in Table 7.5 also differ from the source text in terms of formality. In order to be able to communicate with his friend Felix, Matt “started to learn to whistle eagerly” in Korczak’s original, but the American translation phrases this more elegantly: Matt decided to “master the art of whistling”. The simple and straightforward “Everyone grew very worried” (“Wszyscy się bardzo zmartwili”) from the source text is replaced by Fisher and Torrent with “In the wake of this statement, the

7  Formal Literary Style and Modern American Idiom 

195

Table 7.6  Fisher and Torrent’s lexical sophistication: “Goliath and Cyclops”, “en masse” and “sotto voce” Korczak (1922)

Czasak (1990)

Fisher and Torrent (2014)

“Where did you get these giants from? Goliath and Cyclops, if I’m not mistaken?” (Korczak 2014: 51) Trying to fall asleep, Wanting to fall asleep, Chcąc prędzej usnąć, Matthew began to Matty started humming zaczął sobie Maciuś hum sotto voce the the saddest song […]. nucić półgłosem saddest of the songs (Korczak 1990: 101) najsmutniejszą […]. (Korczak 2014: piosenkę […]. (Korczak 99) [1922] 1992: 93) zaczęły pisać listy dzieci. even children have started children have begun writing en masse to writing. (Korczak 1990: (Korczak [1922] 1992: the palace. (Korczak 130) 120) 2014: 130) He was always smiling and a jolly and lively man, jeden z żołnierzy, an expert at full of energy – and he wesoły, żywy, coraz się obtaining was an expert at gdzie wśróbował i z information which he snooping about unseen inną powracał was rarely averse to and coming back with wiadomością. (Korczak bits of handy information. sharing. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 40) 2014: 40) (Korczak 1990: 45) “Who’re they supposed to Co to za Waligóra i be, anyway, Mr Big and Wyrwidąb. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 51) Mr Tall?” (Korczak 1990: 55)

court was rife with worry”. Finally, when the foreign kings and their agents are plotting against Matt, one of the soldiers receives the order to jeopardize the boy’s journey by unscrewing a cog “to break the airplane” (“żeby zepsuć aeroplan”). In Fisher and Torrent’s translation, the soldier receives a more formal order “to immobilize the airplane”. It is symptomatic that when the American translators can choose between several expressions of varying degrees of formality they often select the more formal terms. A particularly noteworthy example illustrating Fisher and Torrent’s strategy to use more sophisticated terms appears in chapter 9. When Matt and Felix join the army, the boys become the favourites of the regiment and are humorously and ironically referred to by Korczak with the names of the two Herculean characters from a Polish fairy tale—the

196 

M. Borodo

brothers “Waligóra” and “Wyrwidąb”, whose names could be translated as “the Mountain-Breaker” and “the Oak-Twister” respectively. The link to the Polish fairy tale is not retained in any of the English-language translations of Korczak’s novel, with the translators adopting diverse strategies. In the earliest English-language version, the Sulkins introduce the names “Dauntless” and “Courageous” (Korczak 1945: 77). The contrast between Korczak’s feeble, little soldiers and the superhuman physical strength of the characters from the Polish fairy tale is thus lost in translation, although the chosen translations, capitalized, still function as names. In the second American translation, Lourie adopts a minimalist approach, omitting the Polish names and replacing them with such terms as the “two giants” (Korczak 1986: 62) and “two brave brothers” (ibid.: 67). Czasak translates the names as “Mr Big” and “Mr Tall”, ironically and humorously alluding to the small boys’ fragile build (incidentally, he also makes them sound like the characters from the English children’s book series Mr. Men which originated in the 1970s). Fisher and Torrent, on the other hand, introduce biblical and mythological references (Table 7.6). Their “Goliath” and “Cyclops”, absent from Korczak’s tale, are by far the most sophisticated references in linguistic and cultural terms. The remaining examples in Table 7.6 are also characterized by the use of a more formal style. In the second example, Fisher and Torrent closely follow the source text, rendering Korczak’s “nucić półgłosem” with “to hum sotto voce”, using an Italian borrowing, although it would also be possible to render it as “to hum quietly” or simply retain a reference to “humming”, as Czasak did. Similarly, in the next example the American translators insert the term “en masse”, a borrowing from French, which is characterized by a high degree of formality and cannot be traced back to any expression from the source text. In the final example, one of the soldiers whom Matt meets in the military camp is also described in more sophisticated terms. Whereas Korczak’s original refers to him with a colloquial string of words, which is informally rendered by Czasak as “an expert at snooping about unseen and coming back with bits of handy information”, in the American translation the soldier is referred to in a more formal and elevated style as “an expert at obtaining information which he was rarely averse to sharing”. In these and many other cases,

7  Formal Literary Style and Modern American Idiom 

197

Fisher and Torrent abandon Korczak’s simple vocabulary and informal style, increasing the lexical sophistication of their translation. In this sense, Fisher and Torrent’s translation illustrates Lathey’s (2016: 75) and Looby’s (2015: 174–175) observations about the tendency among the translators of children’s literature to create target texts which are stylistically embellished and more linguistically sophisticated than their source texts. Such changes may serve a purpose which is essentially educational in nature—to help children acquire a rich vocabulary and help them to become acquainted with more refined language. It is thought-provoking, however, to consider why this tendency is so characteristic of Fisher and Torrent’s translation of Korczak’s classic. It might be that they regarded more formal words as more appropriate in the royal context, deliberately choosing more sophisticated lexis to create the aura of splendour and grandeur, and replacing plain Polish with “courtly English”. It could even be argued that the translation bears some distant resemblance to a chivalric romance. Although it contains no descriptions of courtly love, it is a literary tale about adventures of a heroic and honourable young king, who possesses certain features of a knight-errant, proves himself in battle and embarks on a daring quest to Africa, with parts of the text written in an ornate style, which is a recurrent linguistic pattern of this translation.

Idiomatic and Colloquial American English It would be reductive to characterize Fisher and Torrent’s translation exclusively by its formal style, however. It is in fact full of paradoxes, mixing formal language with informal American English. One of its distinctive features is that it contains a large number of idiomatic expressions which are not as characteristic of the style of the source text. Many of these idioms are introduced into the text, possibly to add variety to Korczak’s simple and unembellished style. Such colloquial and idiomatic language contrasts with the more formal style described above and the co-occurrence of these qualities in one text may create the impression of incoherence and inconsistency.

198 

M. Borodo

Idioms may be defined after Wales (2011: 212) as “phrases or strings of words which are idiosyncratic (idiomatic) in that they are language-­ specific, not easily translated into another language and in that their meaning is not easily determined from the meanings of their constitutive parts”. As is also observed by Wales (ibid.), “[m]any lexical idioms are clearly associated with the vividness of colloquial speech […] and many phrasal verb idioms are particularly associated with informal rather than formal situations.” With regard to rendering idioms in other languages, translators may opt for disparate strategies. For example, Baker (2007: 14) observes that, on the one hand, as idioms “add a flavour of naturalness and fluency”, translators should be willing to recreate as many of them as possible, although on the other hand, considering the tendency towards linguistic normalization, translators may decide to use standard linguistic patterns, avoiding more creative uses of idioms. Fisher and Torrent’s translation does not exclusively reflect either of these approaches. It is not even an instance of recreating idioms on a large scale but rather the case of adding a large number of idiomatic expressions which do not replicate any corresponding equivalents in the source text. This tendency may be illustrated with the examples in Table 7.7, presenting a selection of idiomatic expressions which do not appear in the source text but were introduced by Fisher and Torrent. These include such popular English idioms as “to be as plain as the nose on one’s face”, “to get along like a house on fire”, “mum’s the word”, as well as certain old-fashioned idioms such as “the baker’s dozen”, and “not for all the tea in China”. What all these idioms have in common is that they are used to replace Korczak’s unidiomatic Polish. The final example in Table 7.7 is particularly noteworthy. Fisher and Torrent introduce three different idioms when in fact no idioms appear in the source text: “to go down like ninepins”, the humorous “knee-high to a grasshopper” and “to be a sitting duck”. The translators also replace thirteen words from the original with a more elaborate forty-word description. On the one hand, it may be noted that “to go down like ninepins” sounds archaic and “knee-high to a grasshopper” is similarly archaic (with the humour sounding almost like an ironic take on a very old great-grandfather farmer). On the other hand, one may appreciate the translators’ creativity here and may even notice some resemblance to

7  Formal Literary Style and Modern American Idiom 

199

Table 7.7  Idiomatic language in Fisher and Torrent’s translation Korczak (1922)

Lourie (1986)

“They’ve kidnapped the king.” It was perfectly clear. (Korczak 1986: 54) Go where you’re told, do what you’re told, ask no questions, and keep your lips sealed. (Korczak 1986: 61) Serdecznie polubił Matt was very fond of Stash and Maciuś Stasia i Helenka. Helcię. (Korczak 1986: 125) (Korczak [1922] 1992: 96) The first twelve shots Dwanaście razy missed, but there nie trafili, a was no question trzynasty raz about the widocznie trafili thirteenth. (Korczak […]. (Korczak 1986: 75) [1922] 1992: 60) Matt did not want Wielu zabaw any part of many of Maciuś wcale nie their games. chciał. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 109) (Korczak 1986: 143) A ludzie padali od Many people had been felled by kul i może bullets, and perhaps Maciuś dlatego Matt had been tylko ocalał, że spared only because mały. (Korczak he was so small. [1922] 1992: 54) (Korczak 1986: 67)

– Ukradli króla. To przecież jasne. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 44) Idź i rób, o nic się nie pytaj i nic nie gadaj. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 50)

Fisher and Torrent (2014) “The king has been stolen!” It was as plain as the noses on their faces. (Korczak 2014: 45) Go and do it. Don’t ask any questions. Mum’s the word. (Korczak 2014: 50)

Matthew liked Stanley and Helen, and they really got along like a house on fire. (Korczak 2014: 102) The first twelve shots were off the mark, but the baker’s dozen proved a lucky number. (Korczak 2014: 62)

There were games Matthew would never approve of, not for all the tea in China. (Korczak 2014: 116) All around him men were going down like ninepins in a hail of bullets, and Matthew survived mainly due to being so much smaller than the average soldier. Knee-high to a grasshopper, he was no sitting duck for the enemy. (Korczak 2014: 55)

the first American translation of Korczak’s novel by the Sulkins (Chap. 4), in which a number of stylistically plain passages were replaced with more elaborate English text. It seems that in the English-speaking world Korczak’s text has come full circle—from the free and embellished American translation of the 1940s to another free and embellished translation of the 2010s—although there are also certain obvious differences,

200 

M. Borodo

as the Sulkins’ textual interventions, such as the omission of whole chapters and paragraphs, are more comprehensive and far-reaching from today’s perspective. Selected examples of the colloquial American English used by Fisher and Torrent are also provided in Table 7.8 and juxtaposed with Czasak’s linguistic choices. When Matt and Felix join the army, they are the youngest soldiers in the regiment and are at some point addressed as “raki”, an archaic Polish expression, which may denote someone who is new or young. While Czasak humorously refers to them as “toddlers”, Fisher and Torrent refer to the boys with the informal “rookies”, which is comparable to the informal word in the source text. The word “originated in Britain in the armed forces of the late 19th century, but more recently Table 7.8  Colloquial language of Fisher and Torrent’s translation Korczak (1922)

Czasak (1990)

“Up y’ get, toddlers, soup’s almost cold.” (Korczak 1990: 44) The officer leapt up Porucznik podniósł w to Matty, threw górę Maciusia i trzy razy him into the air powiedział: and called: – Zuch chłopak, zuch “Hooray!” chłopak, zuch chłopak. (Korczak 1990: 66) (Korczak [1922] 1992: 60–61) – A znamy cię, ptaszku! – “Aha! The rat returns!” shrieked krzyknął rozzłoszczony the officer at the nieprzyjacielski oficer. top of his voice. (Korczak [1922] 1992: (Korczak 1990: 68) 62) So just remember – A ojcowska ręka it’s fists not pewniejsza od favours that królewskiej łaski. count. (Korczak (Korczak [1922] 1992: 1990: 88) 80) But Matty, oh my A Maciuś, o zgrozo, w God! – there he lakierowanych was in his slippers pantoflach i z zielonym and green tie. krawatem […]. (Korczak (Korczak 1990: 39) [1922] 1992: 36) – Wstawajcie, raki, bo zupa wam wystygnie. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 39)

Fisher and Torrent (2014) “Get up, rookies, or your soup will get cold!” (Korczak 2014: 39) The lieutenant raised Matthew up and repeated three times: “Attaboy! Attaboy! Attaboy!” (Korczak 2014: 62) “Gotcha!” yelled the staff officer triumphantly. (Korczak 2014: 65)

