Sprawiedliwość now available
by Harry on October 15, 2007
I’m absurdly pleased to see that Polish translation of my book Justice
is now available (in Poland, that is). Of all the languages I would want my work to be translated into, Polish tops the list (Welsh is a close second). Half the kids in the school where I took my “O”-level got an extra “O”-level in Polish for free (because it was their home language) and that’s always made it seem exciting and important.
But I can’t speak or read a word of it. So there are two requests. Is this an excerpt? It looks like one to me, but I have no way of being sure. And, from the picture, it looks as if Zygmunt Bauman has provided an endorsement on the cover. That seems extremely unlikely; can anyone enlighten me?
{ 15 comments }
aaron 10.15.07 at 11:06 pm
Hey, fragment ksiazki means piece of the book, so yeah its a fragment. A chapter entitled “The Just Unit,” (Sorry I don’t know your book so perhaps you have an idea what it means). I cannot decipher the Bauman quote because it is too small on my computer, but if you can give me a approximate guess of letters I might be able to. Congratulations. Polish is a cool language.
Scott McLemee 10.15.07 at 11:41 pm
Didn’t Bauman write a couple of volumes in the same series?
Maybe he saw yours and became enthusiastic. Seems like he reads everything, so it’s possible.
Cryptic Ned 10.16.07 at 12:00 am
You should try to get it published in a country with stern declension rules for all nouns including people’s names. In Lithuania for example your name could be turned into “Haris Brighausas”.
Patricia Pawlak 10.16.07 at 12:05 am
The subtitle in red states it is an excerpt. I can’t otherwise compare the original text to that one printed on the polish site. The tiny print on the image of the cover does seem to carry the name of Zygmunt Bauman but all else is illegible. I’ll be happy to translate if you can get a hold of anything readable.
aaron 10.16.07 at 12:11 am
Polish has pretty stern declension, but Harry is lucky because his name ends with a y it gets an adjectival ending. Deconstructing Harry by Woody Allen came out while I was in poland and was translated as Przejrzec Harry-ego. So I think I am on firm ground saying Harry in the Accusative and Genitive will get the same treatment Harry’s book then is Ksiazka Harry-ego (Hair-ee-ay-go). That is pretty cool. Brighouse is harder though because of the e ending. I imagine, it will probably Brighouse-a.
notsneaky 10.16.07 at 12:13 am
“Sprawiedliwa jednostka wzorowana jest na sprawiedliwym polis. Na podobieÅ„stwo miasta-paÅ„stwa dusza posiada trzy części – rozumnÄ…, popÄ™dliwÄ… i pożądliwÄ….”
“A just individual is based on (is a reflection of?) a just polis. By analogy with a city state, the soul posses three parts – the rational part, the desirous part and the ummm… driven (?) part”.
It makes sense in Polish, just hard to think of appropriate English words that capture it off the of the top of my head. Ok, so that’s not it.
At the top it says it’s an excerpt.
“W celu precyzyjnego okreÅ›lenia tematu niniejszej książki pomocne bÄ™dzie rozpoczÄ™cie naszych rozważaÅ„ od wprowadzenia kilku rozróżnieÅ„ dotyczÄ…cych sprawiedliwoÅ›ci. Pierwsze znane nam teksty odnoszÄ…ce siÄ™ do tego zagadnienia przekazane nam zostaÅ‚y przez starożytnych filozofów greckich.”
“In order to precisely outline the subject matter of this book, it will be useful to begin our considerations by introducing several … different themes (??? more like differences or different definitions) … in regard to justice. The first texts known to us dealing with the subject matter have come down to us from the ancient Greek philosophers”.
Again, just on the go.
I don’t see the picture you’re referring to.
notsneaky 10.16.07 at 12:38 am
It’s more legible here:
http://www.pegaz.osdw.pl/L/43936600174KS.obr;jsessionid=98A8D51C6734EF77BCB37AEBB9B5DCA6
“Monografie zwiezle, choc ogarniajace calosc istniejaces wiedzy, napisane przez znakomitych specjalistow – Zygmunt Bauman”
Something like:
“Concise monographs which nonetheless exhaust the entirety of existing knowledge, written by excellent specialists”
So it seems to be an endorsement of the series. But since you’re a member of the series, it applies to you as well.
harry b 10.16.07 at 12:43 pm
thanks for all this , esp to notsenaky — that is certainly an excerpt, and makes sense. Its a bit rich of Bauman to praise a series he has cotnributed to! (can he have read them all, I wonder?: actually, that’s not fair, he’s obviously v. erudite).
Mareknyc 10.16.07 at 5:38 pm
notsneaky – wzorowana na = modeled on.
rozumna, popedliwa i pozandliwa = rational, instinctive (poped – instinct) and covetuous (or lustful – zadza = lust, pozadzac kogos = to desire someone (sexually) pozodzac cos = to covet something.
in the second paragraph ‘rozroznien’ means something like clarification, precisions, or differentiations or rather all at once – no exact translation.
Scott McLemee 10.16.07 at 6:47 pm
My mistake — Bauman did not contribute to the series that contains Harry’s book.
He did write three volumes for the series “Themes for the 21st Century,” though, which is also published by Polity.
notsneaky 10.16.07 at 8:09 pm
The popedliwa combined with pozandliwa was making me think distracting thoughts hence my difficulties in translating’em.
Poped would be “drive”. Instinct to instynkt. But that’s splitting hairs.
dooby 10.16.07 at 10:44 pm
spadaj.
lubisz NOTSNEAKY najlepiej. my wszyscy inni tylko chcielismy milosc. Szukam tych ktorzy kochaja wszystkich polskich. notsneaky tylko ci daje pochlebstwo. (PS. i dont wont to offend poles. it is my second language).
A.B. 10.17.07 at 1:58 am
The whole thing is translated as a dance number here
bi 10.17.07 at 10:10 am
A.B.: lolwut?
Adam Klavnetz 10.19.07 at 7:58 pm
Wy mieliście być wdzięczne co wy nie żyją w dziurze jak (podobny do; podobnie do tego; upodobanie do) Irlandia albo Polska Książka, nawiasem mówiąc, jest straszliwie!
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