DIE VERWANDLUNG

DWORZANIN POLSKI

HUH?

I'm using this page to take notes for myself. If you found this somehow though... hi! I have to read books I and IV for class. I'm only reading those.

PIRWSZA KSIĘGA DWORZANINA:

"Była przypowieść u Grekow: tak żyj, jakoby tego nikt nie uczuł, żeś był na świecie." if true, whoever said this was a fucking idiot. Plutarch apparently opposed it, and I don't know anything else about him, but he was right there. But his reasons are stupid. There is no imperative to live as an example to others.

The author has interesting (fucking stupid) thoughts on translation/adaption of The Courtier. He talks about how Castiglio wrote in Italian for Italians, and how he is adapting the work for Poles. This much is true. But he destroys context rather than explains it, changing Italian names to Polish ones, and omitting sections of dialogue which he deems irrelevant to the Polish. Now, of course, Castiglio's toughts on how Italian women ought to behave arise in a different context than exists in Poland; Górnicki's response is to disclude much of what Castiglio wrote. We will put aside the obvious issue of "how women ought to be" being a topic in the first place and focus on this from the perspective of translation. Górnicki's philosophy of translation is to adapt the work as much as possible to the target audience. When this is applied to works on morality, it seems at least to imply that nations have characters that are inherent, and not contextual; for if the character were contextual, it would be worthy to introduce Castiglio's particularly Italian thoughts as something worthy of consideration, whether critical or not. Instead, his adaptation destroys information. This is also because he approaches his translation in the same manner as Castiglio approached his original work—rather than translate for informational purposes, he adapts for moral ones. He does not believe that readers ought to read the text in context of its foreignness, with an understanding of how this has shaped the philosophy of the work in a way that will allow them to better evaluate it for themselves; he wants to transmit intruction only.

At the same time, interestingly, he leaves many Latin terms untranslated. These are often philosophical terms and phrases without good alternatives within Italian or Polish. I am not necessarily against this practice, although it does add some difficulty to one who does not speak Latin—if Górnicki's audience was familiar with the Latin, then this practice is entirely sensible, although it makes a lack of explanation of the Latin in widely-distributed forms of this work regrettable. I do intentionally speak of explanation rather than translation, for indeed some concepts do not exist in every language, thus making translation at times impossible. This is why, as stated above, I am not necessarily opposed to Górnicki's refusal to translate much of this Latin. Nevertheless, if he can recognize that this Latin cannot be translated, let alone adapted, into Polish, and encourages the consideration of these Latin concepts within a Latin context, it makes his recontextualizing of Castiglio's Italian thought yet more disappointing.

Damn he really was like the Italians are gay.

obsession with beauty... hm.

KSIĘGA CZWARTA DWORZANINA:

"Snadź lepiej jest, gdy kogo szkaradzie ganią, niż kiedy mają szczupłe chwalić, bo ten, kto lży a gani, im to z więtszą furyą czyni, tym go ludzie za złośliwszego, a onemu, o kim źle mówi, więtszego nieprzyjaciela rozumieją, i przeto pospolicie takowej powieści nikt nic wierzy, ale kto skąpie chwali, widzi sie tak ludziom, jakoby niemiał co powiedzieć, bo to rozumieją, że onemu, o kim mówi, jest przyjacielem, i radby go wyniósł aż do nieba, ale co? niemoże - prawi - nic nalcśó w nim osobnego, czymby go ozdobie i wystawić mógł." he did kind of have a point here tbh. but it all just leads into the typical old Polish literature thing of being like ohhhhhh I am such a bad writer ohhhh I cannot do enough glory to the ones mentioned herein. Anyways, a bunch of the guys in the story croaked and he decides to mention it at this point in the story for reasons I do not understand.

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