And a father’s hand is more reliable than royal favour. Capish?! (Korczak 2014: 86)

Matthew – can you beat that – was wearing patent-­ leather shoes and a green tie […]. (Korczak 2014: 35)

7  Formal Literary Style and Modern American Idiom 

201

rookie has been in more widespread use in the USA”, denoting a newcomer to an organization or activity (Thorne 2007: 367), in particular in regard to police officers. Then, when Matt, already a soldier, triumphantly returns from a secret mission behind enemy lines, the commanding officer lifts the boy up in the air and praises him, repeating three times “zuch chłopak”. These words of approval have been rendered differently by Korczak’s translators: as “Good boy, that’s a boy, that’s a boy” by the Sulkins (Korczak 1945: 85), “What a kid, what a kid, what a kid!” by Lourie (1986: 75), as “Hooray!” by Czasak, and as “Attaboy! Attaboy! Attaboy!” by Fisher and Torrent (Table 7.8). A variant of “That’s a boy!”, the colloquial interjection “attaboy!”, which is used to express encouragement or approval and which originated in baseball slang,1 is the most colloquial equivalent of those used by the Korczak translators. It should be noted that such examples mainly appear in dialogue, and not in the narrative, which is usually more formal. When, in less fortunate circumstances, Matt is taken prisoner, he is wryly welcomed by the enemy officer with “A znamy cię, ptaszku!” [We know you, little bird]. This is exactly reproduced as “We know you, little bird” by the Sulkins (Korczak 1945: 88), “We know you, my little bird” by Lourie (Korczak 1986: 79), amplified into a more overtly angry “Aha! The rat returns!” by Czasak and replaced with the exclamation “Gotcha!” by Fisher and Torrent (Table 7.8). The latter, a written representation of “I have got you” and an example of so-called eye-dialect, is again the most informal linguistic choice of the four translations. Table 7.8 also presents two other examples of colloquial American English, that is, “Capish?” and “can you beat that”. Fisher and Torrent’s “Capish?”, an anglicized form of the Italian “capisci” (Thorne 2007: 81), also appearing in such variants as “capeesh?” or “capiche?”, is a humorous, slangy interjection used in the sense of “Do you understand?” In the final example, Korczak’s literary and humorous “o zgrozo”, which could be rendered in English with the humorous “horror of horrors!”, was replaced by Fisher and Torrent with “can you beat that”, which is also informal. For comparison, this expression was omitted from the 1945 translation by the Sulkins, translated as “good God!” by Lourie (Korczak 1986: 42), and rendered as  https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=attaboy

1

202 

M. Borodo

“oh my God!” by Czasak. The insertion of such expressions as “rookies”, “attaboy”, “capish” or “can you beat that” by Fisher and Torrent clearly reinforces the informal character of these source text passages.

Modernization of Korczak’s Fictional Universe The third distinctive feature of the 2014 translation, apart from its formal, literary style intertwined with colloquial and idiomatic language, is a partial modernization of Korczak’s fictional universe. This is not necessarily surprising considering that the translation was produced ninety-­ two years after the original publication (and sixty-nine years after the first American translation), periods during which the language and cultural context had changed considerably. Selected passages which signal that we are confronted with a more modern world than that described in the source text and the other translations are presented in Table 7.9. In the first example, the ministers gathered in the throne room are reporting to the king about what is happening in his kingdom, mentioning the number of ill soldiers (“ilu żołnierzy jest chorych” [how many soldiers are ill]). Fisher and Torrent refer in this sentence to “the number of soldiers on sick leave”, which is a more modern reference assuming the existence of a medical care system and employers and employees’ agreements concerning paid or unpaid absences from work. The second example is noteworthy in both linguistic and cultural terms. Young King Matt, welcomed by the cheers of the citizens of the neighbouring kingdom, is greeted by his “young fans” and given “a red-carpet welcome”. The boy is almost presented as a pop star attending a music concert or a film festival and the description might conjure up associations with Hollywood, Venice or Cannes. The third example refers to the educational context. The source text passage—“Od tej pory król Maciuś wziął się do nauki pisania na dobre” [From that moment king Matt really got down to learning writing]—is succinctly rendered by Czasak as “And so he decided to learn how to write”. In the more elaborate American translation, having realized that learning to write may help him to communicate with Felix, Matt becomes “a model student” for whom learning to write becomes a “top priority”.

7  Formal Literary Style and Modern American Idiom 

203

Table 7.9  Examples of modernization of Korczak’s fictional universe Korczak (1922)

Czasak (1990)

Minister wojny wyliczał, Then the Minister of War presented a list ile fortec jest of all the damaged zepsutych, ile armat fortresses and się zniszczyło, że cannons, and all the wcale z nich strzelać soldiers that were nie można, i ilu too ill to serve. żołnierzy jest chorych. (Korczak 1990: 22) (Korczak [1922] 1992: 19) Ponieważ zwolniono ze In fact all the schools had been given szkół uczniów na trzy three days’ holiday, dni, wszystkie dzieci so that’s why there były na ulicy. were lots of kids as Tak Maciusia nigdy well. jeszcze nie witała Even Matty’s own jego własna stolica. capital had never (Korczak [1922] 1992: treated him so well. 90) (Korczak 1990: 96) Od tej pory król Maciuś And so he decided to learn how to write. wziął się do nauki (Korczak 1990: 24) pisania na dobre. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 21) Ciekawie było słuchać i przyjemnie się bawić […]. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 97)

Everything was so interesting and pleasant […]. (Korczak 1990: 105)

Fisher and Torrent (2014) The Minister of War would enumerate all the fortresses that needed a complete overhaul and all the cannons that were out of order and could not be fired anymore. Finally, he would quote the number of soldiers on sick leave. (Korczak 2014: 16) To mark the occasion, children were given three days off school, and so the streets were also packed with young fans of the heroic ruler. King Matthew had never been given such a red-carpet welcome, even in his own capital. (Korczak 2014: 94) This was a crucial realization. From that moment on, Matthew was a model student: learning to write became his top priority. (Korczak 2014: 18–19) They really had a great time listening to these mini-­ lectures or playing […]. (Korczak 2014: 104)

These expressions, absent from the source text, may bring to mind present-­day educational discourse centring on achievement and excellence, underscoring young students’ and their parents’ ambitions and aspirations. In a similar vein, when at the seaside Matt and his c­ ompanions make friends with the local fishermen, who explain to the children how to tell from the sky that a storm is coming, this is straightforwardly referred to by Korczak as “Ciekawie było słuchać i przyjemnie się bawić” [It was interesting to listen (to them) and nice to play] ([1922] 1992: 97). Czasak renders Korczak’s words as “Everything was so interesting and

204 

M. Borodo

pleasant” (1990: 105), but Fisher and Torrent insert the following reference: “They really had a great time listening to these mini-lectures or playing” (2014: 104). The reference to the local fishermen from the 1920s’ novel delivering mini-lectures on the beach may create an unintentional comical effect, but it is also an instance of using more modern vocabulary associated with the educational context. Because of these linguistic choices we are confronted with a slightly different fictional universe to the one described in the source text. It is not only an alternative, fantasy world of exciting adventures, exotic journeys, courtly intrigue, kings and battles, in which children reign. It is also a world of model students with top priorities and celebrities surrounded by cheering fans. In the 2014 American translation, Korczak’s fictional universe underwent partial modernization.

Hyperbolization, Fairytalization and Infantilization Another characteristic feature of the American translation, apart from its partial modernization and the much more apparent use of a formal, literary style combined with idiomatic and informal American English, is the translators’ use of the strategies of hyperbolization, infantilization and fairytalization (Adamczyk-Garbowska 1988: 113–116; Kaniklidou and House 2017: 4–5, 8–9; Knowles and Malmkjær 1996: 163), which were discussed in Chap. 2. The overlapping strategies of infantilization and fairytalization may involve, as noted earlier, the addition of possessive pronouns, as in “our teddy” or “our hero”, although they do not appear in the source text, and the use of tangible, physical terms to increase clarity of expression or characterization. These modifications may be illustrated with Fisher and Torrent’s insertion of the expression “our hero” or the possessive pronoun “our” in such examples as “The next question our hero puzzled over […]” (Korczak 2014: 17), “Now our hero was sent to the trenches […]” (ibid.: 62), “Yet another gave our hero two very funny monkeys” (ibid.: 96) or “So our brave king got up in spite of the headache […]” (ibid.: 140). Another noteworthy example appears in chapter

7  Formal Literary Style and Modern American Idiom 

205

6, which describes Matt and Felix’s arrival at the train station, from where they will travel to the front. The sentence from the source text, “W tej właśnie chwili nadjechał sycząc pociąg” [At that moment the train arrived, hissing] (Korczak [1922] 1992: 38), was replaced by Fisher and Torrent with a more evocative fairy-tale-like description containing a simile: “Just at that moment, the train pulled into the station, hissing like some gigantic boa constrictor” (Korczak 2014: 38). Elsewhere, when Korczak simply refers to “bombs”, Fisher and Torrent introduce a more vivid reference to “the pumpkin-size bombs” (ibid.: 67). Hyperbolization is more prevalent in the American translation. It has already been touched upon earlier, for example, in the passages mentioning the “ocean of sand of unbelievable vastness” or Matt’s ministers “averting certain war and indescribable disaster”. Below it will be illustrated with two more examples, one presenting Matt after the death of his father and the other referring to Matt’s war experiences (Table 7.10). Table 7.10  Fisher and Torrent’s use of hyperbolization Korczak (1922)

The Sulkins (1945)

Fisher and Torrent (2014)

Matthew, filled with a profound Maciuś smutny siedział Up in his room sadness he had never felt Matthew sat w swoim pokoju, bo before, sat motionlessly in his alone. He was a chociaż miał zostać room, his eyes fixed on the King, but he was królem, ale stracił ceiling. Although he was to unhappy. He had ojca – i teraz nikogo become king of a whole nation, lost his father już nie miał na every time he thought about his and now he had świecie. (Korczak father, he felt absolutely alone nobody in the [1922] 1992: 13) with no kindred spirit to world. comfort him. (Korczak 2014: 11) (Korczak 1945: 21–22) Wielu żołnierzy rzucało Although many of Many a soldier, panic-stricken, dropped their rifles, but the soldiers karabiny, ale Maciuś Matthew held onto his for dear threw away their trzymał swój karabin life, despite the pain and rifles Matthew w zdrętwiałych numbness in his tiny royal bravely held on palcach. to his. How could fingers. Rarely in the field of Jak można w kilka dni human conflict had one one go through tyle przeżyć! suffered so much in so few days, so much in so (Korczak [1922] 1992: being so young and innocent. few days? 54) (Korczak 2014: 55) (Korczak 1945: 76)

206 

M. Borodo

Matt is not simply sad (“smutny”), as in the source text, but “filled with a profound sadness he had never felt before” and his state of mind is further emphasized by his body posture and gaze. In the second example, the soldiers are additionally described as “panic-stricken”, while Matt does not simply hold the rifle with numb fingers but also feels pain in “tiny royal fingers”, which, incidentally, could also be interpreted as an instance of infantilization. The closing lines of both passages make these examples even more dramatic. The final sentence in particular has been considerably hyperbolized. It is enough to compare Korczak’s “Jak można w kilka dni tyle przeżyć!” [How can one live through so much in just a few days!] with Fisher and Torrent’s expanded “Rarely in the field of human conflict had one suffered so much in so few days, being so young and innocent”. It may be noted that this phrasing is probably allusive, referring to a speech delivered by Winston Churchill during the Battle of Britain in 1940—“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few”.2 Hyperbolization is a common and recurrent linguistic pattern in the 2014 translation. To provide two final examples, while Matt’s great-grandmother was described as “rozumna” in the Polish original (Korczak [1922] 1992: 18), which was rendered as “prudent” in Czasak’s version (Korczak 1990: 22) and “wise” in Lourie’s translation (Korczak 1986: 18), according to Fisher and Torrent she was “a woman of infinite wisdom” (Korczak 2014: 16). Similarly, while Matt’s father’s funeral was “held in great style” in Czasak’s version (Korczak 1990: 16), and there was “a great procession at the king’s funeral” in Lourie’s translation (Korczak 1986: 11), according to Fisher and Torrent it was “a stately occasion, one of indescribable grandeur” (Korczak 2014: 11). To conclude, this most recent English-language translation of Korczak’s classic novel is stylistically eclectic and full of paradoxes. It is both formal and informal, idiomatic, hyperbolized and more firmly anchored in the modern world. These potentially conflicting features are all combined in a single translation, making it distinct from its predecessors. It may be speculated that the reasons for this eclecticism result from the adoption of a global, overarching strategy assuming that Korczak’s plain style  http://www.churchill-society-london.org.uk/thefew.html

2

7  Formal Literary Style and Modern American Idiom 

207

should be made more evocative, vivid, vibrant and diverse for the English reader in the twenty-first century. On the other hand, the translation sometimes completely changes the style of the original, which is mostly written in informal language (consider again Korczak’s “How can one live through so much in just a few days!” with Fisher and Torrent’s hyperbolized and bombastic “Rarely in the field of human conflict had one suffered so much in so few days, being so young and innocent”). While this chapter has been concerned with issues of linguistic formality, informality, lexical sophistication, modernization and hyperbolization, the next chapter will focus on the changing tendencies in the presentation of culturally sensitive racial issues. Unlike this chapter, mainly concentrating on a range of characteristic features of the most recent translation, Chap. 8 will demonstrate how racial issues were presented in all four translations of Korczak’s novel produced over a period of almost seventy years.

