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Literary Translations and Stages of Their Existence in the Receiving Culture: the Case of John Ashbery’S Poetry

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Literary Translations and Stages of Their Existence in the Receiving Culture: the Case of John Ashbery’S Poetry Paweł Marcinkiewicz University of Opole Literary Translations and Stages of Their Existence in the Receiving Culture: The Case of John Ashbery’s Poetry ABSTRACT John Ashbery made his debut in Polish translation in 1976, in the Warsaw-based literary magazine Literatura na świecie [Literature in the World]. Since then, the New York writer has become one of the most popular and most important American poets in Poland. Yet, for some reason, his recent translations into Polish go unnoticed by both critics and readers. In fact, Ashbery’s existence in the Polish language could be divided into three phases: the phase of mimicry, the phase of conflict, and the phase of diffusion. During the phase of mimicry, which is quite typical for the early existence of translated literature in the receiving culture, historical importance and literary quality of the translated author are not recognized, and he or she reaches the reader in a package of literary stereotypes typically attached to his or her native culture. The phase of conflict is reserved for the canonical authors, who often enter the foreign language in series of translations, over a long period of time. Such an author starts a conflict between the ideology represented by his/her texts and the ideology of the literary culture, dominating in the receiving language. The translator’s main goal is initiating and sustaining the above conflict, which is a means of critique and – in a broader perspective – a change of his or her own literature and its ideological undertone. The phase of diffusion manifests itself with a more intense presence of the translated writer on the book market of the receiving culture, which changes the readerly perception of his or her works: no longer does the author sound foreign, but his or her style resembles local patterns of literary tradition. Ashbery’s translations into Polish went through all the above phases. However, his position within the polysystem of Polish literature is not final, but it is based on stereotypes formed during the phase of conflict. Thus, there is a chance that we will rediscover Ashbery’s poetry in the Polish language in the future and the cycle of his reception will get repeated. KEY WORDS translations of American literature into Polish, ideology, Polish translations of John Ashbery’s poetry, communist era in Poland, contemporary Polish poetry TranslatoLogica: A Journal of Translation, Language, and Literature, 2 (2018), p.49-73 Literary Translations and Stages of Their Existence in the Receiving Culture: The Case of John Ashbery’s Poetry 1. Introduction When we analyze the ideological motifs for the emergence of John Ashbery’s poetry in the Polish language – including actions of translators, publishers, and academics aimed at starting a conflict in the aesthetic and ethical spheres in order to establish new means of artistic expression – we must come to a conclusion that the case of the New York school poet repeats a paradigm typical of the earliest renderings of Anglo-American literature into the language of the largest Slavic country in Central Europe. Following the publication of Adam Mickiewicz’s version of The Giaour in 1835, the role of Anglo-American literature in Congress Poland was to propagate the ideals of freedom that emanated from the Declaration of Independence. The first American writer whose works hit a real nerve in Poland was Washington Irving, translated by Ksawery Bronikowski (1796-1852), a journalist and activist involved in a lifelong struggle for Poland’s liberty against the Russian Empire.1 The Polish collection of Irving’s short stories – Nadzwyczajne przygody człowieka osłabionych nerwów. Z dzieł P. Washington Irving, Amerykanina, wyjęte. Z portretem autora [Unusual Adventures of a Man with Weak Nerves. Selected from the works of Mr. Washington Irving, an American. With a Portrait of the Author] – was based on the two- volume edition of Tales of a Traveller. By Geoffrey Crayon, Gent, published in London, in 1825. What must have been most appealing in Irving for the Polish reader – except for his face of a romantic sage presented in the eponymous portrait – was the American writer’s apotheosis of travels, full of surprising adventures and mysterious events, in magical settings of provincial Germany and Italy. In the 1820s and 30s travelling was getting more and more difficult for the citizens of Congress Poland, especially for intellectuals, like Ksawery Bronikowski, who were considered suspicious by the Tsarist regime. Bronikowski was a co- founder of “Związek Wolnych Polaków” [“Association of Free Poles”], a secret organization, aiming at regaining independence of partitioned Poland. Later, he was a vice president of Towarzystwo Patriotyczne [Patriotic Association]. For his subversive activities, Bronikowski was imprisoned in 1824, and he emigrated to France in 1831, where he collaborated with the influential conservative political camp “Hotel Lambert.” When he died in Paris in 1852, 1 Irving’s first Polish translations were published anonymously, but the translator’s name was revealed thanks to the efforts of Karol Estreicher (1827-1908), nicknamed the “father of Polish bibliography.” His monumental 36-volume work is now available online at https://www.estreicher.uj.edu.pl/home/. 