Autobiografia Literatura Kultura Media

The article constitutes a comparative analysis of a German translation of Artur Daniel Liskowacki’s Eine kleine (2000), which was published under a new title Sonate für S. (2003). Based on an examination of the musical composition of this work, but also in relation to Friedrich Ernst Daniel Schleiermacher’s concept of two methods of literary translation, that is – according to contemporary terminology – an adaptation or an exoticisation of a literary text, some shortcomings of this translation are revealed. As a result, the music of Liskowacki’s original Polish sentences is unfortunately lost in the translation into German. This situation is caused by the marketing decisions made by the German publisher, as well as an attempt made by the translator to adjust (adapt) the work to the tastes of the readers of German sentimental memoir literature, and thus impose on Liskowacki’s novel a meaning of a sentimental journey into a lost land of childhood and youth. Above all, this is indicated by acomplete omission of the Polish subtitle „quasi una allemanda”, which is a significant clue on how this work should be read, as only a quasi-German story; in fact, it is an attempt to perceive the history of S. (Stettin-Szczecin) through the eyes of its contemporary, Polish citizen, who tries to recreate the picture of the city as it was seen by its German inhabitants of the past.