References Primary Sources Korczak, Janusz. 1945. Matthew the Young King. Trans. Edith and Sidney Sulkin. New York: Roy Publishers. ———. 1986. King Matt the First. Trans. Richard Lourie. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ———. 1990. Little King Matty …and the Desert Island. Trans. Adam Czasak. London: Joanna Pinewood Enterprises. ———. [1922] 1992. Król Maciuś Pierwszy. Król Maciuś na wyspie bezludnej. Warszawa: Oficyna Wydawnicza Latona. ———. 2014. King Matthew the First. Trans. and Adapt. Adam Fisher and Ben Torrent. New York: Nanook Books.

Secondary Sources Adamczyk-Garbowska, Monika. 1988. Polskie tłumaczenia angielskiej literatury dziecięcej. Problemy krytyki przekładu. Wrocław: Ossolineum.

208 

M. Borodo

Baker, Mona. 2007. Patterns of Idiomaticity in Translated vs. Non-Translated Text. Belgian Journal of Linguistics 21 (1): 11–21. Gąsiorek, Krystyna. 1997. Od słowa do tekstu: O języku i stylach Janusza Korczaka. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Naukowe WSP. Kaniklidou, Themis, and Juliane House. 2017. Discourse and Ideology in Translated Children’s Literature: A Comparative Study. Perspectives 26 (2): 1–14. Knowles, Murray, and Kirsten Malmkjær. 1996. Language and Control in Children’s Literature. London/New York: Routledge. Lathey, Gillian. 2016. Translating Children’s Literature. New York: Routledge. Looby, Robert. 2015. Censorship, Translation and English Language Fiction in People’s Poland. Leiden/Boston: Brill/Rodopi. Olczak-Ronikier, Joanna. 2011. Korczak. Próba biografii. Warszawa: WAB. Thorne, Tony. 2007. Dictionary of Contemporary Slang. 3rd ed. London: A&C Black. Wales, Katie. 2011. A Dictionary of Stylistics. 3rd ed. London/New York: Routledge.

8 On Cannibals and Savages: Translators’ Treatment of Racial Issues

Korczak’s children’s books contain terms and passages presenting matters of race in terms that were stereotypical of the depiction of Africans at the time of writing—terms that are controversial from today’s perspective. Reflecting European racial stereotypes of the 1920s and 1930s, towards the beginning of the twenty-first century his novels would be considered increasingly problematic by readers in the multicultural and multiracial Anglophone societies for whom the English translations were created. Depending on the socio-cultural context and the translator, such passages and expressions were often mitigated or eliminated, sometimes left unchanged, while sometimes the translator opted for a compromise, toning down some of the negative racial references, while retaining others. This will be illustrated in this chapter with a focus on the four translations of Korczak’s 1922 novel that have been discussed so far (from 1945, 1986, 1990 and 2014), as well as the English translation of Kaytek the Wizard, published in 2012. The chapter comments on the translators’ decisions and the roles of other participants involved in the publication process, such as foreword writers, critics and publishers, and it demonstrates how social values and ideologies change over time.

© The Author(s) 2020 M. Borodo, English Translations of Korczak’s Children’s Fiction, Palgrave Studies in Translating and Interpreting, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38117-2_8

209

210 

M. Borodo

Changing Approaches to Racial Issues Reflecting changing power relations in colonial and postcolonial hierarchies, historically, various terms have been used to refer to races, ethnic groups and nationalities. This historically embedded vocabulary has been constantly evolving, and Geoffrey Hughes (2010: 125) points to several phases concerning the perception of race and the use of race-related nomenclature: Naming is an essential part of the dynamic of colonialism, whereby the colonized are labeled and represented as inferior, savage, other, different. After this initial phase anthropologists and ethnologists seek to correct these errors and stereotypes, with partial success. Thereafter, usually at the period of independence, political pressures lead to the renaming of the given peoples and territories in accordance with their origins, identity, and aspirations.

In recent decades, in particular with the advent of greater racial sensitivity and recognition of multiculturalism, there has been an emphasis on “suppressing judgmental or stigmatizing language either by discouragement or by the institution of speech codes” (ibid. 115). As noted in Chap. 2, “political correctness” is a complex phenomenon: on the one hand, it aims to combat prejudice and stereotypes, toning down potentially offensive language and making up for historical injustices, such as colonialism, slavery and segregation; on the other, however, it may impose new language codes, which sometimes hinder an open exchange of views. The influence of socio-cultural and linguistic changes, some of which are related to “political correctness”, is also visible in the activities of publishers, who may omit or modify controversial terms and passages depicting non-European cultures in a stereotypical way, as was the case with, for example, The Story of Doctor Dolittle, Les Aventures de TinTin or Pippi Långstrump (see Chap. 2). It is assumed that the English translations of Korczak’s children’s fiction examined here, published in the multicultural environments of Britain and North America over a seventy-year period, would also have been prone to the modification of source-text passages owing to racial sensitivity, a hypothesis which will be explored below.

8  On Cannibals and Savages: Translators’ Treatment of Racial… 

211

Korczak’s novels about King Matt and Kaytek the Wizard are a reflection of the cultural norms that prevailed in interwar Poland as well as an example of a European colonial worldview. While Poland of the 1920s and 1930s was ethnically heterogeneous, it was also a racially homogeneous country, without overseas territories. In this environment, a black person was a rare sight, someone perceived mainly through the prism of popular literary characters such as Robinson Crusoe’s Friday or Kali from Henryk Sienkiewicz’s famous young adult adventure novel W pustyni i w puszczy [In Desert and Wilderness] from 1911. Korczak’s writings may also be viewed as an example of European colonial consciousness. Although interwar Poland did not possess overseas colonies, it had colonial aspirations, which were noticeable in the creation of “Liga Morska i Kolonialna” [the Maritime and Colonial League], a social organization with around one million members formed before the outbreak of World War II.  Interest in this subject is also apparent in travel literature and literature for young adults, which in the 1930s were an integral element of Polish literary life (Borkowska 2007: 23). As noted by Marek Arpad Kowalski (2005: 327), such literature, luring the reader with the exotic and the adventurous, contributed to the creation of a “colonial atmosphere”. Echoes of this fascination with exotic lands and colonial territories are also noticeable in Korczak’s books. Hughes (2010: 123–124) distinguishes three models which dominate in the perception of “primitive” cultures in the colonial mentality. The first model, which was especially influential in earlier times, is that of “exclusive categorization” whereby members of such cultures, not only in the African but also in Asian, American and European contexts, are denied their humanity and viewed as “beasts, brutes, savages, barbarians, cannibals, amazons, and so on” (ibid.). The second model is that of an “inclusive humanity”. Rejecting racial stereotypes presenting members of other cultures as untrustworthy, inhuman, savage and animal-like, it stresses the likeness, fellowship and the sense of belonging to the same community of brothers and sisters. The third model depicts members of “primitive” cultures as “noble savages”, a term associated with Rousseau and denoting idealized “primitive man”, uncorrupted by civilization and superior to civilized modern man. All these conceptual models—centring on a savage cannibal, an equal human being and an idealized noble

212 

M. Borodo

s­avage—can be found in the story about King Matt. Korczak interchangeably portrays Africans as wild, savage, animal-like and in need of being civilized, but also as equal, noble, kind-hearted and uncorrupted, especially in comparison with white “modern man”, represented by sly and untrustworthy officials, kings and spies plotting against and taking advantage of Matt’s inexperience and youth. Some of Korczak’s terms would be regarded from today’s perspective as racist (e.g. savages, monkeys). Yet, to simply refer to Korczak himself as a racist would mean treating race as an ahistorical construct and perceiving Korczak’s novels in an ahistorical vacuum. He sometimes depicts Africans in a negative light, using unfavourable terms, but he is also favourable towards Africans, presenting them in a positive light. Korczak’s positive representations of black Africans are mainly in the “noble savage” model. It should be noted, however, that the “noble savage” may be seen as partially dehumanizing as well, as it carries with it the notion of Western superiority and the hopeless (if noble) backwardness of primitive savages who must adapt and become modern. It is worth investigating how Korczak’s various translators have rendered race-related descriptions. It may be assumed that, first, the English-language translators have used different terms over time and their translations should thus be distinct from one another in this respect. Second, it may be hypothesized that the translations may differ in a sense that the racial terms employed are likely to have gradually become increasingly sensitive to racial issues over time. Korczak’s portrayal of black African characters is briefly touched upon in the reviews of Lourie’s 1986 translation. In a generally positive review, an anonymous Kirkus reviewer observes that “Matt’s African friends will give modern readers pause: Korczak exaggerated the prevailing stereotype of the savage, uncivilized cannibal. On the other hand, he endowed his black characters with intelligence and open-mindedness” (Kirkus Reviews 1986). In a review published in The New York Times, Jack Zipes praises Korczak’s novel and does not comment on the racially sensitive aspects. He only makes a brief and fairly positive reference to the fact that “Matt forms an alliance with a black king in Africa and demonstrates the importance of learning about the customs of so-called primitive peoples” (Zipes 1986). Finally, commenting on the 2005 Vintage Classics edition of Lourie’s translation in Books for Keeps Pam Harwood makes a short

8  On Cannibals and Savages: Translators’ Treatment of Racial… 

213

­ assing reference to the African princess Klu-Klu, noting: “The book is p eventful and entertaining (not least the exploits of Matt’s friend, the resourceful black girl Klu Klu)” (Harwood 2005). With the exception of the Kirkus review, the issue of race is thus not presented as central or noteworthy by the reviewers. More elaborate and thought-provoking comments on racial issues, anticipating readers’ critical reactions and reflecting a certain unease as well as dilemmas about Korczak’s language, but also defending the author, can be found in the introductions to the two different editions of Lourie’s King Matt the First. Written by eminent personalities in the field, they lend credibility to Korczak’s novel and counter potential criticism concerning racial descriptions. The foreword to the 1986 translation is by the child psychologist Bruno Bettelheim, while the 2004 edition published by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill had a foreword by the children’s author Esmé Raji Codell. Raji Codell’s text also appears in the most recent edition of Lourie’s translation, published in 2015 as part of Penguin Vintage Classics. In 1986, Bettelheim observes that Korczak’s book was written in the tradition of the Enlightenment, part of which is “the Rousseauean notion of the noble savage, who, although primitive in outlook and behavior, is actually more moral in the highest sense than are his European counterparts” (Korczak 1986: ix). This is an exemplary use of the “noble savage” trope—“savage”, but somehow “better than us”, used instrumentally to criticize (decadent) Western culture more than to say anything particular about the subjects of the representation at all. Situating the novel historically, Bettelheim then explains that Korczak did not write for Americans but for Poles—who had little contact with black people at the time—and from the perspective of a young Polish boy fascinated with the exotic. He points to the positive aspects of the depiction of Africans, observing, for example, that it is only the African King Bum-Drum who remains Matt’s true friend until the end, while the white kings betray the boy, and he notes that the little African princess Klu-Klu is “the most unambiguously delightful character” in the story (ibid.). Bettelheim claims that “blacks are portrayed as better people, and this is more important than some of their primitive and violent customs”, arguing that “[i]t should be apparent that nothing is further from Korczak’s mind than racism” (ibid.). To

214 

M. Borodo

rhetorically strengthen his argument, he refers to Korczak’s life, writing that if the portrayal of “black people as superior to their white counterparts in all important ways does not sufficiently demonstrate that the author was as free of corrupt values as any person can be, then his life certainly does demonstrate this” (ibid.: x). Bettelheim then mentions the days Korczak spent in the Warsaw ghetto, his refusal to abandon his charges and their death together, referring to him as “one of the genuine martyrs and heroes of our age” (ibid.). In the introduction to the 2004 edition, Raji Codell also defends Korczak, but in a more nuanced and less hagiographic tone, praising the book but also allowing herself some critical comments. With regard to racial issues, she observes: I soon discovered that King Matt the First asks a lot of its reader in a modern context. When I first read this book to children who were predominantly African-American, I waited for them to explode with righteous indignation. I withered at the prospect of explaining to thirty-some expectant faces that the author probably included things such as African cannibals eating salted flesh because he was sitting in a room full of two hundred kids and wanted to say something that made them go “Eeeeeewwww.” But I didn’t have to explain it, because the children didn’t identify with it, and created their own chorus of “Eeeeeewwww” just as kids might have half a century ago. (Korczak [1986] 2004: ix)

Raji Codell then points out that King Matt is open to African people, who she argues are portrayed as more trustworthy than their white counterparts. She nevertheless expresses some reservations about Korczak’s handling of racial issues, speculating about how she would react to the book, and its stereotypical depiction of black people, if she were to read it aloud in front of white children: I wonder, though, if I had been reading to a group of predominantly Caucasian American children today whose economic and geographical demographic might still segregate them from people of color, I might have been inclined to abridge the book simply to avoid introducing unnecessary negative stereotypes to an audience that doesn’t have enough multicultural exposure to counter them. Or maybe I would have taken a deep breath and

8  On Cannibals and Savages: Translators’ Treatment of Racial… 

215

read it uncensored, putting it into context. I don’t know. Even though I consider King Matt a masterpiece of world literature, I don’t see the book as untouchable. (Korczak [1986] 2004: x)

This is a thought-provoking comment, differing from Bettelheim’s vehement defence of Korczak mentioned above. Raji Codell observes that despite its merits the novel may be viewed as problematic in the context of multiracial American society, suggesting that it should be placed in historical perspective for some younger readers and that it could even benefit from being “abridged”. This raises the question of how much freedom translators should have in intervening in the fictional world created by the author and to what extent they should recreate the author’s worldview and respect his or her decisions. So how did Korczak’s translators react to the racially sensitive content in their translations of his novel?

