Conrad (his full Polish name was Teodor
Józef Konrad Korzeniowski) reads much better in English than in Polish, partly
because most of the available translations are outdated (translations, except
for really masterly ones, somehow fail to age with dignity and tend to show
the typical mannerisms of their time). Conrad's cousin Aniela Zagórska, who
translated most of his works into Polish between 1923 and 1939 did a moderately
good job but her feel for style was different from Conrad's, in my
opinion.
English was Conrad's third or fourth
language, after Polish, French (the natural choice of educated Poles at that
time) and (I suppose) some Russian. British friends (such as Ford Madox
Ford) spent a lot of time tutoring Conrad when he had already embarked
on a writer's career, and deserve some of the credit for the quality of his
English style. I know from Bertrand Russell's autobiography that Conrad never
got rid of his very thick, not to say stereotypical, Polish accent when
_speaking_ English.
Piotr
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, July 20, 2001 7:01 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] English.
Veering a little off topic, I wonder how Piotr regards
Joseph Conrad. Does Piotr back-translate, and attempt to get into Conrad's head?
And how well does Conrad translate into Polish, in comparison to other English
authors?