How to stick a square peg into a round hole? A few remarks on the Polish translations of Ubu Król by Tadeusz Żeleński-Boy and Jan Gondowicz

Abstract

Each drama is a work of dual nature. It is a text to be read and a text to be performed on stage. Theatrical translation is a kind of a hermeneutic act. If one would like to read its current meaning, one should ask oneself the question: What is its meaning for us here and now, in a specific place and time? Theatrical translation generates the problem of mutual relations between the text and the staging. The translator must remember that he or she cannot remove from the text the ambiguities consciously created by the author. However, it is impossible to maintain any existing ambiguities without interpreting them. Each translated text is open and becomes the starting point for various interpretations and stagings. In his piece, Jarry parodies the drama of power, shocking with the brutality of the language and absurd comedy. King Ubu has been translated into Polish twice: first by Tadeusz Żeleński-Boy and later by Jan Gondowicz. Since the language of the drama ages faster than prose or poetry, Boy’s translation seems very outdated today. Full of colloquialisms, neologisms, and brutal language, Gondowicz’s translation perfectly reflects the contemporary character of the boorish language of the characters in the drama. Since the language of the drama should reflect the spirit of the language of the staging time, Gondowicz’s translation follows this tendency, creating a new face of over a hundred year old drama.