The role of translator involves much more than just replacing words in one language with the same text in another one. It inextricably involves shifting between various cultures, in a way every good translator is an intercultural negotiator.
My knowledge of the Polish culture results partly from my childhood and education spent in socialist Poland. I believe that it makes sense to mention this period to give you a better picture of your Polish Translator – me.
I lived the first 15 years of my life under socialism in the Polish People’s Republic. These days, I see that this period affected me much more than I ever expected. I think that even my unwillingness to speak about myself stems from that time.
Opening up to others has great value; it adds a face and background to the professional front we present to the world and allows us to showcase our strengths. However, it is impossible without revealing some weaknesses as well.
Poles in communist Poland, like people under any totalitarian regime, were very reluctant to take this risk. Living in the permanent paradox of supporting, by one’s very existence, a state one inherently opposed, meant by default living a double life and showing a different face in official environments and at home.
With both parents and an uncle in the illegal Solidarity movement, and having a prewar officer and member of the Polish Secret Army for grandparents, the list of things I was not supposed to mention at school was longer than my arm.
Anyone who would like to dive deeper into this topic cannot do better than reach for Czesław Miłosz’s book “The Captive Mind.”
In this book, the Polish laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature describes in great detail the concept of Ketman – essentially living a double life and separating private beliefs from one’s public face.
Wow – when I began to write this post, I had no idea that it would be so serious. And to think that all I intended to say was that I have a wonderful wife and family, and they are the most important things in my life 🤷♂️
In fact, I wrote most of this text in the back of a car that is taking me to the forests of Western Poland, where my four sons were spending most of July at a scout camp. The older two were already there, building the camp in a forest clearing. I planed to spend the weekend building the camp for the younger ones, along with a group of other parents and former scouts.
It was an amazing opportunity to forget about the desk and computer and break a sweat while using saws, spades, axes, and other old-fashioned tools.
Every summer I use this opportunity to once more sit by the fire, take a plunge in a lake, and sing (in my case, out of tune) old songs.
Most of all, it will be a great opportunity to build a stronger bond and bridge between different generations, those who still think of Ketman and those who can only read about it, brought closer by a common project.