The Translators’ Treatment of Racial Terms In their analysis of Victorian children’s literature, Knowles and Malmkjær (1996: 107) study linguistic patterns of reference to the indigenous people of former British colonies, with the most common terms in order of decreasing frequency being “blacks”, “savages”, “natives”, “negroes” and “niggers”, the meaning and social acceptability of which have obviously evolved over time. Some of these terms would be regarded as unacceptable or even highly offensive in contemporary parlance. It may be assumed that race-related linguistic patterns have evolved in the translations of Korczak’s story about the boy king, too. Let us use chapter 30 as an example (Table 8.1). It describes Matt’s second journey to Africa to visit the African King Bum-Drum in order to find out whether he had stopped being a cannibal (something the boy tried to convince him to do when they had previously met) and to invite him to the kings’ convention organized in Matt’s kingdom. The first example is taken from the opening of this chapter and presents the words of a white telegraphist, sitting in a small garrison in Africa, who complains of boredom and loneliness and misses the old days when he used to fight with Africans. The next passage describes Matt’s arrival at the

216 

M. Borodo

Table 8.1  The translators’ treatment of the word “Murzyni” [Negroes] Korczak (1922)

Lourie (1986)

Czasak (1990)

Dawniej to choć Murzyni się buntowali, więc się wojowało z nimi. […] Przyjechał Maciuś, obstąpili go Murzyni. […] Tak też zrobili. I dzięki pomocy poczciwych Murzynów mógł Maciuś, z trzygodzinnym wprawdzie opóźnieniem, puścić się w drogę. (Korczak [1922] 1992: 138, 139, 142)

Before, the natives revolted once in a while and you could have a fight. […] Matt was surrounded by natives as soon as he arrived. […] And so it was that, with the help of some honest natives, Matt was again on his way, in spite of a three-hour delay. (Korczak 1986: 183, 184, 188)

It wasn’t so bad before with the Negroes rebelling and starting battles and things […]. […] Matty arrived. All the Negroes started clustering round him. […] And that’s what they did. So thanks to the honest blacks, Matty was able to leave – with only a three hour delay. (Korczak 1990: 146, 147, 149)

Fisher and Torrent (2014) In the old good days, at least the Africans were unruly, and you had to fight them so there was at least something to do. [...] Sure enough, the train soon arrived and Matthew and his pilot got off. Black porters crowded around Matthew […]. […] And that’s what they did. So, thanks to the help of these kind-­hearted Africans, Matthew was able to take off as planned and embark on the final leg of his journey. (Korczak 2014: 147, 148, 151)

garrison, whereupon he is surrounded by Africans. The third passage is the ending of this chapter, in which it turns out that Matt and his pilot can finally take off thanks to a group of Africans who helped them to find a missing part of their airplane which had been hidden by the soldiers from the white garrison to jeopardize Matt’s journey. What all these examples have in common is that in the source text, Korczak uses the plural form of the word “Murzyn” [Negro]. This term has been rendered in various ways by Korczak’s translators. Because chapter 30 was omitted from the Sulkins’ translation, their version could not be included in the table.

8  On Cannibals and Savages: Translators’ Treatment of Racial… 

217

In the chapter in question, there are fifteen occurrences of the lexeme “Murzyn”, both in the singular and in the plural, and of the corresponding adjective “murzyński”. The English-language translators’ most frequent choices are the word “black” and one other word that they regard as the most suitable in their target texts: for Lourie it is “natives”, for Czasak it is “Negro”, and for Fisher and Torrent it is the word “African”, a tendency shown in Table 8.1. Thus, while Korczak consistently uses the word “Murzyn” [Negro], his translators use more varied terms and also differ from one another in their linguistic choices. Lourie’s “natives” denotes the original inhabitants born in a given place rather than foreigners, Czasak’s “Negro” is the closest to the source text, although it might be regarded as offensive in most contexts, while Fisher and Torrent’s “African” comes across as the most “politically correct” term in today’s usage. However, there is more in these excerpts than simply the choice of how to render the lexeme “Murzyn”, which also operates on the connotative level. For example, consider Korczak’s reference to “poczciwych murzynów” [kind-hearted Negroes]. Although “kind-hearted” seems to be a better equivalent for the adjective “poczciwy”, Lourie and Czasak both use the adjective “honest” [uczciwy], rendering the expression as “some honest natives” and “the honest blacks” (as opposed to many or most who are not?), which might evoke the prevalent colonial stereotype of dishonest and deceitful Africans. Then, the use of “black porters” by Fisher and Torrent may be seen as an attempt to move away from the totalizing use of simple “Murzyni” [Negroes] (conflating “them” into a homogeneous mass). The addition of “porters” emphasizes a function of their jobs, not their blackness, which may be viewed a “humanizing” step. Furthermore, with regard to the use of the lexeme “Murzyn” [Negro], the situation is not as simple as the above examples might indicate. Although the English-language translators exhibit certain preferences for specific racial terms, they do not use them consistently and sometimes use a variety of terms, which may differ from chapter to chapter. For example, Lourie uses “black” and “native” in chapter 30, but he very often uses the word “African”. Fisher and Torrent display a preference for “black” and “African”, but do not avoid references to “savages” and “cannibals”, and neither does Lourie. On the other hand, neither of them uses the word “Negro”, which is often found in Czasak, who also frequently

218 

M. Borodo

uses the word “black”. It may be significant that Czasak was raised in the UK, whereas Lourie, Fisher and Torrent (and also Raji Codell) are operating in the US context, which has different sensitivities regarding language. The Sulkins’ version is more difficult to compare because of numerous omissions, either related or unrelated to racial issues, but they otherwise make use of such words as “native”, “Negro”, “black” and “African”. In this sense, it is difficult to observe verifiable trends in usage with reference to sensitive vocabulary. We can refer instead to certain preferences which are both related to the changing tendencies in language use and the individual translators’ socio-culturally conditioned preferences, such as the use of “Negro” in the first American translation, from 1945 (Negro was in fact the polite term in the US context in 1945, and black would have been rather offensive), and in the British translation from 1990, and the preference for the word “African” in the two most recent American translations, from 1986 and 2014. Some race-related linguistic patterns can be discerned in the English-­ language translations, however. One such pattern is illustrated in Table 8.2 with the passage which refers to Matt’s preparations to organize the kings’ convention. When all the arrangements have been made, Matt signs invitations to various kings representing different regions of the world. In the source text, the colours of the papers on which the invitations are written relate to skin colours. In the translations, these references are either retained or modified. In the 1922 source text, Korczak, describing the world from the perspective of a young boy fascinated by the exotic, refers to the foreign kings as “biali” [white], “czarni” [black] and “żółci” [yellow]. The same pattern can be found in the 1945 American translation and the 1990 British text. Lourie and Fisher and Torrent introduce changes in this excerpt, however. Fisher and Torrent retain the reference to “white” kings but insert “Oriental” and “African” kings, the latter additionally premodified by the adjective “black”. The reason for this may be that while “black” continues in contemporary use, “yellow” has been taboo for decades (although it was common, if negative, in 1945) as it has a longer unambiguous collocation with menace or peril, and no real positive use analogous to reclaiming “black” as in “black is beautiful” and “black power”, in which case what had once been an insult was claimed as positive. Lourie goes

8  On Cannibals and Savages: Translators’ Treatment of Racial… 

219

Table 8.2  The translators’ treatment of references to foreign kings’ skin colour and racial identities Korczak (1922)

The Sulkins (1945)

Lourie (1986)

Fisher and Czasak (1990) Torrent (2014)

When And when When When all Kiedy już everything everything everything plans had wszystko was resolved had been was agreed been uradzono, and the pros settled, upon, Matt made, Maciuś and cons Matty signed the Matthew podpisał weighed, invitations to signed the signed the zaproszenia Matthew invitations – all the invitations do signed the the white foreign to the zagranicznych invitations kings were kings – to foreign królów: do for the the European invited on Kings. To białych na foreign white kings on the white białym kings: on paper – the white paper, Kings they papierze, do white paper yellow to the were żółtych – na for white kings on Oriental printed on żółtym i do kings, on yellow kings on white czarnych – na yellow yellow paper, paper – and paper with czarnym paper for the black and to the black ink, papierze. Do Oriental African kings kings on to the białych królów kings, and black paper. on black yellow zaproszenia on black The white paper. The Kings they napisane były paper for kings’ invitations were czarnym the black invitations on white printed in atramentem, African were paper were red ink on do żółtych – kings. written in written in yellow czerwonym, a The black, the black ink, paper, and do czarnych invitations yellow those on to the królów for the kings’ black Kings yellow paper zaproszenia white kings invitations in red ink, the napisane były were in red, and and those on invitations złotym written in the black black paper were atramentem. black ink, kings’ in gold ink. printed on (Korczak for the invitations – black paper (Korczak [1922] 1992: Oriental in gold. 1986: 208) in gold ink. 156) kings in red (Korczak (Korczak ink and for 1990: 1945: 181) the black 164–165) African kings in gold ink. (Korczak 2014: 168)

220 

M. Borodo

one step further in this passage—he completely erases the direct references to the colour of the skin, introducing “African”, “Oriental” and “European” kings instead. Lourie’s use of this last term, which emphasizes white kings’ ties with Europe and serves as a reminder that, historically, colonial powers were European, is a recurrent linguistic pattern found in this translation. One could also point to a slight difference here in Fisher and Torrent’s use of “Oriental” versus Lourie’s. In 1986, “Oriental” was still rather common in the US context and only beginning to feel outdated. By 2014, however, when Fisher and Torrent used it, it was clearly a “non-politically correct” term. It seems that they’re being “politically correct”, when in fact they’re opting for the less “non-­politically correct” option—using yellow would be incendiary, “Oriental” merely “problematic”. Korczak’s novel also contains problematic racial terms, presenting representatives of non-European cultures as wild and savage. This can be illustrated with the examples in Table 8.3. The first refers to Matt’s visit Table 8.3  The translators’ treatment of the original references to “savages”

Korczak (1922)

The Sulkins (1945)

Lourie (1986)

Czasak (1990)

Fisher and Torrent (2014)

But because This monarch This King had This king had Ten król miał had many he knew many friends many friends dużo friends lots of among the among other przyjaciół among savage kings of między dzikimi foreign exotic kings kings […]. countries that Kings […]. królami […]. […]. were still wild (Korczak (Korczak (Korczak (Korczak 1990: 98) […]. (Korczak 1945: [1922] 1992: 2014: 96) 1986: 116) 126–127) 90) And the And that And that And you’re I ten dzikus, savage that savage accompanied savage who który z wami came here that’s came with by a native przyjechał, to with you come with you must be who looks musi być jakaś you – some must be a some sort of pretty bardzo ważna very big pot by very important. osoba. important the looks important (Korczak (Korczak person […]. of it. person. 1945: 142) [1922] 1992: (Korczak (Korczak (Korczak 106) 2014: 113) 1990: 114) 1986: 139)

