Szekspir Czesława Miłosza
Czesław Miłosz’s Shakespeare

Summary/Abstract: Czesław Miłosz translated only one play by Shakespeare, As You Like It, and the fi rst two acts of Othello. Both „Shakespearean episodes” by this otherwise prolifi c translator took place at the time of dramatic circumstances that were heavily affecting Miłosz’s life and work. The task of translating As You Like It was commissioned by the Polish Underground Theatre Board in 1943. The attempt at translating Othello had been undertaken just before the poet emigrated to France as a political refugee in 1951. The paper focuses on some of the areas of interest that the case of Miłosz’s Shakespeare opens for historico-literary analysis: the aims and conditions of Miłosz’s translation of Shakespeare marked by the extreme extra-textual conditions; Miłosz’s poetry about the Nazi occupied Warsaw vis-a-vis his artistic, intellectual and political involvement in translating As You Like It; the translated texts’ literary and theatrical reception versus the poet’s initial aims and his low opinion about his rendition; Miłosz’s decision to give up Othello in the face of the growing isolation from his homeland. The presented analysis highlights the position of translation within the wider context of Miłosz’s creative work as poet-translator.

• Details
• Contents