Between domestication and foregnising: references to Polish culture texts as a lacunary category in translations of Wisława Szymborska’s poems

Joanna Szerszunowicz

Uniwersytet w Białymstoku

Abstract

The aim of the present paper is to compare and discuss translations of cultural references to Polish culture texts in Wisława Szymborska’s poem into four languages: English, French, German and Italian. The analysis encompasses intertextual elements from various culture texts, e.g. poems, legends, folk songs, which are explicitly given in poems. The strategies adopted in all versions are compared and evaluated with a view to determining similarities and differences as well as the factors which conditioned the choice of the strategy. Special attention is paid to lacunary connotations evoked by the references at issue.

Keywords:

domestication, foregnisation, intertextuality, lacunarity, literary translation