A scandal of translation and publication: an anonymous rendering of the novel The Great Gatsby

Abstract

The paper presents an anonymous Polish translation of Fitzgerald’s The Great  Gatsby as a scandal of publication and translation. What is considered scandalous  is not only the missing translator’s name and the mysterious roles of the person  indicated as the literary and substantive editor, but also the translation itself.  The anonymous translator regularly omits fragments of the original text with no  comprehensible reason and no traceable selection criterion. At the same time, he  or she adds information that is not necessary or justified, thus interfering with the  narrative plan through anticipations, prolongations, limitations or destructions.  The arbitrary changes introduced in the translation cause considerable and unacceptable  damage to the original work, which should never happen in the translation  industry, especially to a classic novel of world literature. The said departures  from the original (omissions and additions) have been detected through a direct  comparison of the anonymous translation with two other Polish translations that  reflect the source text. The large number of omissions and additions and their  impact on the text as a whole suggest that the translator was not a professional.