O krwawniku w pierwszym polskim przekładzie Mistrza i Małgorzaty Michaiła Bułhakowa
About the yarrow in the first Polish translation of Master and Margaret by Mikhail Bulgakov

Summary/Abstract: About the yarrow in the first Polish translation of Master and Margaret by Mikhail Bulgakov Irena Lewandowska and Wiktor Dąbrowski – the authors of the first Polish translation of The Master and Margarita, the timeless novel by Mikhail Bulgakov – describe, on a few occassions, the coat of Pontius Pilate as white with its lining being the colour of yarrow which, further in their interpretation, turns into purple. However, Andrzej Drawicz – the writer of the second translation as well as Leokadia, Grzegorz and Igor Przebinda – the authors of the third one, present Pontius`s coat`s lining as scarlet or red, exactly the way Milhail Bulgakov wanted, which may be supported by his original words: „В белом плаще с кровавым подбоем...”. Yarrow which occurs in Poland usually has its flowers white in colour and only gardenform flowers appear yellow or purple, so it is unlikely that Irena Lewandowska and Wiktor Dąbrowski were completely aware of the real nature of the colour of yarrow used in translation as the colour of the lining. Among Polish wild species there are two specimens which have similar names: the loosestrife Lythrum and the burnet Sanguisorba. The names of these species, as in the case of yarrow, are related to their antihemorrhagical properties. However, flowers of the former one are too bright and are described as pink or the mixture of violet and purple. Flowers of the latter one are presented as black and red by the majority of authors, which probably comes from its immature inflorescences. Fully open burnet flowers are dark red, dark, red and purple or even crimson. They may have been the flowers of the great burnet which misled the translators who thought that the lining of Pontius Pilate`s coat was the colour of yarrow though they actually meant the flowers of another species. The name yarrow also refers to a semi-precious stone, a variety of hematite. This mineral is not widely known and its name is not recognized by the majority of potential readers. If the authors of the translation used this meaning, their choice was not very successful. Ruby would be more accurate with its bloody red colour and its name originating from the colour red.

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