Poetry as a continuous struggle between joy and hopelessness: On the Spanish and Galician translations of Adam Zagajewski’s selected poems

HERMĒNEUS, 26 (2024): págs. 283-308 ISSN: 2530-609X Poetry as a continuous struggle between joy and hopelessness: On the Spanish and Galician translations of Adam Zagajewski’s selected poems La poesía como lucha continua entre la alegría y la desesperanza: sobre las traducciones al español y al gallego de los poemas seleccionados de Adam Zagajewski ALEKSANDRA JACKIEWICZ Uniwersytet Warszawski / University of Warsaw. Wydział Neofilologii. Instytut Studiów Iberyjskich i Iberoamerykańskich. ul. Dobra 55. 00-312 Warszawa, Polska/Polonia. Dirección de correo electrónico: a.jackiew[email protected] ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8328-910X Recibido/Received: 24/1/2024. Aceptado/Accepted: 14/3/2024. Cómo citar / How to cite: Jackiewicz, Aleksandra, «Poetry as a continuous struggle between joy and hopelessness: On the Spanish and Galician translations of Adam Zagajewski’s selected poems», Hermēneus. Revista de Traducción e Interpretación, 26 (2024): pp. 283-308. DOI: https://doi.org/10.24197/her.26.2024.283-308 Artículo de acceso abierto distribuido bajo una Licencia Creative Commons Atribución 4.0 Internacional (CC-BY 4.0). / Open access article under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0). Abstract: The purpose of the essay is to reflect on the role of creativity in the translation of Adam Zagajewski’s poetry. We intend to carry out a contrastive analysis between two original poems (“Walizka” and “Ziemia”) and their Spanish and Galician translations – by Xavier Farré and Bartosz Dondelewski and Lidia López Teixeiro, respectively – to determine whether the interpretation stimulates creative thinking in translators, and whether the impact of poetry on creativity varies according to the work we read and then subject to linguistic and aesthetic negotiations. Due to the language of the article, we also use English translations by Clare Cavanagh for our study. As a starting point we take the notion of “lateral thinking”, proposed by Edward de Bono and recognized by Albrecht Neubert as very useful in the process of discovering new possibilities in translation. This approach will make it possible to recognize that recreational potential can be revealed in both a literal and free translation. We will also consider whether the Polish lines can be a part of the target poetic contexts with an analogous expressiveness. 284 Aleksandra Jackiewicz HERMĒNEUS, 26 (2024): págs. 283-308 ISSN: 2530-609X Keywords: Poetry; translation; Spanish; Galician; Adam Zagajewski. Resumen: El objetivo del artículo es reflexionar sobre el papel de la creatividad en la traducción de la poesía de Adam Zagajewski. Pretendemos realizar un análisis contrastivo entre dos poemas originales («Walizka» and «Ziemia») y sus traducciones al español y al gallego –de Xavier Farré y Bartosz Dondelewski y Lidia López Teixeiro, respectivamente– para determinar si la interpretación estimula el pensamiento creativo en los traductores, y si el impacto de la poesía en la creatividad varía según la obra que leemos y luego sometemos a negociaciones lingüísticas y estéticas. Debido al idioma del artículo, también utilizamos para nuestro estudio las traducciones al inglés de Clare Cavanagh. Como punto de partida tomamos la noción de «pensamiento lateral», propuesta por Edward de Bono y reconocida por Albrecht Neubert como muy útil en el proceso de descubrimiento de nuevas posibilidades en la traducción. Tal enfoque permitirá reconocer que el potencial recreativo puede revelarse tanto en una traducción literal como libre. También consideraremos si los versos polacos pueden formar parte de los contextos poéticos de destino con una expresividad análoga. Palabras clave: Poesía; traducción; español; gallego; Adam Zagajewski. Summary: Introduction; 1. Methodology; 2. Contrastive analysis between the original poems and their translations, 2.1. “Walizka”, 2.2. “Ziemia”; Conclusions; References. Sumario: Introducción; 1. Metodología; 2. Análisis contrastivo entre los poemas originales y sus traducciones, 2.1. “Walizka”, 2.2. “Ziemia”; Conclusiones; Referencias bibliográficas. INTRODUCTION The poet Adam Zagajewski, who died in 2021, was considered one of the most distinguished voices of contemporary poetry. His poems are characterized by an infiltration of philosophy, ethics, as well as irony and a sense of humor (Farré, as cited in “Zagajewski visto”, 2021). Zagajewski was a central figure in Poland’s so-called Nowa Fala [New Wave] or