Katena and Translations of Literary Masterpieces

What is it about?

In order to “measure” the quality of a translation of a literary masterpiece a critic has to compare the translation to its original and choose the best method of evaluating the translated text. The method which was proposed by the author of this article was based on the attempt to discover the significant and the most significant features of the orginal (by means of adapted from bibliology katena) and finding these features in its translations. The original was the starting point of her analysis and to the original she demanded as great faithfulness as possible. Thus she began her analysis from the examination of Norwid’s poem: Fatum using (as katena demands) its interpretations and critics’ commentaries. She pointed out six features which composed the specific quality of Norwid’s poem and therefore should be conveyed in its translation. Then she analysed Jerzy Peterkiewicz and Burns Singer’s translation of Fatum. She noticed that these translators made an assumption that the structure of the poem was most important. They maintained the rhymes of the original, but at the same time lost its brevity. In her opinion the failure of Peterkiewicz and Singer’s translation is attributable to their lack of knowledge of Norwid’s text and its interpretations. Peterkiewicz and Singer did not convey in depth any of the six features which compose the specific quality of Norwid’s poem. Thus the readers of their translation of Fate will never realize that they are dealing with a masterpiece of Polish poetry.

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Why is it important?

It introduces the method of translation quality assessment: katena. Moreover it deals with one of Norwid's masterpieces - the poem "Fatum" and its translation into English.

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