Reading between the lines. Czesław Miłosz’s Native Realm. A Search for Self-Definition and its English/American translation

摘要

The aim of this article is to discuss the problem of translating Polish prose, based on an analysis ofa selection of samples taken from Czesław Miłosz’s Native Realm. A Search for Self-Definitiontranslated by Catherine S. Leach. The book documents specific relations between the Western andthe Eastern Europe determined by historical provenance of the realms in question. The dichotomyof the collective European history has a profound influence on the reception of Polish literatureamong the Western audience. Native Realm showcases the issue perfectly – it is interesting interms of its careful account of the historical and social development of the Continent. The perceptionof reality is conditioned by an inherent dissimilarity of experiences between the West and theEast. The intention of Miłosz was to provide an analysis of them and produce an insightful bookaddressed specifically to the Western readership. My discussion is an attempt to prove that theendeavour is doomed to failure due to the intrinsic differences between the cultures involved, ascultural inheritance determines the interpretation of historical facts and prompts dissimilar connotations.In the case of Native Realm, on the one hand, we encounter Miłosz’s vision/imaginationthat is irreversibly rooted in the Slavic way of looking at things and, on the other, the distinctivelydissimilar Western vantage point. Translating these differences appears to be a major challenge forany translator.