Generation of ’68 (Cavanagh, 2000, p. 4) – opposed to the Communist government – and a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature. His best works have succeeded “in making the space of the imagination connect with experience; things seen and heard and remembered in all their limits and sorrow and relished joy have the same power as things conjured” (Tóibín, 2004). Zagajewski’s sensibility is universal, but unique and committed at the same time. In his lines we observe “the search for beauty as an antidote to the horrors that have arisen throughout the twentieth century, without forgetting those moments of affliction, destruction, and defeat of a humanism” (Farré, as cited in “Zagajewski visto”, 2021).1 The seriousness of his lines and the beauty of his tone, revealed in the use of traditional free verse and the avoidance of poetic experimentations, demand that the reader see both the tragedies and the beauty of the world. 1 Unless otherwise noted, all translations into English are my own. Poetry as a continuous struggle between joy and hopelessness 285 HERMĒNEUS, 26 (2024): págs. 283-308 ISSN: 2530-609X Clare Cavanagh (2000, p. 13) observes that in Zagajewski’s lyrics, “one meets reminiscences and reveries, childhood memories, paeans to nature and to the imagination, to art, to love, moments of ecstatic revelation”. At the same time, the poet’s “nature is steeped in history; through his poetry, he reminds us that the landscapes we see have been inescapably shaped, for better and for worse, by human hands and minds” (Cavanagh, 2000, pp. 13-14). The idea of mixing these dichotomies is quintessential for Zagajewski, whose verse, even in translation, “remains oddly affecting in its calm mystery, wry acceptance and slow, sly shrug” (Tóibín, 2004). Zagajewski, as one of the most widely known and respected poets outside his home country of Poland, has “deepened American poetry” (Hirsch, 2021), especially after the New Yorker, shortly after the 9/11 attacks, published his poem “Spróbuj opiewać okaleczony świat” (“Try to Praise the Mutilated World”; trans. C. Cavanagh). As a laureate of the 2017 Princess of Asturias Award for Literature, he has also been appreciated by Hispanic readers. Although the works that have been published so far reinforce the warm reception that Zagajewski’s work has had from Spanish-speaking critics and audiences (see Bortkiewicz, 2004; Farré, 2007 and 2015; López Rodríguez and Díaz-Pintado Hilario, 2017- 18; Rica Aranguren, 2009), none of these scholars offer a comparative translation analysis. Another contributing circumstance for our inquiry is the lack of a similar study in the field of the Galician language.2 Consequently, this analysis is crucial for filling the research gap regarding his translations into the aforementioned languages. 1. METHODOLOGY In this paper, our aims are to examine the popularity of some of Zagajewski’s poems in Spanish and Galician, in order to determine whether their interpretation –understood in a hermeneutic way– stimulates creative thinking in their translators, and whether the impact of poetry on creativity varies according to the work being read and negotiated for linguistic, aesthetic, and cultural purposes. Reflection on the concrete solutions adopted in the translation process will also cover the question of whether this supposed “recreational” potential can be revealed in both a literal and a free translation of the original texts. Finally, we will try to 2 The first and so far the only critical analysis of the Spanish and Galician translations of Zagajewski’s poetry is found in Jackiewicz and Szejko (2022). 286 Aleksandra Jackiewicz HERMĒNEUS, 26 (2024): págs. 283-308 ISSN: 2530-609X verify the extent to which the Polish lines –characterized by the continuous contradictions through which Zagajewski sees the world– can be a part of the Spanish and Galician poetic contexts. The texts we discuss include two poems from the collection Asymetria (Span. Asimetría; Eng. Asymmetry), published in 2014: “Walizka” (Span. “Maleta”; Gl. “Maleta”; Eng. “Suitcase”) and “Ziemia” (Span. “Tierra”; Gl. “A terra”; Eng. “The earth”). We likewise examine their Spanish translations by Xavier Farré, as well as their Galician translations provided by Bartosz Dondelewski and Lidia López Teixeiro.3 The Galician versions were originally published in the 2018 paper, “Adam Zagajewski: poemas escollidos”, in Madrygal. Revista de Estudios Gallegos, which contains translations of selected poems from the aforementioned book.4 What these two works have in common – the reason for our choice – is precisely