Ekwiwalencja przysłów hausa w polskich przekładach literackich
Equivalence of Hausa Proverbs in Polish Literary Translations

Summary/Abstract: Hausa is one of the major world languages. It is spoken by approximately 60 million people across West Africa, mainly in Niger and Nigeria. Hausa folk tradition which includes proverbs, had been transmitted orally for a long time before the first writings in this language appeared around 17/18th century in the form of literary works in Arabic script. Modern Hausa literature in Latin alphabet dates back to the first half of 20th century and draws abundantly from oral tradition as the highly appreciated source of conventions, themes, symbols and sayings. The state of the art of modern Hausa literature can be considered fertile and vigorous comparing to the situation of the other native African languages. However, up to now the available Polish translations of Hausa literature are very few. The aim of the paper is to compare selected Hausa proverbs and their Polish translations in terms of the equivalence methods applied by the two translators: Nina Pilszczikowa and Stanisław Piłaszewicz. Hausa proverbs were translated into Polish as independent folklore forms as well as the elements of literary narrative. Therefore, the analysis covers two genres of texts: proverbs (as short literary forms) and novels.

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