Latin Versions of Two Poems of Czesław Miłosz

• Authors: John Lee
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

PL

The main aim of the paper is to present the translations of two poems written by Czesław Miłosz from English into Latin (Accurata descriptio mei ipsius, De Angelis). Each of Latin translation is provided with detailed notes and commentaries which bring information about the linguistic choices made by the interpreter. The notes are also useful in spelling out the sense of Miłosz’s verses. Explaining the choice of elegiac verse for rendition of the two poems, the author indicates numerous analogies between Ovid and Miłosz in perceiving and describing the world, human nature, and desires. The short interview with the interpreter (conducted by Elwira Buszewicz) might be regarded as the author’s post scriptum to his translations of Miłosz’s poems and notes on each of them. He tells about motivation for translating contemporary poetry into Latin, his beginnings in writing Latin poetry, and Miłosz’s poetry. Two poems written by the Polish poet and translated by Lee into Latin appear to have been composed by Ovid himself. The historical and cultural distance between those two poets seems to become temporarily irrelevant. Th en, the only thing that has sense is the truth of poetical revelation

Keywords

PL

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Jagielloński
• Journal: Terminus
• Year: 2013
• Volume: 15
• Issue: 4(29)

Dates

published

2013

online

2015-10-06

Contributors

author

John Lee