the mixture of “the deeply playful with the highly grave” imagery (Tóibín, 2004), the ways in which they link the past with the present, as well as the way they present the figure of the tourist. As the basis of our study of the Spanish and Galician versions of Zagajewski’s verses, we use the notion of “creativity”, which we detect in these translations with increasing frequency, demonstrating one sign of the translator’s “originality of thought, intellectual curiosity, imagination, decision-making capacity, and critical reasoning” (García Álvarez, 2018, p. 13). This observation is also closely related to the concept of “lateral thinking” proposed by Edward de Bono and recognized by Albrecht Neubert as effecting the process of discovering new possibilities of works in translation (2009, pp. 138-139). According to the psychologist Bono, lateral thinking involves restructuring and generating new ideas, especially in the artistic fields, and it is represented in our case by the translator of a poetic text: It might be wondered where the artist comes in. In his search for new ways of looking at things, in his dedication to breaking down the old conventions of perception, is not the artist the supreme user of lateral thinking? In the world of art, it would seem that lateral thinking is going on 3 Due to the language of the article, the study also uses English translations by Clare Cavanagh (Zagajewski, 2018). 4 The poems translated into Galician that are also presented in this selection but not included in the present essay are: “Dzieciństwo” (Gl. “Infancia”), “Północne morze” (Gl. “Mar ao norte”), “Wiemy, czym jest sztuka” (Gl. “Sabemos o que é a arte”) (Dondelewski and López Teixeiro, 2018, pp. 449-451). Poetry as a continuous struggle between joy and hopelessness 287 HERMĒNEUS, 26 (2024): págs. 283-308 ISSN: 2530-609X all the time under the more self-satisfying name of creative thinking. The artist is open to ideas, influences and chance. The artist seeks to develop an intense awareness. The artist tries to escape from the accepted vision of things often by deliberate use of unreason.… The true purpose of lateral thinking is not to wallow in formless chaos but to emerge from it with an effective new idea. The new idea is likely to have a classic simplicity of form; it is likely to have an orderliness which is far from the formlessness of the chaos from which it emerged. The ideal aimed at in lateral thinking is the simplicity of extreme sophistication, the simplicity of an idea that is very effective in action and yet elemental in its form (1971, pp. 124-125). This claim is similarly made by Richard J. Caselli, who developed his own scheme of creative organization and who has defined creativity as “the attempt to bridge the gap between what is and what should be. It emerges from the interplay of 5 commonly shared factors: motivation, perception, action, temperament, and social interaction” (2009, p. 143). From this perspective, the translation process, which is always based on the source text, cannot in itself be limited to a servile copy of the original. It needs to be regarded as a creative act that takes place under a series of constraints which frequently make the translator visible, but do not necessarily distance them from the original author. Looking at these observations from a purely translatological point of view and taking into account the translator’s actions, creativity discourages the adoption of hasty solutions, which are often those most similar to the solutions present in the original text, and instead urge translators to opt for other equally effective solutions, even though they are perhaps different from the author’s original ideas. In other words, it is “necessary to temporarily abandon the logical and rational thinking that limits the perceptual and imaginistic deployment of thought and prevents the formulation of new solutions” (García Álvarez, 2018, p. 16). When it comes to literary translation, and especially to poetry translation, creativity is often the central axis of the whole process of reworking and rewriting the source text. Moreover, a translator does not have to suppress his own linguistic initiative or fear that in his artistic sovereignty he will deviate too far from the translated work (Jarniewicz, 2016, p. 280). The search for new ideas and the reflection on lines from the original context, and not only from their dictionary meaning, should be an inherent part of every translation. Zagajewski claimed that: 288 Aleksandra Jackiewicz HERMĒNEUS, 26 (2024): págs. 283-308 ISSN: 2530-609X Writing poems is fascinating because it starts with something that is so nebulous, with something that is inside.