Polish literary tradition is home to some of the most lyrically beautiful and philosophically complex books ever written, penned by exceptionally talented authors with a diverse range of backgrounds and experiences.
In 2018, Polish author Olga Tokarczuk won the 2018 Nobel Prize for Literature in part due to her incredible work promoting and supporting Polish translation work, civil liberties and the promotion of unsung authors.
Joseph Conrad, the Polish-British author of the incredible Heart of Darkness was one of the most influential authors of his day and has been a constant point of discussion when it comes to the concept of auto-translation despite his books being originally written in English.
Whilst originally getting his start in the 1980s, the fantasy author Andrzej Sapklowski has become increasingly popular in the rest of the world thanks to translations and adaptations of his book series Wiedźmin, better known as The Witcher outside of Poland.
Mr Sapkoski noted the complexities of translating his works from their native Polish into other languages but often leaves translators free to interpret his stories and happier with attempts that try to capture the spirit of the original text in his translations.
However, arguably the most popular Polish author in modern literary history is Stanislaw Lem, an author and philosopher best known in the West for the book Solaris, about a planet-sized alien intelligence and the failed attempts by a crew of scientists to understand and communicate with it.
It was also victim to a translation that Mr Lem himself famously despised, in part because a lot of the complex Polish idioms and new words he had used were translated in such a way that led to several Freudian readings of the book he fundamentally disagreed with.
Later translations of his work into English, including Mortal Engines and His Master’s Voice were handled by Michael Kandel, which managed to find ways to find idioms that more appropriately captured what Mr Lem conveyed in Polish.