8  On Cannibals and Savages: Translators’ Treatment of Racial… 

221

to the neighbouring country ruled by a king who has many friends “among savage kings” (“między dzikimi królami”) from more distant lands, such as Africa and Asia. The second passage is a reference to Matt’s first African journey that he takes with the old professor and an African prince, an envoy of the African King Bum-Drum. A shrewd soldier from a small garrison they pass on the way becomes suspicious about such an unusual group of travellers and observes that Matt’s African companion, whom he refers to as “that savage” (“ten dzikus”), looks like some kind of very important person. In the 1922 source text, Korczak uses such strong terms as “savage kings” and “that savage” but not all translators follow suit. In 1945, the Sulkins use much milder terms that would be acceptable in today’s usage, that is, “foreign kings” and “a native”—the terms which may be described as more sensitive and unbiased with regard to the portrayal of foreign people. In 1986, Lourie rephrases “savage kings” as “kings of countries that were still wild” and retains a reference to “that savage”. In 1990, most closely following the source text, Czasak refers to “savage kings” and “that savage”. He reproduces Korczak’s worldview, deciding not to tone down the original in any way. On the one hand, the decision to retain the original terms may be viewed as problematic, on the other, the translator may have decided that it would be unethical to tamper with the source text, changing and distorting the original author’s words. Finally, in 2014, Fisher and Torrent opt for the mitigated “exotic king”. In 2014, this would not have been a “politically correct” term, though certainly more appropriate than “savage”. One may notice how Fisher and Torrent are trying to “dance a line”—they evoke some of the original without upsetting contemporary American sensibilities too much (and, e.g. having readers try to get the book banned from libraries). In the second example, however, they opt for an unmitigated reference to “the savage”. Contrary to expectations, when looked at chronologically, the translated terms do not become increasingly racially sensitive over time. It is in fact the first translation that is the most sensitive in the portrayal of African people, with the following translations using stronger and less diplomatic language. However, the situation is again not as simple as these examples may indicate. There are many other descriptions in the novel, some of

222 

M. Borodo

which are controversial, that were retained by all the translators, and these will be the focus of the following section.

The Translation of Controversial Passages Korczak’s source text contains a large number of references to black people as cannibals. This is in fact one of the most distinguishing characteristics of the Africans in the novel and Matt’s attempts to “civilize” them and make them abandon cannibalism is one of the important motifs in the book. These references also appear in all of the English-language translations. Instead of launching a frontal attack on Korczak here for what may be regarded as the inappropriate depiction of black Africans, it is worth mentioning that cannibalism has long been a common motif in literature (e.g. the cannibalistic witch in “Hansel and Gretel”) and mythology (e.g. Cronus devouring his children),1 and it is a practice associated with various cultures and rituals in many parts of the world, from South America through Africa to Oceania. In Korczak’s novel, such descriptions may be additionally viewed as one of the characteristic features of the genre to which the book belongs. The story of Matt is an adventure novel for younger readers filled with extraordinary events and exotic settings presented from the perspective of a naïve little boy living in the Central Eastern Europe of the 1920s. In this context, such references would have been less controversial. On the other hand, one wonders whether presenting cannibalism as a defining feature of African identity and a central aspect in the portrayal of black people should be retained in this form in translations created for multicultural and multiracial Anglophone communities. The matter is particularly pressing when one considers that some of Korczak’s descriptions are somewhat gruesome. Consider the passage in Table  8.4, for instance, which refers to the days preceding Matt’s first African journey. The boy is getting ready to visit Bum-Drum’s country to acquire wild animals for the zoo he is planning to build in his capital. He  Cannibalism has, of course, also been used as a metaphor of translation in Translation Studies (e.g. Bassnett and Trivedi 1999: 103 or Gentzler 2008: 107). 1

8  On Cannibals and Savages: Translators’ Treatment of Racial… 

223

Table 8.4  The translators’ treatment of a reference to cannibalism The Sulkins Korczak (1922) (1945)

Lourie (1986) Czasak (1990)

Fisher and Torrent (2014)

The African The African The African The African A książę prince began prince prince Prince afrykański to press wanted requested begged prosił, żeby Matthew to Matty to that Matt Matthew to się Maciuś hurry up a bit leave as he hurry, hurry. The śpieszył. Bo was unable because he because he Prince was książę nie to live couldn’t live could not desperate mógł żyć bez without live without without because he ludzkiego human flesh eating human could not mięsa dłużej for longer people for flesh for live without niż tydzień. than a week. more than a human meat more than Przywiózł He had week. That’s a week. He for another sobie w brought a why he’d had secretly week. He wielkiej barrel of brought had brought brought a tajemnicy salted along a barrel of a barrel of beczkę human meat, barrel of salted flesh salted and solonych eating it salted with him pickled Murzynów i stealthily bit Negroes – all and had human po trochu ich by bit, but as been taking in the zjadał, ale już beings his supply deepest nibbles along with mu się zapas was now secrecy – and from it him but the zaczął nibbled away dramatically every so wyczerpywać, supply was low, he was at them bit often. Now running out więc chciał by bit, but his urging his supply and he prędzej was starting supplies were Matthew to would have jechać. depart for slowly to run out, to return to (Korczak Africa as running out and so he his native [1922] 1992: soon as so he was wanted to land or die 104) possible. anxious to of starvation get going. (Korczak get going. (Korczak (Korczak 2014: 111) (Korczak 1986: 137) 1945: 141) 1990: 112)

is urged to set off quickly by the African Prince, King Bum-Drum’s envoy, because the supply of “salted human flesh” he secretly brought to Matt’s country “in a barrel” is running low. This passage, albeit sometimes in a slightly modified form, is retained by all the English-language translators, and this is also the case with many other descriptions and references to cannibals. A comparable passage appears in chapter 36, which informs the reader that one of the African

224 

M. Borodo

kings attending the kings’ convention in Matt’s country brought with him “kiełbasę, zrobioną z czterech Murzynów” [a sausage made of four Negroes] (Korczak [1922] 1992: 165). This reference is also retained by all of Korczak’s translators: as “a sausage made of four natives” (Korczak 1945: 190) by the Sulkins, “a sausage made from the flesh of four different men” (Korczak 1986: 221) by Lourie, a “supply of Negro sausage” (Korczak 1990: 174) by Czasak, and “a sausage made of four Africans” (Korczak 2014: 178) by Fisher and Torrent. One wonders whether mitigation would not be an option in the case of such passages. On the other hand, cannibalism is one of the central motifs of the novel and omitting the original references would be a considerable intrusion on the fictional world created by Korczak and would result in a completely different story. The Africans are also presented by Korczak as unruly and childish troublemakers. This is perhaps most apparent in the description of the kings’ convention. To quote Korczak, “Pierwsi przyjechali czarni królowie. Ale też było z nimi kłopotów – o rety” (Korczak [1922] 1992: 165) [The first to arrive were the black kings. But there were problems with them – gosh], which was phrased by Fisher and Torrent as “There was no end of trouble with them […]” (Korczak 2014: 178), and rendered by Czasak as “And what a load of trouble-makers!” (Korczak 1990: 174). The black kings are presented as fighting among themselves, scratching and biting each other, eating too much and then crying because of stomach-aches, sticking out their tongues, climbing up trees, spitting, yelling, kicking, smashing windows and breaking chairs, seriously jeopardizing the whole convention. Indignant with the black kings’ behaviour, the white kings complain to King Matt. As shown in Table 8.5, they refer to the African kings in very unfavourable terms. Korczak uses strong terms which underscore the white kings’ very negative attitude—they refer to the African kings as “monkeys” who “wipe their flat noses with their fingers and break wind”, putting the white kings off their food with their table manners and not letting them sleep at night. The Sulkins omit this passage. It may be either viewed as part of their general strategy to condense and adapt the source text, but one also wonders whether they may have purposefully omitted this specific passage to avoid the stereotypical portrayal of African people. Lourie mitigates the original passage, retaining the reference to the black kings

8  On Cannibals and Savages: Translators’ Treatment of Racial… 

225

Table 8.5  The translators’ treatment of the white kings’ complaints about the African kings Korczak (1922)

Lourie (1986) Czasak (1990)

Fisher and Torrent (2014)

As if it were not enough We thought It’s bad Mało tego, że that we have to share a dinner was enough musimy z tymi table with those bad enough, that we małpami siedzieć savages and put up watching have to sit przy jednym stole with their table at the same them lot i patrzeć, jak oni manners, which stuffing their table with łapami i bez includes eating with guts without them and widelców jedzą, their fingers instead of watch them even using swoje płaskie knives and forks, forks and eat with nosy wycierają ignoring napkins and then picking their palcami – i psują handkerchiefs, burping their noses fingers. powietrze, że and what not. We have and smelling Now we wcale jeść nie already lost our all over. But can’t sleep można, tak appetites, and now now we can’t at night! obrzydzają they won’t let us sleep even get a jedzenie; jeszcze (Korczak at night. decent night’s 1986: 222) w nocy spokoju (Korczak 2014: 179) sleep! mieć nie można. (Korczak 1990: (Korczak [1922] 175) 1992: 166)

“eating with their fingers”, but eliminating all the other negatively intended references. Mitigation is also apparent in Czasak’s translation, which uses a very informal style (“watching them lot stuffing their guts”) in line with Czasak’s overall translation strategy, and which portrays the kings as childish and uncivilized, while also removing some of the unfavourable terms (“monkeys”, “flat noses”). Finally, Fisher and Torrent replace the offensive “monkeys” with (the less harsh?) “savages”, and they seem to partially mitigate the original reference to the African kings’ table manners. None of the translators decided to retain the original excerpt as it is, as if feeling somewhat uncomfortable about the colonial and caricatural portrayal of the black Africans in the novel. Another controversial description, also referring to the African kings at the kings’ convention, is presented in Table 8.6. It presents the words of the chief of police who is concerned that because the black kings are scattered all over the capital, they may either be attacked by some rascals or they may actually eat someone. Korczak again uses the offensive term “monkeys” and makes a reference to the Africans’ cannibalism. As the

226 

M. Borodo

Table 8.6  Translators’ treatment of another controversial passage concerning the African kings Korczak (1922)

Lourie (1986)

Czasak (1990)

Well, what d’you Just think about Bo pomyślcie expect? All it. Those wild tylko. Rozlazły those monkeys się te małpy po men were all crawling about over town, and mieście i pilnuj you had to keep all over the tu, żeby jaki place and us lot an eye on them łobuz getting worried so some rascal kamieniem w they might get wouldn’t throw nich nie cisnął, a stone at them, attacked or run żeby ich nie over or and so they przejechali, something. And wouldn’t get no – i żeby oni who knows, nie zjedli kogo, themselves run they might’ve over or eat bo i o to wanted to eat nietrudno było. anybody. That’s somebody? all we would (Korczak [1922] (Korczak 1990: have needed. 1992: 170) 178) (Korczak 1986: 225)

Fisher and Torrent (2014) Just think, gentlemen. Hundreds of wombats and weirdoes scattered all over the capital, and we had to watch out that no ruffians threw a stone at them, that no vehicle ran them over, and last but not least, that they did not eat anybody, for even this was not out of the question. (Korczak 2014: 181)

passage was omitted from the Sulkins’ translation, their version could not be included in the table. The reference to cannibalism is again consistently retained, whereas different terms are used to replace the original reference to “monkeys”. Fisher and Torrent rephrase it as “wombats and weirdoes”; Lourie partly humanizes the kings, referring to them as “men”, but calls them “wild” nonetheless; and Czasak closely follows Korczak, opting for the unmitigated “monkeys”. “Monkeys” and “savages” are racist terms, completely taboo from today’s perspective. Their occurrence in the novel may be surprising and incongruent with the image of Korczak who is widely respected for his humanity, heroism and sacrifice prior to and during World War II. Alternatively, one could argue that those figures, that is, the chief of police and the kings are “bad” characters, meant to show (especially in contrast with the “good” Bum-Drum) “the bad” in the authorities in our world—issues that Matt has to navigate on the way to being a good king, and, generally, a good man. After all, Korczak is putting those words in their mouths, not Matt’s.