… It is absolutely absorbing. The translation operation, on the other hand, is a purely linguistic operation. There is nothing existential about it (as cited in Rosé, 2014, online). Our claim is that translation can indeed be a prolific act, as engaging as the act of writing. As we attempt to demonstrate in the next part of the present essay, this claim is confirmed by the decisions by the translators of the two selected poems, in which the images presented –frequently simple in their form and seemingly lacking in translational difficulties– turn out to be an inspiration, although these interpretations themselves are not always reflected in the resulting, translated verse. 2. CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS BETWEEN THE ORIGINAL POEMS AND THEIR TRANSLATIONS 2. 1. “Walizka” To begin with, our attention will focus on the poem “Walizka” (Span. “Maleta”; Gl. “Maleta”; Eng. “Suitcase”): Rano Kraków był pochmurny, dymiły wzgórza. W Monachium padał deszcz, Alpy niewidoczne i ciężkie leżały w dolinach jak kamienie. Dopiero w Atenach zobaczyłem słońce, które sprawiło, że powietrze, całe powietrze, cała ogromna flotylla powietrza, zamieniło się w drżące złoto. Jak mówią pisarze religijni: nagle stałem się innym człowiekiem. Jestem tylko turystą w widzialnym świecie, jednym z tysiąca cieni, które snują się w ogromnych halach lotnisk – a za mną jak wierny pies jedzie na małych kółkach moja zielona walizka. Jestem tylko nieuważnym turystą, Poetry as a continuous struggle between joy and hopelessness 289 HERMĒNEUS, 26 (2024): págs. 283-308 ISSN: 2530-609X ale kocham światło. (Zagajewski, 2014, p. 12) Cracovia nublada por la mañana, las colinas humeaban. En Múnich llovía, los Alpes, invisibles y pesados, descansaban en los valles como piedras. Hasta Atenas no vimos el sol que provocó que el aire, todo el aire, toda una inmensa flota de aire se transformara en oro tembloroso. Como dicen los escritores religiosos: de repente me convertí en otra persona. Soy tan sólo un turista en el mundo visible, una de entre esas miles de sombras que deambulan por las salas inmensas de los aeropuertos, y detrás de mí como un perro fiel con sus pequeñas ruedas tengo a mi maleta verde. Soy tan sólo un turista distraído, pero amo la luz. (Zagajewski, 2017, p. 16) Cracovia amencía nubrada, os outeiros botaban fume. En Múnich chovía, uns Alpes invisibles e pesados xacían nos vales como pedras. Só en Atenas vin o sol, que fixo o ar, todo o ar, toda a armada imensa do ar, volverse en ouro vibrante. Os escritores relixiosos dirían: de súpeto convertínme noutra persoa. Son apenas un turista no mundo visible, 290 Aleksandra Jackiewicz HERMĒNEUS, 26 (2024): págs. 283-308 ISSN: 2530-609X unha das mil sombras que vagan polas naves xigantes dos aeroportos – e detrás de min, como un can fiel, vai con rodas pequenas a miña maleta verde. Son apenas un turista distraído, pero amo a luz. (Dondelewski and López Teixeiro, 2018, p. 449) Krakow was overcast that morning, the hills steamed. It was raining in Munich, in valleys the Alps lay hidden and heavy as stones. Only in Athens did I glimpse the sun, it turned the air, the whole air, the whole immense flotilla of the air to trembling gold. As the religious writers say: I suddenly became a new man. I’m just a tourist in the visible world, one of a thousand shadows drifting through airports’ vast halls– and my green suitcase, like a faithful dog, follows me on little wheels. I’m just an absentminded tourist but I love the light. (Zagajewski, 2018, p. 13) From a formal point of view, the verses in both translations are slightly longer than in the original, which is a result of a strict reflection of the images created by the poet. The morphological and syntactic norms of the Spanish and Galician languages have made the target stanzas more extensive. However, in the Spanish version, individual verses have become longer as a consequence of the translator’s addition of elements Poetry as a continuous struggle between joy and hopelessness 291 HERMĒNEUS, 26 (2024): págs. 283-308 ISSN: 2530-609X absent in the original. For example, the passage “jednym z tysiąca cieni” [one of a thousand shadows] is replaced by “una de entre esas miles de sombras” [one of those thousands of shadows]. In the Galician translation, it can be helpful to examine the contractions of prepositions and the use of determiners and pronouns.5 Consider, for example, “nos vales” [in valleys], “no mundo” [in the world], “unha das mil” [one of a thousand] or “polas