Ferdydurke - the work of Gombrowicz was considered to be an untranslatable work, just like other him's novels. The specific vocabulary and long, complicated sentences made the novel very difficult in reading and understanding. Ferdydurke is a book about a 30-year-old man, who finds himself imprisoned in the world of schoolboys by a professor who whises to reduce him to childhood. The novel was published in Poland in 1937 and made young Gombrowicz famous.
Ferdydurke translated in 1961 by Eric Mosbacher was insufficient because it was not translated directly form Polish into English, but form French. The first translation seemed to be very poor because of lost of fragments missing. In 2000 Danuta Borchardt has finished a direct translation of novel. In 1961 the work of Gombrowicz was also translated from French into Italian by Sergio Miniussi. The first Italian version of Ferdydurke was very ungainly so in 2004 the work was translated by Vera Verdiani once again. In Ferdydurke there are two main metaphors, very difficult to translate. One of them is "pupa" and the other one "gęba". "Gęba" is a metaphor for a kind of disguise. Danuta Bortchardt translated it as "a mug". In Italian version "gęba" is "muso". Moreover, "pupa" is the symbol of childhood. In English "pupa" can be translated as buttocks or backside, but Danuta Bortchardt decided to leave this word. In Italian translated as "culetto". Gombrowicz's language is complicated because he describing the world and a certain process used synonyms which cause problems during translation. For exemple "wewnętrzne rozdarcie, rozproszenie i rozproszkowanie" was translated by Danuta Bortchardt in descriptive way:
"disintegration when all would be blown to pieces and scattered to the winds".
I postawił mu kica.
E con sommo rammarico gli mise un bell’uno sul registro.
Widzieliście, jak złośliwie dydaktyczny Pimko mnie upupił.
Avete visto come quel malignazzo di pimko mi abbia cuculizzato con la sua pedagogia.
... że co najwyżej, w obecnej fazie waszego rozwoju jesteście li tylko półszekspirami i ćwierćszopenami.
In questa fase del vostro sviluppo siete a malapena dei mezzi Shakespeare e dei quarti di Chopin.
Great poetry must be admired, because it is great and because it is poetry, and so we admire it.
Wielka poezja, będąc wielką i będąc poezją, nie może nie zachwycać nas, a więc zachwyca.
The final fragment of Ferdydurke is very funny. However is also very difficult to translate. Eric Mosbacher, the first author of English version, omitted "koniec i bomba, kto czytał ten trąba". Maybe it proved to be too difficult to translate. Danuta Borchardt translated it successfully:
It's the end, what a gas,
and who's read it is an ass!
Vera Verdiani in Italian:
Termine ho messo,
chi legge è flesso!
