One of the most interesting challenges in translation services is converting literary works from one language to another, and several famous and successful Polish works famously required multiple translations to capture the initial essence of the work.
By far the most famous example of a great Polish work that was difficult to translate into English was Stanislaw Lem’s Solaris, one of the greatest and most influential works of science fiction ever made which was particularly successful internationally.
In total, Solaris was translated into 42 separate languages, but this makes it only the second-most translated Polish work of fiction in history.
The Polish novel with the most translations is Quo Vadis: A Narrative of the Time of Nero by Henryk Sienkiewicz, initially published in parts in three Polish journals, Gazeta Polska, Czas and Dziennik Poznański, from 1895 until 1896.
Part of the reason for its success and repeated translations is its historical roots, featuring many historical figures, several details from historical texts and parts from Biblical apocrypha such as the Acts of Peter.
These details surround a fascinating love story between a young Christian woman, Lygia, and a Roman patrician, Marcus Vinicius, amidst a backdrop of religious, political and social upheaval under the rule of the Emperor Nero, and ended ultimately with the acceptance of Christianity in Ancient Rome.
Thematically, the story mirrors Mr Sienkiewicz’s Trilogy novels, including With Fire and Sword, The Deluge and Fire in the Steppe, which were written during a time when Poland had been partitioned between the Russian, Austrian and German empires near the end of the 19th century.
Given the history of the Roman Empire is more well-known outside of Poland, its greater success as a literary work internationally is less surprising, and Quo Vadis made Mr Sienkiewicz the first Polish author to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.