naves” [through halls]. However, in the Spanish version we observe expressions such as “en los valles”, “en el mundo”, “una de entre esas miles” and “por las salas”, the length of which affects the rhythm of the text. Zagajewski’s use of enjambments are another equally significant issue related to the rhythmic structure of the poem. The poet’s work abounds in so-called antisyntactic poems, characteristic of Poland’s New Wave authors, in which the boundaries of the verses fall within coherent syntactic relationships, while the strongest syntactic boundaries fall within the verses. Thus, one statement is sometimes broken up by several very strong syntax boundaries that do not coincide with verse clauses. This antisyntactic construction is one of the basic methods for organizing the semantic level of a poetic text; it allows the revival of common phraseology, the multiplication of meanings, thanks to a reinterpretation of words included in metaphorical expressions, as well as for the rupture of linguistic schemes (Pszczołowska, 1997, pp. 367-368). An example occurs in the distich, “Jak mówią pisarze religijni: nagle/ stałem się innym człowiekiem” (“As the religious writers say: I suddenly/ became a new man”; trans. C. Cavanagh). As we can see in both versions, in translations of this poem these elements have been consistently preserved –with only one exception in the Spanish translation of the passage “a za mną jak wierny pies jedzie na małych kółkach / moja zielona walizka” (“and my green suitcase, like a faithful dog, follows me/ on little wheels”; trans. C. Cavanagh). The verb “jedzie” [goes] is replaced with a form of “tengo” [I have] and appears at the beginning of the following line “tengo a mi maleta verde” [I have my green suitcase]; in the Polish original, we just have “moja zielona walizka” [my green suitcase]. The rationalization (Berman, 2004, pp. 288-289) of the verse by changing the original verb’s place and replacing it with another, more realistic verb, may weaken the original 5 According to González González et al. (2008, p. 17), “This phenomenon contrasts enormously with Spanish, in which only the contractions ‘al’ (‘a’ + ‘el’) and ‘del’ (‘de’ + ‘el’) exist, both of the type preposition + article”. 298 Aleksandra Jackiewicz HERMĒNEUS, 26 (2024): págs. 283-308 ISSN: 2530-609X Había moita distancia; a distancia calaba. Viñemos como os turistas, con maletas – quedámonos máis tempo. Non pertenciamos a esta terra, pero recibiunos xenerosamente – recibiuvos ós dous. (Dondelewski and López Teixeiro, 2018, p. 450) Some spoke Polish, others German, only tears were cosmopolitan. Wounds didn’t heal, they had long memories. Coal shone as always. No one wanted to die, but life was harder. Much strangeness, strangeness didn’t speak. We arrived like tourists, with suitcases– we stayed on. We didn’t belong to that earth, but it received us openheartedly– it received you both. (Zagajewski, 2018, p. 17) In this case, we see once again that some lines, especially in the Spanish translation, are more extensive relative to the source text. Their added length is a consequence of clarifications introduced by the translator. For example, the original expression “długo pamiętały” (“they had long memories”; trans. C. Cavanagh) takes the form of “recordaban durante largo tiempo” [they remembered for a long time], where the short adverb “długo” [long] is described as “durante largo tiempo” [for a long time]. Interestingly, the authors of the Galician translation propose the phrase “lembrábanse moito” [they remembered a lot], in which the form “moito” [a lot] is used in place of the aforementioned adverb, but at the same time, this alteration does not affect the meaning of the stanza. A similar procedure takes place in the line “zostaliśmy dłużej” (“we stayed Poetry as a continuous struggle between joy and hopelessness 299 HERMĒNEUS, 26 (2024): págs. 283-308 ISSN: 2530-609X on”; trans. C. Cavanagh), replaced by “nos quedamos por más tiempo” [we stayed longer]. The Spanish translation is perfectly correct and dictated by the norms of the target language, but it could be more concise if the preposition “por” [for] were omitted, as it is in the Galician version: “quedámonos máis tempo” [we stayed longer]. From a formal point of view, the pauses introduced by Zagajewski in the clauses of the seventh and tenth lines are preserved only in the Galician translation, an absence that careful readers will also find impossible to ignore. As with the previous poem, the Spanish translator keeps only one of them, while the other is replaced by a semicolon. The resulting