Hiršalův referát o překládání Morgensternových Šibeničních písní
Hiršal’s Paper on Translating Morgenstern’s Gallows Songs

Summary/Abstract: This commentated edition with an introduction presents a little-known paper on translating the grotesque lyrics of Christian Morgenstern, given by Josef Hiršal at a seminar for the Translators’ Circle of the Czechoslovak Writers’ Union (Kruh překladatelů při Svazu československých spisovatelů) in November 1958. It concerns the circumstances in which his translation of Gallows Songs, published by the State Publishing House for Literature, Music and Art (Státní nakladatelství krásné literatury, hudby a umění) in February 1958, originated. Bohumila Grögerová had been very much involved in this publication, and Hiršal traces the reactions of the time. The paper provides an insight into Josef Hiršal’s translation workshop and, using specific examples, points out the translation issues and questions he had to deal with. Among his general topics was the discovery of the flexible possibilities of the Czech language, as well as the search for the boundary between translation and paraphrase.

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