Longago and other times, a novel by Olga Tokarczuk, translated from the Polish with introduction.

Abstract

Most of us would agree that a translator's aim should generally be "to provide semantic equivalence between source and target languages" (Crystal 346). Despite the seeming simplicity of this definition, there are as many different beliefs about how translators should achieve this goal as there are theorists on the topic. Despite the many kinds of translation and rules which translators might follow, one matter on which translators commonly agree is that it is the translator's duty to render as accurately as possible the meaning of the source text into the target language. However, in aesthetic translation, translators must also consider form, content, tone, and the cultures of both the source and target languages. After taking these issues into consideration in my introduction, I then offer a translation of Olga Toakarczuk's novel Prawiek i inne czasy, or, as I have translated the title Longago and Other Times. I came to the source text through what Caryl Emerson defines as "the way of the poet" (84), seeing the translation, not as a "betrayal" of the original, but as a "release" of the potential of the novel.