lack of consistency is crucial, as it may weaken the line’s expressiveness, especially that of the last verse, in which the poet wants to surprise us again and bring us into a moment of suspension. The versification and rhythmic structure of the poem is once more inextricably linked to the reality depicted within it. Childhood memories and moments spent in the shadow of atrocities remain in the memory, and they come alive again within the lyrical subject. The revived memories become all the more tangible as they are juxtaposed with non-obvious elements. The familiar “tourist”, “suitcase”, and “cosmopolitanism” return, but in a different environment. Instead of “airports’ halls” and “the sun in Athens” there is a “cry”, a “wound”, a “death”, and a “strangeness”. The following lines reference the poet’s own family history:7 “Jedni mówili po polsku, inni po niemiecku” (“Some spoke Polish, others German”; trans. C. Cavanagh), “Węgiel błyszczał jak zawsze” (“Coal shone as always”; trans. C. Cavanagh), “Przyjechaliśmy jak turyści, z walizkami –” (“We arrived like tourists, with suitcases–”; trans. C. Cavanagh), “Nie należeliśmy do tej ziemi” (“We didn’t belong to that earth”; trans. C. Cavanagh). These reminiscences are not only a sense of irreparable loss but constitute an opportunity for a new opening. As Zagajewski emphasizes, “Joy often wins. Even the theme of exile, which for me is over, because I am no longer an ‘exiled poet’, is ambivalent, because there are certain pleasures in it” (Álvarez, 2017). This hope for a better tomorrow is reflected in the passages “zostaliśmy dłużej” (“we stayed on”; trans. C. Cavanagh) or “ale wspaniałomyślnie przyjęła nas –” (“but it received us openheartedly–”; trans. C. Cavanagh). 7 Zagajewski’s parents and elder sister were expelled from beloved and stunning Lwów when the city became part of The Soviet Union, and moved to Gliwice, “the ugly, industrial city” (Tóibín, 2004) in Silesia, which had been part of Germany. 300 Aleksandra Jackiewicz HERMĒNEUS, 26 (2024): págs. 283-308 ISSN: 2530-609X Upon analysis, the peculiarities above arise from the translation into the Spanish and the Galician languages, revealing first that the poet’s ideas are universally understood across language barriers, and second, that they are able to evoke similar emotions in the reader as those evoked in readers of the original work. Surprising word combinations, devices aimed at keeping the recipient –and perhaps making them smile– are mostly consistently rendered in both translations. For example, the phrase “płacz był kosmopolityczny” [crying was cosmopolitan] –intended to indicate the linguistic and cultural diversity of the expelled families, as well as the nonverbal communication between them– is translated literally into both languages. Nevertheless, the Galician version even increases the expressiveness of the original by using the noun “pranto” [sob], meaning “a cry with moans and convulsive gasps” (“choro con xemidos e salaios”; Real Academia Galega, n.d.). Another example occurs in the line, “Było dużo obcości; obcość milczała” (“Much strangeness, strangeness didn’t speak”; trans. C. Cavanagh). Here, repetition, personification, and even punctuation have been preserved. Solutions that maintain the meaning of the Polish lines include: “Había mucha extrañeza; la extrañeza callaba” [There was a lot of strangeness; the strangeness was silent] and “Había moita distancia; a distancia calaba” [There was a lot of distance; the distance was silent]. An interesting move is the translators’ replacement of the original noun “obcość” [strangeness] with the Galician term “distancia” [distance], which can refer to either the “amount of space that mediates between two things or places” or the “amount of time between two facts” (“porción de espazo que media entre dúas cousas”; “porción de tempo entre dous feitos”; Real Academia Galega, n.d.). Unlike the original, this term is not used in the sense of “the quality of being unusual, unexpected, or not being familiar” (Cambridge University Press, n.d.), but still gives a new dimension to the stanza while not diverging too much from Zagajewski’s intention. In the second part of the poem, the figure of the tourist returns, but this time embodies a displaced person: “Przyjechaliśmy jak turyści, z walizkami –” (“We arrived like tourists, with suitcases–”; trans. C. Cavanagh). In this context, the tourist is closer to a vagabond (Bauman, 2011, pp. 449-451); he does not go on a journey of his own free will but is driven out of his place of residence. He leaves not to enrich the treasury of his