The Translator: a Careful Reader and Intermediary. Bulgarian Literature in the Latest Translations by Wojciech Gałązka

Abstract

The aim of the article is to discuss the latest translation initiatives by Wojciech Gałązka, a Bulgarian and literary scholar from Krakow, and a brilliant translator of Bulgarian prose and poetry. Over the course of several months, between 2019 and 2020, seven works by Bulgarian writers and poets translated by Wojciech Gałązka were published: the novel Under the Yoke by Ivan Vazov (2020); the books of poetry: Revealed from Anywhere by Petar Parvanov (2019), Seasons of Feelings by Petar Karaangov (2020), Moon Spots by Nikolay Liliev (2020), A Dream of Happiness by Pencho Slaveykov (2020), as well as poetic prose and poems included in the collection Against the Absence by Nikolay Kantchev (2020). The review of Gałązka’s translation initiatives included in the article has been supplemented with a commentary on specific problems related to both translation practices (sound and grammatical structures, translatability of idiomatic expressions, taking into account a literary convention in the process of translation) and broader issues related to the understanding of translation as a transfer between cultures (the requirement of mastering the contexts and traditions of both cultures that the translation concerns) and the understanding of the role of the translator himself, whom Gałązka describes as a careful reader and intermediary between cultures.