8  On Cannibals and Savages: Translators’ Treatment of Racial… 

227

Korczak reveals his own immersion in Eurocentric colonial thinking at an ideological level, which means that he was probably unaware of it himself, but he is also characterized by a humanistic attitude, applying the models of an “inclusive humanity” and, in particular, of an idealized “noble savage” (Hughes 2010: 123–124). He depicts the African protagonists as savage, animal-like and childish but is also favourable towards them, presenting them as noble, honest, trustworthy or even superior to the sly white protagonists plotting against Matt. This equivocal attitude is also apparent in the character of the African princess Klu-Klu. On the one hand, she is presented as “uncivilized” and animal-like, referred to at some point as “kudłate zwierzątko” (Korczak [1922] 1992: 146), which was rendered as “a curly-haired little creature” by Lourie (Korczak 1986: 194), as “a strange, shaggy creature” by both Czasak (Korczak 1990: 153) and Fisher and Torrent (Korczak 2014: 157), and which does not appear in the Sulkins who omit chapters 30, 31 and 32, which describe Matt’s journey to Africa. On the other hand, Klu-Klu is exceptionally gifted: she is determined, ambitious and brave, smarter and stronger than most children in Matt’s kingdom; she is a visionary who delivers parliamentary speeches, learns languages very quickly and even becomes a teacher of uneducated white shepherd boys. She also refers to some of the customs of white people as “savage” and makes critical comments on the inequalities between white boys and girls. Sometimes referred to in negative terms and called various derogatory names, the black girl is also presented as an exceptional individual who is greatly admired. To summarize, it is possible to distinguish certain recurring linguistic patterns and tendencies on the basis of the analysed material. First of all, the initial hypothesis that the language used by the English-language translators would increasingly reflect changing views of racism over time has not been corroborated. The translators retain the references to “savages” and “cannibals” and if any of them decided to mitigate this aspect ascribed by Korczak to the African protagonists, it was the Sulkins, although, as noted earlier, this earliest translation is not easily comparable because of the macro-strategies of condensation and omission. One can also point to certain regularities within individual translations, such as Lourie’s preference for “European”, “Oriental” and “African”, or Czasak’s preference for “Negro”. In this, he seems to have most closely followed

228 

M. Borodo

Korczak’s original, recreating the worldview characteristic of 1920s Poland. Korczak’s portrayal of black people has also been commented on by the foreword writers and by reviewers, some of whom suggest that Korczak’s depiction of Africans may be regarded as inappropriate: “Korczak exaggerated the prevailing stereotype of the savage, uncivilized cannibal” (Kirkus Reviews 1986) or “I don’t see the book as untouchable” (Korczak [1986] 2004: x). On the other hand, Bettelheim defends Korczak, arguing that “blacks are portrayed as better people” in the book. In what follows we will examine the translator’s treatment of racial issues in Kaytek the Wizard published in English translation in New  York in 2012. How did Antonia Lloyd-Jones deal with the racially sensitive passages in Korczak’s novel?

Racial Descriptions in Kaytek the Wizard Kaytek the Wizard, the translation of Korczak’s 1933 novel Kajtuś czarodziej, is the story of a restless boy who one day masters the art of magic and gains knowledge about free will, human limitations and responsibility for his actions. The translation was published as part of the @POLAND Translation Programme, which aims to increase the presence of Polish literature in translation internationally with financial support from Instytut Książki (the Polish Book Institute), which then owned the copyright to Korczak’s entire oeuvre. Using Lefevere’s (1992) terms, the Polish Book Institute may be regarded as the patron of this translation project, and its institutional influence on the English text was illustrated in Chap. 3 with the choice of the main protagonist’s name. This influence is also noticeable in the context of the translation of racial descriptions. In the Afterword to her translation, Lloyd-Jones refers to this situation as follows: Some phrases in the book sound extremely politically incorrect to the modern ear, but would not have been considered unusual when the book was written, such as pejorative references to black people as cannibals or apes, and to Jews as inferiors. Wishing to remain faithful to Korczak’s original text, the publishers have chosen to leave these phrases as they were written. (Korczak 2012: 269, my italics)

8  On Cannibals and Savages: Translators’ Treatment of Racial… 

229

The translator seems to have felt uncomfortable about retaining some of the potentially controversial terms and passages and presumably wanted to remove them, but was not the only decision-maker influencing the final version of the translated text. The aspect of race is also mentioned in the reviews of the English translation. An anonymous Kirkus reviewer observes: The translation is excellent, and notes are provided to help readers understand local customs and geography. Unfortunately, the book suffers from mid-20th-century European racism, particularly in its attitude toward Africa and Africans. Students of children’s literature will find the book and the afterword illuminating. Children will need to place it in historical perspective. Fascinating but flawed. (Kirkus Reviews 2012)

A similar comment can be found in Sharon Elswit’s review published on the Jewish Book Council website. She notes that “[l]eft in are a few uncomfortable references reflecting speech of that time where Africans are cannibals […]”, and adds that Kaytek the Wizard should be viewed as a “novel of historic interest, rather than as one to recommend for young readers now” (Elswit 2013: online). It would be intriguing to discover, however, how the potentially controversial racial passages from this “fascinating but flawed” pre-war novel were actually rendered by the translator in the context of the target culture, that is, the multicultural American society. Did Lloyd-Jones closely reproduce Korczak’s worldview, following the official recommendations, or did she modify and modernize such passages, partly subverting the recommendations of the institutional patrons of this translation? In Kaytek the Wizard, there are three references to cannibals in total—a relatively small number in comparison with a much larger number of such references in the story about King Matt. Presented in Table 8.7, all three references are retained in the English translation. Although these references are part of a distorted and stereotypical portrayal of black Africans, it should be noted that they appear in a pre-war adventure novel for young readers. Written from the perspective of a white boy growing up in Central Eastern Europe of the 1930s, they are a

230 

M. Borodo

Table 8.7  References to cannibals in Lloyd-Jones’s translation of Kaytek the Wizard Korczak (1933)

Lloyd-Jones (2012)

Kaytek once saw a black man in the street, Widział Kajtuś na ulicy takiego but he wasn’t a cannibal. (Korczak 2012: Murzyna, ale nie ludożercę. 37) (Korczak [1933] 1985: 29) Poczekajcie – odgraża się Kajtuś. – “Just you wait,” thought Kaytek. “The month will soon be over. Just let me get Niedługo kończy się miesiąc. into some magic spells and the whole Niech się dorwę do czarów, zaraz school will fly off to the cannibals.” cała szkoła pofrunie do (Korczak 2012: 81) ludożerców […]. (Korczak [1933] 1985: 64) Dwa razy byłem rozszarpany: przez I’ve been torn to pieces twice – once by a tiger and once by a cannonball. I’ve tygrysa i przez kulę armatnią. drowned, been poisoned, and strung up Topiłem się, trułem, wisiałem na on an Indian gallows – in Africa I was szubienicy indyjskiej – w Afryce boiled by cannibals in a stock made of ludożercy ugotowali mnie w hawksbill turtles. But all that’s nothing rosole z żółwi szylkretowych. Ale compared with today’s fight. (Korczak wszystko to głupstwo w 2012: 176–177) porównaniu z dzisiejszą walką. (Korczak [1933] 1985: 144)

reflection of thinking about exotic lands in a different epoch and a different cultural context. The majority of racially sensitive passages appear in chapter 13, in which Kaytek, wearing a red mask, engages in a fierce fight with an athletic black boxer in a circus in Paris. The first example in Table  8.8 describes the moment when the African boxer appears in the arena. This stereotypical description emphasizes his physicality and “exotic” looks— an unnamed black boxer “flashes his white teeth”, “the whites of his eyes are shining” and he “rubs his stomach” (which might present him as childish), while the audience throws him oranges (replaced with tomatoes in the translation, which may emphasize the audience’s negative attitude). It is worth noting that Lloyd-Jones consistently uses the word “African” to replace Korczak’s “Murzyn” [Negro], which could be regarded as inappropriate in today’s usage. The second example in Table 8.8 describes the culminating point of the fight. In this passage, Korczak paints a very evocative picture of the black boxer, ascribing to him a number of animalistic features—with

8  On Cannibals and Savages: Translators’ Treatment of Racial… 

231

Table 8.8  The portrayal of the African boxer in the original and Lloyd-Jones’s translation Korczak (1933)

Lloyd-Jones (2012)

At last – out comes the African. The whites of his eyes are shining. He smiles, flashing his white teeth. He bows. There’s thunderous applause. Someone throws flowers, someone else throws tomatoes. The African eats them, licks his lips, rubs his stomach […]. (Korczak 2012: 170) Rocking and leaning forward with Kołysząc się, pochylony – Murzyn z bloodshot eyes, the African is coming krwią nabiegłymi oczami idzie na Kajtusia. […] Olbrzymia czarna łapa toward Kaytek. […] The African aims an enormous black paw at Kaytek’s mierzy w głowę Kajtusia. […] Posypały się uderzenia drobnej ręki. head. […] Kaytek’s small hand showers Mięśnie Murzyna drgają pod skórą. punches on the African, whose muscles are twitching under the skin. (Korczak [1933] 1985: 141) (Korczak 2012: 174) Wychodzi Murzyn. Łyska białkami oczu. Pokazuje w uśmiechu białe zęby. Kłania się. Grzmot oklasków. Ktoś rzucił kwiaty, ktoś inny – pomarańcze. Murzyn zajada, oblizuje się, gładzi się po brzuchu. (Korczak [1933] 1985: 138)

“bloodshot eyes” and with his “muscles twitching under his skin”, he aims his “enormous black paw” at the boy’s head. This almost sounds like a description of a fight between a man and half-man, half-animal—a wild enemy ready to attack driven by primordial instinct. When this is combined with “the whites of the eyes” and “the white toothy grin” we are in full stereotype territory, which may have been commonplace in the 1930s, but is troubling for a contemporary reader. The African boxer is initially surprised and amused that his opponent is just a little boy hiding his face behind a red mask. This is expressed by Korczak as “Murzyn myśli, że to żart białych panów” [the Negro thinks that the white masters are having a joke] (Table 8.9). Lloyd-Jones again replaces Korczak’s “Murzyn” [Negro] with “African” and modifies the second part of this sentence. The words “to żart białych panów”, which could be rendered as “the white masters are having a joke”, was translated as “the white guys are having a joke”. Instead of referring to the “white masters”, an expression which resonates negatively from the history of slavery and colonialism and underscores hierarchical race relations, the translator decided to use a more colloquial and neutral phrase. A noteworthy modification also appears in the second example in Table  8.9.

232 

M. Borodo

Table 8.9 Problematic racial references in the original and Lloyd-Jones’s translation Korczak (1933)

Lloyd-Jones (2012)

Murzyn też myśli, że to żart białych panów. (Korczak [1933] 1985: 139) Murzyn zakłopotany patrzy na Kajtusia. On jeden może poznał, bo dziki wierzy w czary. – Czarny się boi. Patrzcie. Niech żyje Czerwona Maska! (Korczak [1933] 1985: 140) – Nie daj się, czarny! Zuch Czerwona Maska! Precz z małpą! Szympans, goryl! Murzyn już się nie śmieje. (Korczak [1933] 1985: 140)

The African also thinks the white guys are having a joke. (Korczak 2012: 171) The confused African looks at Kaytek. He alone may have realized Kaytek’s secret, because some Africans believe in magic. “Look! The African’s afraid. Long live the Red Mask!” (Korczak 2012: 171) “Don’t give up, African! Well done, Red Mask! Down with the monkey! Chimp! Gorilla!” The African isn’t laughing any more. (Korczak 2012: 172)

Korczak’s “dziki wierzy w czary” [the savage believes in magic] is rendered as “some Africans believe in magic”. Thus, the pejorative term “dziki” [wild/savage] is replaced with “some Africans”, where the use of “some” backs away from the stereotyping of painting all Africans as homogeneous “Other”. The final example in Table 8.9 presents the reactions from the cheering crowd observing the fight, including “Down with the monkey! Chimp! Gorilla!”—highly pejorative racial insults. While it could be argued that the use of the insults in the context of the book reflects negatively on those who use them, the passage does nevertheless pose a challenge for the reader—possibly a child, or possibly an adult reading it with or to a child—and one can see arguments for its omission or for another intervention from the translator. Maybe such an intervention would be beneficial for the image of the author or for the contemporary reader who may be shocked at the terms used and the worldview emerging from Korczak’s novel. However, to what extent can the translator legitimately intervene and adjust the original text and to what extent can he or she modify the text considering the official guidelines and requirements of the institutional patrons. In the end, much to the delight of the cheering crowd, the little white boy wearing a red mask defeats the black boxer. The whole scene of a

8  On Cannibals and Savages: Translators’ Treatment of Racial… 

233

Table 8.10  Depiction of the moment directly after the fight in the original and the translation Korczak (1933)

Lloyd-Jones (2012)

The African comes up and places Murzyn zbliża się – stawia nogę Kaytek’s foot on the back of his own Kajtusia na swym karku. Kajtuś neck. Kaytek opens his eyes, and otwiera oczy, z wysiłkiem wyciąga stretches out his arms with an effort. ręce. Murzyn opiera głowę na The African rests his head on Kaytek’s jego kolanach; Kajtuś całuje go w knees; Kaytek kisses him on the head, głowę, gładzi kędzierzawe kudły. and strokes his curly hair. Ludzie płaczą. Huragan oklasków. People are crying. There’s a hurricane of Olbrzym bierze Kajtusia na ręce applause. ostrożnie – ostrożnie i wynosi z areny. (Korczak [1933] 1985: 142) The giant gently picks Kaytek up and carries him out of the arena. (Korczak 2012: 174–175)

young white boy (however magical) beating an adult African in a boxing match expresses colonial hierarchies, but what happens directly after the fight (Table  8.10) is one of the most telling scenes demonstrating the hierarchical racial relation between the white boy and the defeated African. Admitting his defeat, in a gesture of submission the African places Kaytek’s foot on the back of his neck, which inevitably brings to mind the history of enslavement and colonial relations between “white masters” and black servants and slaves. One could argue that this scene is not unequivocal, however—although Kaytek wins the fight, the African gently picks up the boy and in a protective manner takes him away from the circus arena. Exhausted and unconscious, the boy is at the mercy of his powerful African opponent, whose behaviour is compassionate and deeply humane. Alternatively, it could be claimed that Korczak uses the trope of the entirely loyal slave who loves his master so much that he would do anything for him. Then, the positive example of a “noble savage” would not quite work here because it comes after an act of active submission—the African places Kajtek’s foot on his own neck willingly, whereas the noble savage does not submit. One of the most noteworthy descriptions, which is also modified by Lloyd-Jones in her translation (Table  8.11), appears at the end of the novel, in chapter 20. The passage describes Kaytek making an aerial journey and observing the African continent from a bird’s-eye view.