impressions, but to save his life. Most importantly, unlike a typical tourist, this time he has to make himself at home, to put down roots in a new place (Bauman, 2011, p. 452), as Zagajewski clearly indicates with Poetry as a continuous struggle between joy and hopelessness 301 HERMĒNEUS, 26 (2024): págs. 283-308 ISSN: 2530-609X the line “zostaliśmy dłużej” (“we stayed on”; trans. C. Cavanagh). Thus, Zagajewski again resorts to non-obvious juxtapositions and ironizes the existing reality. In both translations, all these features are preserved: “Llegamos como turistas, con maletas –/ nos quedamos por más tiempo” [We arrived as tourists, with suitcases –/ we stayed longer] and “Viñemos como os turistas, con maletas –/ quedámonos máis tempo” [We came like tourists, with suitcases –/ we stayed longer]. Both in Spanish and in Galician, the aforementioned “tourist” appears as an exile, but also as a character who has found himself in a new place and has started life anew. The last stanza, and especially its distich, are both elements affirming this belief, and at the same time they constitute the culmination of the whole poem: “Nie należeliśmy do tej ziemi,/ ale wspaniałomyślnie przyjęła nas –” (“We didn’t belong to that earth,/ but it received us openheartedly–”; trans. C. Cavanagh). It is worth pointing out that the twice-repeated verb “przyjmować” [to receive] in this and the following verses is preserved in both translations: “nos acogió” [received us] and “os acogió” [received you], and “recibiunos” [received us] and “recibiuvos” [received you], respectively. On the other hand, the paramount element of these lines comes in the adjective “wspaniałomyślnie” [generously] and is reflected in both the Spanish feminine adjective “generosa” [generous] and the Galician adverb “xenerosamente” [generously]. The introduction of a different part of the speech here does not modify the original text’s meaning, but it certainly has the effect of enhancing the personification of “earth”. Earth’s “mercy” and “good-naturedness” –contrary to the previously discussed “strangeness”– are spoken directly in the Spanish line and become indispensable features of the eponymous figure’s character. Perhaps the line also intensifies the impression of gratitude the lyrical subject has for the earth? Finally, we come to the equally surprising last line, “przyjęła was oboje” (“it received you both”; trans. C. Cavanagh), which again is a reference to the poet’s family history. The phrase “was oboje” [both of you] probably points directly to Zagajewski’s parents who, despite adversities, created a new place to live for themselves and their two children.8 It is worth noting that only the Galician translation is literal and retains the meaning of the original verse: “recibiuvos ós dous” [received 8 Zagajewski spent only the first four months of his life in Lwów and then the family moved to Gliwice, where he spent his childhood and adolescence. Subsequently, he studied in Krakow, then emigrated to Paris, and returned to Poland in 2002 (see Czajkowska, 2020, p. 235). 302 Aleksandra Jackiewicz HERMĒNEUS, 26 (2024): págs. 283-308 ISSN: 2530-609X you both]. In turn, in the Spanish text we observe a solution “os acogió a unos y a otros” [received the ones and the others], which no longer refers to the narrator’s closest friends, but still illustrates a successful attempt to get out of a situation initially devoid of any hope. It is to some extent a universalization of the reality presented by the poet, a generalization of personal experiences, which does not differ from the characteristics frequently attributed to Zagajewski’s work.9 Nonetheless, there is no doubt that this translational change is excessively distant from the original text and appears inconsistent with the author’s overall poetic strategy. As a consequence of the translator’s shift, the image of the lyrical subject’s unimaginable, and at the same time intimate tragedy is blurred. This modification is even more important given the eventual circumstances which later irretrievably changed the fate of Zagajewski’s own family. Another seemingly unnecessary change to the original text occurs in the translation process of these same lines, revealing further possible interpretations. The essence of creative thinking again passes from translator to reader. Zagajewski invites readers to identify with and even co-create ideas with the speaker, to show, as Kuchta says, a “readiness to undertake independent reflections on difficult topics appearing in his poems” (2015, p. 172). As a result, Farré’s translational disparity makes