Since the beginning of literary translation, translating a national epic – so deeply rooted in a concrete culture and socio-political context – has been an arduous and demanding task. Nonetheless, it has also been underestimated and broadly categorized as poetry translation. That is the reason why the specificity of translating national epics still remains an inquiring topic.
Ravished by the beauty of the genre in general and the poem in particular, Agata Kornacka has translated both the first and the second part of the most important book in the history of Argentina – Martín Fíerro by José Hernández. While preparing her doctoral thesis about the process of translating national epic poems, she was trying to track down and name different singularities, curiosities, obstacles and challenges that she encountered in her work.
The topic will be divided in two thematic parts, covered by two speakers. The first part – presented and analyzed by Joanna Wyszyńska – will be related to Martin Fierro as a culture-bound poem, its cultural constrains and peculiarities, as well as their reflection in the Polish translation.
In the second part Agata Kornacka will discuss the most important linguistic problems that translating Martin Fierro may pose and the most recommended techniques that help to preserve the beauty of the genre. Every observation will be illustrated by Polish and Spanish examples that have been piling up at the translator’s desk for the last three years.
Agata Joanna Kornacka – interpreter, sworn translator of Spanish, literary translator and language teacher. She graduated from the Institute of Applied Linguistics (University of Warsaw) in 2012. She continues her career as a doctoral student at the Faculty of Applied Linguistics in Warsaw. As she thinks that sharing knowledge is one of the main duties of every translator, she teaches translation at the Institute of Applied Linguistics. She likes writing poems and travelling – these two things help her to live more deeply. So far she has translated both parts of “Martín Fierro” by José Hernández – the national epic poem of Argentina.
Joanna Wyszyńska – a doctoral student of Applied Linguistics, University of Warsaw, translator and academic teacher. Cooperating with the Institute of Applied Linguistics, Department of Translation Studies. Instructor in Practical Spanish Classes at University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Warsaw. Interested in literary translation, reception of translation and cross-cultural communication. Her main area of interest is literary and cultural translation. Her principal research involves Polish literature of the World War II in Spanish translation and its reception in Spain. Two articles were reviewed positively and they waiting for being published:
Situación de la literatura polaca sobre la Segunda Guerra Mundial en España. Ideologías en traducción e interpretación intercultural (IDEO-TRANS). Conference monograph after the conference IDEO-TRANS: Ideologías en traducción e interpretación intercultural which took place 26-28 of March 2015.
Powrót Sefardyjczyków. O Żydach we współczesnej Hiszpanii. Pogranicze. Studia społeczne. [Return of the Sephardi Jews. Jews in contemporary Spain]. Publication planned for the next year.