234 

M. Borodo

Table 8.11  Lloyd-Jones’s modification of the passage describing Africa in the novel Korczak (1933)

Lloyd-Jones (2012)

He sees tall palm trees, strange animals Widzi palmy wysokie, dziwne and birds, and people with black skin. zwierzęta i ptaki, człowieka They live in poor tents or mud huts czarnego. Ubogie namioty, lepianki, and have miserable bits of junk for nędzne rupiecie naczyń i sprzętów; utensils and equipment. They have cudaczne ozdoby w uszach i w weird decorations in their ears and ustach. Trudno w czarnym lips. When you study history, it’s stworzeniu dopatrzyć się brata; incredible to think that white men trudno wierzyć, że biały człowiek, lived just the same way as them, a jak uczy historia, równie dziki był long, long time ago. (Korczak 2012: dawno, kiedyś, przed laty. (Korczak 259) [1933] 1985: 218)

The last sentence of the source text deserves particular attention. It begins with the words “Trudno w czarnym stworzeniu dopatrzyć się brata” [It’s difficult to discern a brother in the black creature]. These words are dropped completely by Lloyd-Jones from the English translation, presumably because of their racist and pejorative meaning. Further on in the sentence, one can notice another translational intervention— the words “trudno wierzyć, że biały człowiek równie dziki był dawno, kiedyś, przed laty” [it is hard to believe that the white man was just as wild/savage once, a long time ago] were rendered as “it’s incredible to think that white men lived just the same ways as them a long time ago”. This way the contrast between the “wild/savage African” and the “civilized white man” is partially diminished in translation, which instead may suggest, despite differences in level of “advancement”, a common bond (“white men lived just the same way”), and which brings to mind Hughes’s “inclusive humanity” model. Once again, the word “dziki” [wild/savage] is omitted and replaced with “African”, in line with the translator’s consistently applied strategy. An analysis of the above examples indicates that Kaytek the Wizard contains various textual modifications, although they are not as far-­ reaching as the omission of entire chapters or paragraphs, as was the case with some of the editions and translations of children’s books mentioned in Chap. 2 (Thomson-Wohlgemuth 2004; Fernández-López 2006). It is an open question how such racially sensitive passages might be treated in

8  On Cannibals and Savages: Translators’ Treatment of Racial… 

235

translations. Translators can consider at least two divergent approaches. On the one hand, respecting the integrity of the original, they can treat the source text as a document of bygone years and meticulously recreate the original author’s worldview and the collective consciousness of pre-­ war Europe. On the other hand, taking into account the sensitivities of contemporary readers, they can interpret such texts anew, modifying and eliminating potentially controversial passages referring to other races or ethnic minorities in an unfavourable way. Adopting this second approach would be dictated by ethics, although the translator could then be accused of arbitrary appropriation of the original text. After all, adopting the first approach—creating a “faithful” translation—has traditionally been thought of as ethical. In her translation, Lloyd-Jones decided on a compromise—she mitigated some of the negative racial references, while retaining others. She partially reproduced Korczak’s worldview, following the official recommendations, but also modified and modernized race-­ related passages, partly subverting the recommendations of the institutional patrons of the translation.

References Primary Sources Korczak, Janusz. 1945. Matthew the Young King. Trans. Edith and Sidney Sulkin. New York: Roy Publishers. ———. [1933] 1985. Kajtuś czarodziej. Warszawa: Nasza Księgarnia. ———. 1986. King Matt the First. Trans. Richard Lourie. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ———. 1990. Little King Matty …and the Desert Island. Trans. Adam Czasak. London: Joanna Pinewood Enterprises. ———. [1922] 1992. Król Maciuś Pierwszy. Król Maciuś na wyspie bezludnej. Warszawa: Oficyna Wydawnicza Latona. ———. [1986] 2004. King Matt the First. Trans. Richard Lourie. New York: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill. ———. 2012. Kaytek the Wizard. Trans. Antonia Lloyd-Jones. New  York: Penlight Publications. ———. 2014. King Matthew the First. Trans. and Adapt. Adam Fisher and Ben Torrent. New York: Nanook Books.

236 

M. Borodo

Secondary Sources Bassnett, Susan, and Harish Trivedi, eds. 1999. Postcolonial Translation. Theory and Practice. London: Routledge. Borkowska, Grażyna. 2007. Polskie doświadczenie kolonialne. Teksty Drugie 4: 15–24. Elswit, Sharon. 2013. Review of Korczak (2012). Kaytek the Wizard, Jewish Book Council, February 26. Online at: http://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/ book/kaytek-the-wizard. Accessed 10 July 2019. Fernández-López, Marisa. [2000] 2006. Translation Studies in Contemporary Children’s Literature: A Comparison of Intercultural Ideological Factors. In The Translation of Children’s Literature: A Reader, ed. Lathey, Gillian, 41–53. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Gentzler, Edwin. 2008. Translation and Identity in the Americas. London: Routledge. Harwood, Pam. 2005. Review of Korczak ([1986] 2005). King Matt the First in Books for Keeps, (154). Online at: http://booksforkeeps.co.uk/issue/154/childrens-books/reviews/king-matt-the-first. Accessed 9 Sept 2019. Hughes, Goeffrey. 2010. Political Correctness: A History of Semantics and Culture. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. Kirkus Reviews. 1986. Anonymous review of Korczak (1986) King Matt the First. Online at: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/janusz-korczak-2/ king-matt-the-first. Accessed 5 Sept 2019. ———. 2012. Anonymous Review of Korczak (2012). Kaytek the Wizard, June 22. Online at: http://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/janusz-korczak/ kaytek-wizard. Accessed 4 Sept 2019. Knowles, Murray, and Kirsten Malmkjær. 1996. Language and Control in Children’s Literature. London/New York: Routledge. Kowalski, Marek Arpad. 2005. Kolonie Rzeczpospolitej. Warszawa: Bellona. Lefevere, André. 1992. Translation, Rewriting, and the Manipulation of Literary Fame. London/New York: Routledge. Thomson-Wohlgemuth, Gabriele. 2004. Children’s Literature in Translation from East to West. In New Voices in Children’s Literature Criticism, ed. Sebastian Chapleau, 119–128. Lichfield: Pied Piper Publishing. Zipes, Jack. 1986. Review of Korczak (1986). King Matt the First in The New York Times, July 20: 24. Online at: https://www.nytimes.com/1986/07/20/books/ children-s-books-066986.html. Accessed 22 Aug 2019.

9 Conclusion

One of the aims of this book has been to shed new light on Polish-to-­ English translations of children’s fiction and the translation of Korczak in particular, but also to propose a new research perspective for the study of the translation of children’s literature in general. To this end, an inventory of translation strategies and key theoretical concepts was developed in Chap. 2 and applied in the linguistic analysis of the English-language translations of Korczak’s fiction, in particular of his most famous children’s novel Król Maciuś Pierwszy. Comparison and contrast of the way these strategies are used in the different translations provides fascinating insights into possible historical and ideological factors at play in determining the decisions arrived at by the different translators. For example, in their 1945 version Edith and Sidney Sulkin highlight the fairy-tale character of the original story, which is not foregrounded in the subsequent English-language versions of the novel. Richard Lourie’s 1986 translation privileges the specificity of the source culture, which is noticeable in his treatment of some culture-specific items and names. In 1990, on the other hand, Adam Czasak not only prioritizes the values of the target culture but also uses a very informal style. In contrast, perhaps the most salient characteristic of Adam Fisher and Ben Torrent’s 2014 © The Author(s) 2020 M. Borodo, English Translations of Korczak’s Children’s Fiction, Palgrave Studies in Translating and Interpreting, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38117-2_9

237

238 

M. Borodo

t­ ranslation is its formality, which contributes to presenting Korczak’s fictional universe as more refined, dignified and grand, as though underlining the courtly and royal context of the novel about the boy king. Each of these translations is based on Korczak’s same source text, yet the various translators have metonymically activated and privileged different reserves of meaning. Literary translators have their own historically and socio-­culturally conditioned convictions, worldviews and artistic visions, and may decide to highlight different aspects of the same source text. Such differences may be tracked through a systematic examination of recurring linguistic patterns with the use of an analytic framework accommodating such concepts as style, formality, sociolect, ideology and the metonymics of (re)translation, and consisting of such strategies as mitigation, simplification, explicitation, didacticism, censorship, fairytalization, hyperbolization, sentimentalization, infantilization, standardization, stylization, modernization, foreignization and cultural assimilation. Which of these strategies dominate in the English-language translations of Korczak and which of these concepts have turned out to be the most useful in this study? The strategies of fairytalization, hyperbolization, sentimentalization, infantilization, mitigation, standardization and simplification are especially noticeable in the first American translation of the novel by the Sulkins. This may suggest that such strategies may be more characteristic of earlier translations, although, on the other hand, intense hyperbolization and certain instances of infantilization are also present in the most recent translation by Fisher and Torrent. Explicitation is a feature of Lourie’s King Matt the First and in particular of Lloyd-­ Jones’s Kaytek the Wizard, in which this strategy was applied on a large scale, mainly because of Korczak’s elliptical and laconic style. Stylization has proved to be a particularly noteworthy strategy, appearing in Czasak’s and Fisher and Torrent’s versions, in which these translators applied radically different solutions notably decreasing (in Czasak’s case) or increasing (in the case of Fisher and Torrent) the formality of the source text. Then, somewhat unsurprisingly, certain instances of modernization can be identified in the most recent 2014 translation of the 1922 original. Finally, partial foreignization is a feature of Lourie’s King Matt the First, while cultural assimilation is particularly apparent in the Sulkins’ Matthew the Young King and Czasak’s Little King Matty. An examination of styles

9 Conclusion 

239

and ideological transformations has also yielded some fruitful results, demonstrating that the translators’ styles and levels of formality cannot be explained with exclusive reference to the style of the source-text author, but are also the result of their own artistic vision and the result of what they deem to be the most appropriate way of presenting the source text to the audience of their day, which can be tracked by examining these translators’ “linguistic fingerprints”. In retrospect, some translation strategies from the analytical framework proved more useful than others. For example, while the strategies of mitigation, hyperbolization or cultural assimilation were widely used in the analysed material, no evident instances of didacticism and censorship, in the sense in which they were defined in Chap. 2, have been identified in the English texts (although Chap. 5 discusses censorship in the Polish post-war edition of Korczak’s novel). These strategies may prove to be useful in further analyses, however—for example, of the translation of children’s fiction in communist and socialist countries or earlier translations where the instances of didacticism were more common. What is especially noteworthy about this study is not just one or two of the English translations in isolation, but the contrast between them. For example, through his translation decisions Adam Czasak gives vibrancy and authenticity to the children’s speech, and although it is Lourie’s translation that is the closest to the source text, if we were to look at Korczak’s philosophy of giving a voice to every child, then Czasak’s strategy—in prioritizing this aspect—might be seen to be more faithful to Korczak’s vision and his use of the authentic speech of children. In Czasak’s translation, the child’s voice comes across as real and authentic, a voice that does not present the child in the somewhat “angelic” or idealized terms that the Sulkins’ translation does. Czasak also prioritizes the values of the target culture in his translation, though in a way that also problematizes the notion of domestication. On the one hand, his Little King Matty is an example of a domesticated translation, which reads fluently like a text originally written in English. On the other hand, Czasak’s translation also activates a non-dominant, lower status, “marginal discourse”. It is a noteworthy example of a text largely unaffected by the standardizing role played by translation conventions favouring neutral