the Spanish version closer to readers, who in this version have a chance to transfer their own experiences to the poem’s speaker. The verse offers its readers the opportunity to identify with victims and witnesses of the resettlement, a daily news reality for readers worldwide today as well. Farré’s proposed solution seems correct, given the added scope of interpretive range it offers the reader of the translated poem. CONCLUSIONS In the context of our observations and analysis here, readers might well agree with Jerzy Jarniewicz’s statement that, the awareness of the servile role towards the source text, which is partially fulfilled by each, even the most literal translation, does not 9 According to James (2013, pp. 86-87), “The experience of an exile and the fact that Zagajewski has lived through the period of the post-communist transformations of the former Eastern block … permits the Polish poet not only to seize the universal from the Western cultural tradition but to explore more in detail the specific features related to the East European fate”. Poetry as a continuous struggle between joy and hopelessness 303 HERMĒNEUS, 26 (2024): págs. 283-308 ISSN: 2530-609X extinguish in the translator his own linguistic initiative, which … harmonize[s] with the linguistic imagination of the author of the original (2016, p. 280). Reading these poems in the context of their translations confirms that linguistic deviations from the original lines need not conflict with the original poems’ intention, meaning, or expressiveness. The individual skills of the translators, as well as their ability to modify selected elements in the target texts using the individual solutions examined here, show that creativity need not be equated with a frivolous interpretation of the original. At the same time, both translations result in poetic texts par excellence as they make the most creative use of the language. Poets such as Zagajewski construct their artistic reality through expressions and structures that often escape established linguistic norms. Hence, in this case, the literal or philological translation must be understood in itself as a recreational interpretive method, or something like a free, paraphrastic or communicative translation. In poetry translation, however, creative thinking occurs not so much at the level of lexical-semantic or formal modifications, but at the level of linguistic transcoding, which aims to produce a target text that is as close to the original as possible. In other words, “labor on the letter in translation is more originary than restitution of meaning” (Berman, 2004, p. 297). Consequently, creativity can also be considered from the perspective of the emphasis on the reception and appreciation of the text by the reader, on the effect of surprise experienced when encountering an element that, although it is translated literally from the original, is simultaneously unexpected by readers of the translation. Any interpretation of a work –also understood as a translation– is an “invitation to make the work together with the author and … to open to a virtually unlimited range of possible readings, each of which causes the work to acquire new vitality in terms of one particular taste, or perspective, or personal performance” (Eco, 1989, p. 21). The translations we have discussed concern the fabric of the original text. According to Osowiecka and Kolańczyk, the “reading of poetry improve[s] two creativity indicators (fluency and flexibility)” (2018, p. 4), reaffirming that the reception of poetry “broadens activation of the semantic network and allows for flexible switching between remote categories” (p. 4). Unquestionably, an analogous process takes place in the translator’s mind, since they are, first and foremost, readers of a work, and their primary concern is finding out why the original text causes a certain 304 Aleksandra Jackiewicz HERMĒNEUS, 26 (2024): págs. 283-308 ISSN: 2530-609X sensation. Furthermore, the process becomes visible when one examines whether a similar experience occurs with the translator’s participation as a reader who recreates the original poem in another linguistic system (Barańczak, 2004, p. 16). Therefore, such a perspective intrinsically entails a kind of translational creativity and, without a doubt, stimulates the creative potential of the translator. The expressiveness of Zagajewski’s dichotomies, the transition from hopelessness and helplessness to moments of peace, dazzlement, and joy are analogous in both the Spanish and the Galician verses. 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