Abstrakt: | The New Testament translated by Rev. Eugeniusz Dąbrowski, professor at the
Catholic University of Lublin, is a part of the canon of Polish translations of the
Bible. This is a translation from Latin version by St. Hieronymus, just as the first
Polish translation of the Bible, also from Vulgate, by Father Jakub Wujek. The
intention of D ąbrowski was primarily a pastoral one. He wanted to make the
reader enter into a relationship with Christ and the authors of the biblical texts
through reading the Bible. Therefore the translator’s priority was, on the one
hand, to maintain a language available for the then contemporary postwar generation,
and on the other to use a linguistic aesthetics that conveys a particularities
of the sacral language and remain free of colloquial forms. That is why the translation
seems to be the resultant of the archaic translation by Wujek and the more
contemporary translation by the Benedictines of Tyniec Abbey. Comparison of
fragments of the translation by Dąbrowski with the said translations and shows
the translator’s struggles to keep communicativeness of the text and its sacral
character at the same time. For this reason the analysed translation becomes
a part of a constantly up-to-date discussion of linguists concerning decisions of
translators of the biblical texts. Each new decade and generation they face the
task to keep both clarity and sacred character of the text. |