Living on the Edge of Polish

The Polish translation of my story Living on the Edge of Darkness is out in the latest issue of Nowa Fantastyka. 

This is the third language for this story, my second story in this magazine and my fifth story in Polish.

Living on the Edge of Poland

 More good news to finish off the year: I've sold my short story Living on the Edge of Darkness to Polish magazine Nowa Fantastyka. This story appeared in Dragon Gems earlier this year and this will be its first translation. It will be my second story in Nowa Fantastyka and my fifth in Polish altogether.

Venus of Venus of Poland

 The Polish translation of my short story Venus of Venus is out today in the July issue of Nowa Fantastyka. This story was previously published in English and Hungarian.

This is my first appearance in this magazine, and my fourth story in Polish.

Venus of Poland

I'm very pleased to have sold my story Venus of Venus to long-running Polish magazine Nowa Fantastyka, to appear probably in July.

This will be my first appearance in this magazine, my fourth story in Polish and the third language for this story, following English and Hungarian.

The Gondolier in Polish

I received a Polish translation of The Gondolier quite some time ago but, due to an oversight, it never made it on to this site.

Gondolier

Gareth D Jones

 

Czarny dziób mojej gondoli sunął łagodnie poprzez spokojne wody kanałów. Smukła łódź służyła mi długie lata, przewożąc pasażerów miejską siecią wodnych alejek, sterowana dłońmi pokoleń moich przodków.

Słońce zachodziło nad starożytnym miastem, zamieniając wodę w atramentową wstążkę położoną między eleganckimi bryłami piaskowych budynków. Głęboko odetchnąłem chłodną wieczorna bryzą.

Czy istniało miejsce piękniejsze niż to wspaniałe miasto kanałów? Kiedy łodź dobiła do kei, zatrzymałem się, by pogapić się usatysfakcjonowanie na ciemniejące niebo Marsa.

 

Koniec

 

Translated by Słavòmjir Jónkòvskji

Polish Ants and Dinosaurs

 The Polish edition of Cixin Liu's Of Ants and Dinosaurs has just been released, and my review of the book from SF Crowsnest has been translated into Polish for the occasion.

Polish Review Quote

 My review of Cixin Liu's The Wandering Earth has been quoted in Polish for the new Polish edition of the book. I've seen it quoted in several places in fact. 

The Gondolier Hits 45

Also this week, I've received another two translations of The Gondolier - in Polish and Kishubian. This takes the total number of translations to 45. I have a couple of possible options for these two to be published, else I'll post them here eventually.

Polish Tentacles

The Polish transplation of Rose Coloured Tentacles is published today in the winter special edition of Szortal. This is my third story in Polish, following Inside Every Successful Man in Fahrenheit in May 2009 and Hiking in My Head in Szortal in September 2014.




Rose coloured Tentacles was originaly published in Perihelion in May 2015.

Polish Story Sale

To round off the year, my short story Rose Coloured Tentacles, which was published last year in Perihelion, has been accepted by Polish magazine Szortal.


This will be my third story published in Polish and means I have 4 stories lined up for publication next year.

The Editors: Dawid Wiktorski

My slightly confusing story Hiking In My Head, first published in Daily Science Fiction, was translated into Polish and published in Szortal in 2014. I popped over to Warsaw and met up with editor Dawid Wiktorski  to find out about Szortal and Polish SF in general. Or maybe we corresponded by email.

Q. Is there a long history of science fiction in Poland?

A. When we compare Polish SF to, for example, American, we can see they started their expansion concurrently - in 1960s. Those were the times when Stanisław Lem wrote his most remarkable texts (“Solaris” and “Fables for robots”) and Janusz Zajdel started his writing career (for example “Limes inferior”). The Communist Period, however, turned out to be the golden age to Polish speculative fiction - our market was mainly closed to American texts, so - naturally - Polish ones were mostly favored. Not without significance was the previous political system - what could be better than criticizing it by means of fictional analogies and references?

Unfortunatelly, Polish SF lost its importance and monopoly after the opening of borders in 1990s. We were flooded by a wave of foreign texts’ translations and Polish writers gradually started being forgotten (in the good days their most influential works were reprinted over a dozen, sometimes even several dozens times!). Naturally, it’s not the end of the history of SF in Poland but this period could be marked as the decrease of its role and popularity - those were gained mostly by fantasy that became really popular in my country.

 

Q. Are there any themes or styles that define Polish science fiction currently?

A. Nowadays the SF market in Poland is so niche that it’s hard to talk about any styles or subjects that can define it. Recently there could be observed a rise of number of space opera and post-apo publications but it’s not a rule. Unfortunately I cannot foresee that fantasy would stop being the dominant genre in my country, where the market is really small, especially in comparison to the Anglo-Saxon one.

 

Q. How did Szortal get started?

A. The whole idea came from Krzysztof “Baranek” Baranowski (but later Aleksander Kusz was the organisator) and it was refined on a forum of a non-existing magazine. In Poland Szortal was a unique idea, before no one was interested in “shorts” (really short pieces of literature), the most emphasis was put on stories.

For a long time Szortal was dedicated to Polish writers only but about two years ago there was a section for foreign prose introduced. It empowered the whole website - not only with really interesting texts, but also promising contacts.

 

Q. What kind of stories do you like to publish?

A. A text has to have SOMETHING that makes you remember several thousand of signs. I don’t care about the genre or the main motif. It’s crucial for me to remember the story and that it would somehow make me wonder about it.

 

Q. What are the challenges of translating stories from English?

A. English really differs from Polish. On one hand the Polish language is richer, but on the other in English there are some collocations and words that don’t correspond with my language. Translating a text with a "word by word" method in case of fiction is totally impossible and the translation will always have something invented by the translator. It makes the whole process of translation unique, makes us wonder about the sound of every word, whether to translate it directly or search some other synonyms. It disables the automatisation of the whole translating process and makes every translation a challenge.

 

Q. What plans do you have for this year?

A. It’s the most difficult question, I guess ;) It’s hard to say what would happen this year - I certainly have plans, especially when it comes to Szortal and other speculative fiction issues, but those are too dynamically modified and postponed for non-specified future. In other words - nothing specific. But I have maaany ideas!

 

Thanks!

Hiking in My Head in Polish

The Polish translation of Hiking in My Head is now on line at Szortal. This was the story published at Daily Science Fiction that confused many readers. Maybe the translation will make more sense?

Hiking in Polish

I was contacted this week by Polish webzine Szortal, who would like to translate my story Hiking in My Head that first appeared in Daily Science Fiction. This will be my second story in Polish, following Inside Every Successful Man that was published in Fahrenheit in 2009.