50 Literary Translations and Stages of Their Existence in the Receiving Culture: The Case of John Ashbery’s Poetry he was the Director of the Polish School and the Editor in Chief of the Polish publishing house “Pamiętniki Polskie” [“Polish Memoirs”] (Więckowska, 1989, p. 468-470). I give a detailed account of Bronikowski’s biography not only to stress the relationship between American literature and the ideals of freedom cherished by its translators, but first of all to prove that ideology – including the translator’s own system of values – has always been the most important level of translation, determining his or her very interest in foreign authors. In the 1970s and 1980s, Ashbery was published in translation behind the Iron Curtain, in Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Romania. In Poland, the government-controlled media was subject to censorship, yet Ashbery’s poems were let through since they apparently did not contain timely political references. In literary magazines, Ashbery was published with other New York School poets, such as Frank O’Hara and Kenneth Koch, who helped the younger generation find a non-political stance, suspicious of all power discourses. 2. The first appearance of Ashbery in Polish: the phase of mimicry The first presentation of John Ashbery’s poetry in Polish translation was published in the Warsaw-based literary magazine Literatura na świecie [Literature in the World] in June, 1976. In the two decades immediately preceding World War II, the translator of canonical literature was often – as Jerzy Jarniewicz has it – the “ambassador” of great writers he or she introduced to Poland (Jarniewicz, 2012, p. 24). However, the reality of the postwar era, when People’s Republic of Poland was under the Soviet occupation, modified the role of the translator and readjusted the place of translations from English in the polysystem of Polish literature. First, because of the conflict between the Eastern and the Western blocs, translating from English was often perceived as a dissident activity, endangering the translator to all sorts of persecutions, from invigilation to censorship, since American literature and Americanness in general became synonymous with democratic traditions. Second, translations of American authors became inspiration for Polish writers, replacing earlier aesthetic models – Russian, German, and French. Ashbery’s first Polish appearance was a part of Piotr Sommer’s mini anthology “Współcześni poeci amerykańscy” [“Contemporary American Poets”] and thus was rather scanty: a single lyric, consisting merely of 10 lines, accompanied by a black-and-white, half-a- 51 Literary Translations and Stages of Their Existence in the Receiving Culture: The Case of John Ashbery’s Poetry page photograph of the poet. The date of publication seemed symbolic2, as in June, 1976, the ideology of socialism revealed its true face of aggression and, at the same time, helplessness. Censorship could no longer prevent voices of aesthetic distinctness and ethical ambiguity from entering the polysystem of Polish literature. Ashbery’s poem – “A Vase of Flowers” – opens the mini anthology, and – although it seems to be a tribute to Jane Freilicher’s paintings3 – it relevantly shows the ideological tensions of those turbulent times4: Wazon jest biały i byłby jak walec Gdyby walec szerszy był u góry niż na dole. Kwiaty są czerwone, białe i niebieskie. Wszelki kontakt z kwiatami jest zabroniony. Białe kwiaty wyciągają się w górę Do bladego powietrza własnych zależności Popychane lekko przez czerwone i niebieskie. Gdybyś była o te kwiaty zazdrosna, Proszę cię daj spokój. Są dla mnie absolutnie niczym (Sommer, 1976a p. 178). Below, I give a word-for-word translation of Sommer’s rendering: The vase is blue, and it would be like a cylinder If a cylinder were broader at the top than at the bottom. The flowers are red, white, and blue. Any contact with the flowers is forbidden. The white flowers stretch themselves upwards Towards the pale air of their own dependencies Pushed lightly by the red ones and the blue. If you – my mistress – were jealous of those flowers, Please, take them seriously, For me, they are absolutely nothing. 2 I refer here to the so called “June 1976” – a series of strikes and riots that took place in People’s
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