Jerzy Adamski and his unknown translation of Molière’s Dom Juan

Abstract

Jerzy Adamski – an outstanding literary critic and educator, the author of numerous articles and essays, was also a translator of Italian and French dramas. He translated texts of Carlo Goldoni, Jean Genet, Jean-Paul Sartre, Luigi Pirndello and Moliere. Adamski translated Moliere’s play Dom Juan which was never staged in the theatre. The translation was completed in 1990, and it exists only as a type-written script with the translator’s handwritten notes. The purpose of this article is to introduce the translation to a wider audience and to compare it to the translation produced in the same decade, in 1996, by Jerzy Radziwiłowicz. Many examples of Adamski’s own interpretations and imprints on his translation are given, as this text endeavours to provide reasons for his choice of translation strategies.