240 

M. Borodo

and “proper” linguistic forms over non-standard, marginal, regional and heterogeneous language varieties. The Sulkins’ 1945 translation is also a fascinating text, however. Unlike Lourie, Czasak and Fisher and Torrent, the Sulkins not only express Korczak’s novel in a more straightforward and succinct manner, simplifying and leaving out longer, descriptive passages, and mitigating the more violent and potentially controversial parts. They also transform a number of passages into more elaborate and suggestive descriptions of their own creation, potentially more appealing to readers’ imagination, by introducing more vivid detail, a physical language of characterization and comical slapstick scenes. Although this is an instance of an exceptionally free translation, the sheer number and length of such passages and the imaginative effort of the translators make it an impressive example of their creativity. With its epilogue, which completely refocuses the novel’s ending, painting an evocative scene of the children’s uprising, and with the preface by Kister, informing the reader about Korczak’s alleged survival, this unjustifiably forgotten and rare edition is worthy of rediscovery. Finally, Korczak’s children’s books contain terms and passages concerning race and the stereotypical depiction of African people that may seem problematic to contemporary readers. In recent decades, with the advent of greater racial sensitivity and with the growing awareness of societal power structures and the history of colonialism, such racially sensitive terms and passages have sometimes been omitted or suppressed by publishers in new editions and translations of children’s books to avoid stigmatizing and judgemental language. While not immune to such changes, the English-language translations of Król Maciuś Pierwszy have only partially followed this trend, retaining many examples of racial stereotyping. What turned out to be crucial here, apart from the changing tendencies in language use, were the individual translators’ socio-culturally conditioned preferences concerning specific racial terms and descriptions. As the English translation of Kaytek the Wizard demonstrates, translators are also entangled in a complex web of relations and dependencies and have to skilfully negotiate their way in the text, while mediating potentially problematic passages. What future avenues of research have opened up as a result of this work? First of all, it would be interesting to explore the socio-historical

9 Conclusion 

241

background and linguistic transformations in the translations and retranslations of Korczak into other languages—not only in the bibliographical sense, as such lists of translations into other languages already exist—but in the sense of various translators’ approaches as well as the accompanying paratexts. What meanings, if any, have been privileged in the translations into other European and non-European languages? In what sense are these texts (in French, Russian, Hebrew, Brazilian Portuguese or Japanese) unique and how are they similar to the English-language translations of Korczak? Second, the study of the history of the English translations of Polish literature, one of the focuses of Chap. 3, is worth pursuing further. It would be interesting to establish whether the translations of Korczak’s children’s novels are representative of the tendencies in the translation of Polish children’s literature in general or whether they buck these trends. There are still some lacunae that may be filled through further research on the history of the translations of Polish folk and fairy tales: more remains to be discovered about such translation endeavours, the translators’ methods of mediation of cultural specificity and about the people who have been actively engaged in the propagation of Polish literature and culture abroad. Third, the theoretical concepts proposed in Chap. 2 might be fruitfully applied to investigate translated children’s fiction in other languages and other language pairs, hopefully shedding new light on the linguistic choices in the translations created in other cultures and literary traditions around the world.

Index1

A

Adamczyk-Garbowska, Monika, 3, 18, 48, 204 Algeo, John, 114, 115, 117, 162, 166, 168, 169, 172, 176–178 Alsina, Victòria, 3, 38–41 Alvstad, Cecilia, 46, 47 Assis Rosa, Alexandra, 46, 47 B

Baker, Mona, 3, 23, 31, 33–35, 162, 183, 184, 198 Balcerzan, Edward, 46, 48 Belfer, Itzchak, 91, 94, 95 Bell, Anthea, 26 Bettelheim, Bruno, 2, 15, 87, 88, 213–215, 228

Biernacka-Licznar, Katarzyna, 73 Big Business Billy, 2, 4, 27, 71, 74, 95–101 Biggs, Maude Ashurst, 68, 68n3 Blum-Kulka, Shoshana, 22, 23, 150 Boase-Beier, Jean, 31 Borkowska, Grażyna, 211 Borski Merecka, Lucia, 67, 70, 71 Bosseaux, Charlotte, 34, 35 Bowdlerism, 13 Bravo-Villasante, Carmen, 29 Brooks, Cyrus, 2, 95–98, 96n10 C

Censorship, 3, 11–17, 136–140, 238, 239 Chesterman, Andrew, 22, 47

 Note: Page numbers followed by ‘n’ refer to notes.

1

© The Author(s) 2020 M. Borodo, English Translations of Korczak’s Children’s Fiction, Palgrave Studies in Translating and Interpreting, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38117-2

243

244 Index

Contractions, 169–176, 169n2 Corpus analysis, 31–36, 162, 164, 166, 173, 180 Crystal, David, 36 Cultural assimilation, 3, 4, 12, 27–31, 70, 107–133, 238, 239 Czasak, Adam, 2, 5, 6, 48, 89, 107, 112, 118–120, 161, 162, 184, 188, 237, 239 D

Darbelnet, Jean, 22, 150 Deane-Cox, Sharon, 47 Dialect, 24–27, 37, 38, 183 Didacticism, 3, 11–17, 238, 239 Domestication, 5, 27, 28, 107, 109, 112, 119, 239 E

Ellipsis, 181 Elswit, Sharon, 229 Englund Dimitrova, Birgitta, 23, 150 Explicitation, 3–5, 12, 21–27, 135–157, 238 Eye-dialect, 39, 40

Fisher, Adam, 2, 6, 48, 90, 187, 188, 237 Foreignization, 3–5, 12, 27–31, 107–133, 238 G

Gardner, Monica M., 69, 70 Gąsiorek, Krystyna, 184, 188 G-dropping, 170, 176 Gliński, Antoni Józef, 68, 69 Greenhorn, Stephen, 91–95, 91n9 H

Halverson, Sandra, 22 Harwood, Pam, 78, 212 Hatim, Basil, 37, 38, 40 H-dropping, 114, 119, 170, 172–176 Hermans, Theo, 36 House, Juliane, 2, 3, 14, 17, 18, 20, 22, 31, 45, 150, 204 Hughes, Goeffrey, 43, 44, 82, 210, 211, 227, 234 Hyperbolization, 3, 5, 6, 11, 12, 17–20, 107–133, 166, 191, 193, 204–207, 238, 239

F

Fairytalization, 3, 5, 11–12, 17–20, 107–133, 204–207, 238 Federici, Federico, 37 Fernández-López, Marisa, 44, 234 Fictional dialogue, 12, 24, 36–41, 164, 174, 178 Fischer, Martin B., 3, 25, 39, 41, 136

I

Ideology, 4, 34, 35, 41–45, 140, 238 Idiolect, 37, 38, 41, 137, 138 Idioms, 187–207 Infantilization, 3, 11, 12, 17–20, 122, 204–207, 238 Inggs, Judith, 14, 15

 Index 

245

J

M

Joos, Martin, 32 Joseph, Sandra, 77

Makuszyński, Kornel, 67, 70, 71 Malmkjær, Kirsten, 3, 19, 31, 33–35, 41–43, 124, 204, 215 Mason, Ian, 37, 38, 40 May, Rachel, 35 Metonymics, 4, 12, 45–49, 238 Mitigation, 3, 5, 11–17, 132, 135–157, 225, 238, 239 Mizieliński, Aleksandra and Daniel, 67, 73 Modernization, 3, 6, 12, 27–31, 202–204, 238 Mortkowicz-Olczakowa, Hanna, 76 Mugglestone, Lynda, 174 Munday, Jeremy, 33–35

K

Kaytek the Wizard, 2, 4, 5, 7, 74, 75, 95–101, 152, 154, 156, 157, 228–235, 238, 240 Kenny, Dorothy, 34 Kister, Hanna, 59n1, 67, 84 Kister, Marian, 67, 80, 83, 84 Klaudy, Kinga, 23, 150, 154 Klingberg, Göte, 3, 13, 14, 29, 30 Knowles, Murray, 3, 19, 34, 41–43, 124, 204, 215 Konopnicka, Maria, 67, 70, 71 Korczak, Janusz, 74–77, 79, 80, 84, 85, 88, 90 Kossak-Szczucka, Zofia, 67, 69, 84 Kowalski, Marek Arpad, 211 Król Maciuś Pierwszy, 1, 7, 16, 27, 47, 48, 74–85, 91–95, 139, 237, 240

N

Names, translation of, 99, 108–110, 196 Nida, Eugine, 22, 23, 28, 150 Nikolajeva, Maria, 3, 14, 17, 21, 29, 30

L

O

Lathey, Gillian, 2, 3, 15, 24–27, 29, 119, 136, 154, 197 Laviosa, Sara, 21 Lefevere, André, 99 Legeżyńska, Anna, 46 Lloyd-Jones, Antonia, 2, 5, 67, 71, 73, 98–100, 135, 152, 154, 157, 228, 229, 235, 238 Looby, Robert, 16, 17, 25, 44, 136, 197 Lorentowicz, Irena, 84 Lourie, Richard, 2, 48, 85–87, 107, 135, 162, 188, 237

Oittinen, Riitta, 3, 29, 30, 144 Olczak-Ronikier, Joanna, 74, 76–79, 188 Olohan, Maeve, 23, 34 O’Sullivan, Emer, 3, 13, 14, 36, 144 P

Paprocka, Natalia, 73 Pieciul-Karmińska, Eliza, 3, 15, 17–20, 26, 48 Pokorn, Nike K., 14–16, 140

246 Index

Political correctness, 43–45, 100, 210, 220, 221 Porazińska, Janina, 67, 71 Punctuation, 33, 34, 180 Purification, 13 Pym, Anthony, 46, 119 R

Race/racial issues, 6, 43–45, 209–235, 240 Raji Codell, Esmé, 88, 213–215 Register, 25, 26, 32, 33, 37, 41, 119, 120, 164 Retranslation, 12, 46–48, 58, 140 Rój publishing house, 2, 83 Roy Publishers, 2, 67, 71, 80, 84

Srokowski, Jerzy, 90 Standardization, 3–5, 12, 21–27, 135–157, 238 Sterling, Eric, 74, 75, 79 Stolt, Birgit, 3, 13, 18, 29 Style, 3–6, 12, 18, 19, 25, 27, 31–38, 48, 79, 89, 94, 114, 116, 120, 135, 145, 147, 150–154, 157, 161–184, 187–207, 225, 237–239 Stylization, 3, 4, 12, 21–27, 30, 238 Sulkin, Edith and Sidney, 2, 48, 80–83, 85, 107, 120, 135, 162, 188, 237, 240 Sulkins, the, see Sulkin, Edith and Sidney

S

Saldanha, Gabriela, 3, 31, 33, 37, 183 Schiffrin, Deborah, 178 Schleiermacher, Friedrich, 28 Schur, Norman, 114, 116, 117, 162, 168, 172, 183 Séguinot, Candace, 23, 150 Sendak, Maurice, 87 Sentimentalization, 3, 5, 11, 12, 17–20, 122, 130, 131, 238 Shavit, Zohar, 13, 16, 21, 145 Simplification, 3–5, 12, 21–27, 135–157, 238 Social class, 25, 36, 37, 79, 167–172, 174 Sociolect, 4, 5, 12, 24, 25, 27, 33, 36–41, 120, 161–184, 238

T

Tag questions, 176, 177 Tannen, Deborah, 178 Themerson, Franciszka, 72 Themerson, Stefan, 72 Thomson-Wohlgemuth, Gabriele, 14, 44, 140, 234 Thorne, Tony, 114, 115, 168, 172, 183, 201 Torrent, Ben, 2, 6, 48, 90, 187, 188, 237 Toury, Gideon, 22, 24 Treblinka, 7, 74, 77, 84, 88 Trudgill, Peter, 32, 169n2, 183 Tucker, Nicholas, 58 Tuwim, Julian, 67, 71, 72 Tymoczko, Maria, 45, 46

 Index  V

W

Van Coillie, Jan, 3, 14, 15, 24, 40, 136 Venuti, Lawrence, 5, 27, 28, 107, 112, 119 Vinay, Jean-Paul, 22, 150 Voice, 31–36, 92, 144, 184, 239

Wales, Katie, 37, 198 Z

Zipes, Jack, 2, 20, 21, 88, 212

247