Maciej Słomczyński

Maciej Słomczyński (1922–1998) was a translator, playwright and the author of thrillers. He was the first person in the world to translate everything Shakespeare wrote. The plays appeared between 1978 and 1987, published in multiple volumes. It was one of the most high-profile enterprises in the post-war reception of Shakespeare. Słomczyński described his work on the project in numerous interviews. In so doing he sharpened his sense of his own ethos and also opened up a conversation about the cultural sensitivity of bilingual translators.

He learned English in the family home and studied the Elizabethan era independently. He left behind an enormous body of work in translation, including texts from a wide range of genres. He translated Elizabethan literature (Ben Jonson and John Webster) and James Joyce’s Ulysses (Ulisses). As a translator he left his mark deeply imprinted on his work and he was held in high esteem as a creative artist and intellectual.

He received the Society of Authors (ZAiKS) prize twice (1960 and 1973) for his translation work; the Jurzykowski Prize in New York (1977); the Literatura na Świecie prize (1983); and the Ministry of Culture and Art prize for literature (1989). In 1997 he was awarded the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta.

Słomczyński’s priority as a translator was faithfulness, understood as an attempt to recreate the features of the original in a manner that corresponded to its literary and communicative conventions. He didn’t use archaicisms, but he deployed techniques, drawn from the originals, that diverged from contemporary usage and style. He didn’t remove cultural references and idiomatic language from the text, nor did he tone down vulgar or obscene passages.

Słomczyński’s translations are characterised by their consistency and coherence. They bear the traits of a literary idiolect, created to meet the needs of Elizabethan and Jacobean English.

Słomczyński’s translations sharply divided the critics, some of whom celebrated his work, while others denigrated it. The reception of his texts has also varied in its intensity and form: ranging from the successful stage debut, to the remarkable publishing project, to the wave of production in the early 1980s, and lastly to a contemporary view that sees the translations as a second canon of philologically accurate translations. Regardless of different judgements upon them, his work constitutes the first series of translations of a single author to have been reissued multiple times.

Taking into consideration the numerous book reviews and theatre reviews, and also the academic studies dedicated to the translations, Słomczyński’s work takes pride of place in the post-war reception of Shakespeare.