Zofia Siwicka

Zofia Siwicka (1894–1982) studied English and Polish at the Jagiellonian University. In 1919 she completed a PhD on Polish romanticism. She translated fifteen plays by Shakespeare, issued by the State Publishing Institute (PIW) over three decades: Makbet (1950), Otello (1951), Król Lear (King Lear, 1951), Juliusz Cezar (1953), Koriolan (1955), Burza (The Tempest, 1956), Romeo i Julia (1956), Troilus i Kressyda (1957), Cymbelin (1960), Poskromienie złośnicy (The Taming of the Shrew, 1969), Wiele hałasu o nic (Much Ado About Nothing, 1972), Król Henryk Ósmy (Henry VIII, 1973), Stracone zachody miłości (Love’s Labour’s Lost, 1976), Król Henryk Piąty (Henry V, 1978) and Komedia omyłek (The Comedy of Errors, 1980).

Siwicka’s translations, highly rated by critics and theatre companies, were eclipsed by the work of other translators from the same era. She was, however, one of the most consistent and polished practitioners in the twentieth century. In 1971 she received the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta. In 1972 she won the Polish PEN Club prize for her Shakespeare translations.

Siwicka embarked on her translation of Othello at the request of the director Stefan Jaracz. Their conversations had an impact on her priorities as a translator. She worked with the stage in mind and her translation is clear and concise. It was based on the latest critical editions. She took care to give the characters distinct voices. She avoided modernisation, but untangled the syntax. She handled the denser passages well, making sure they didn’t become overly long. She applied this skill later in her career when she worked over-dubbing English-language films.

She rarely spoke about her approach to translation and didn’t pass judgement on the work of other translators.

Recorded opinions on Siwicka’s translations are almost always positive, although cursory and scattered. The precision and directness of her work was emphasised, along with her syntactical and lexical freedom. Her achievements were also celebrated by other translators, a courtesy which was hardly a rule in other cases. Some commentators felt that one weakness of her work was that it was not sufficiently poetic.

Since the first performance of her Makbet in 1958, Siwicka’s translations have been staged dozens of times, making her one of the translators whose work has most often been used on the stage. Burza (The Tempest) has been most popular, with several productions of both Król Lear and Romeo i Julia. With the exception of Juliusz Cezar, her translations have not been reissued.