Talk:The Deluge (novel)

Translation of the novel

As an Englishman living in Poland since 2002 I have long wanted to read Sienkiewicz's 'Trilogy'. I was first alerted to an English translation of the series when reading Radek Sikorski's 'A Polish House' in which he mentions a translator, W. Kuniczak. I started to look for the books and found them to be very expensive. However, much to my relief I have an Amazon kindle and saw that there was a Kindle digital version of Jeremiah Curtin's translation and I was able to download the whole series for free! I also saw this comment about the two different translations by an Amazon reviewer (see below) and Curtin's translation seems to be superior:

"I've read Kuniczak's translation of the Trilogy and greatly enjoyed it. It was my introduction to Sienkiewicz. However, while reading it, it seemed somehow incoherent, like something was missing. It also seemed impossible that the companions of Zagloba would be so credulous of his boasting. I went and found a copy of the 1890 translation of the Trilogy by Jeremiah Curtin. What a difference! Though the language is somewhat archaic, the story flows so much better and the character of Zagloba is much more believeable. There is more context to his antics, and his companions are presented as far more skeptical of his boasting, making the story much more realistic. Kuniczak seems to have omitted and simplified much that appears in the Curtin translation, to the detriment of the story. Many believe the Kuniczak version is superior, and maybe it is more accessible, but I recommend you find the old editon in the basement of the local library and read it first."

The only name I find rather strange is Andrei Kmita's, which I have used in the plot description. Most of the names are pretty similar in the translation but this one is written and pronounced very differently to the original Polish - Andrzej Kmicic (Kmiczicz is more the pronunciation). Ivankinsman (talk) 19:30, 15 April 2012 (UTC)