The Belgian School of the Strange - A Few Notes About Polish Translations

Some material for Polish readers this time. The following is an important note about Polish translations of works forming part of the Belgian School of the Strange (for an introduction to the topic, please see my thread at Thomas Ligotti Online). The following quotes come from an article by Ryszard Siwek - the Polish connoisseur of école belge de l’étrange - entitled "O obecności nieobecnego albo o nieobecności obecnego, czyli o literaturze belgijskich frankofonów w Polsce – próba bilansu" (published in PRACE KOMISJI NEOFILOLOGICZNEJ PAU TOM IX):

"Kolejny autor, Franz Hellens, należy do ważnych postaci w literaturze Belgów. Znany jest przede wszystkim jako czołowy przedstawiciel belgijskiej szkoły niezwykłości (école belge de l’étrange). W jej ramach mieści się realizm fantastyczny. Hellens był jego inicjatorem, teoretykiem i praktykiem. Ale ten nurt w jego pisarstwie zilustrowany został jedynie krótkim utworem w antologii opowiadań belgijskich Znad Skaldy i Mozy z 1983 r. Wcześniej jednak czytelnikowi polskiemu zaproponowano dwa inne oblicza pisarza. Jedno zupełnie marginalne, jako pisarza katolickiego. Poezje Hellensa znalazły się w zbiorze Smak winnic twoich: wybór liryki religijnej Zachodu z 1956 r., a trzy lata później ukazała się jego powieść Nędzarka w tłumaczeniu Danieli Kolendo. Drugie, nieprawdziwe, oblicze dotyczy Hellensa jako poety doby symbolizmu, a to za sprawą antologii Symboliści francuscy."

"Poe, Grabiński, Ray, Lovecraft. Correspondences, Parallels, Comparisons" - international conference held in Poland

Savez-vous ce qu’il y avait derrière? Un mur énorme, noir, massif comme le roc. Il en fut de même d’une autre, puis d’une autre encore : j’étais prisonnier d’une ville toute en façades, sans bruit et sans autre vie que celle des flammes bleues, épouvantablement ardentes et pourtant ne brûlant pas. 

-- Jean Ray, La Choucroute

Two months ago while on vacation in the region of Katowice and Cracow, I've had the privilage of attending the international conference "Poe, Grabiński, Ray, Lovecraft. Correspondences, Parallels, Comparisons" held in Sosnowiec at the Institute of Romance Languages and Translation Studies of the University of Silesia. I first heard about the conference when I was invited by Claudio Salmeri, one of the organizers and conference co-secretaries, to participate as a presenter. Initially, I had high ambitions of preparing some materials on Jean Ray in French and to finally to dive deeper into his works - something I had on my mind for quite some time. I had to decide against getting involved as the first half 2016 continued busy for me with regards to my professional career and my ambitions for reskilling and my presence at the conference was very doubtful. 

Nevertheless, I was eager to engage in helping to spread the news about the event. The conference was held in four languages: Polish, English, French and Italian. The entire programme can be downloaded here. Multilingual international conferences on the subject of horror, gothic, or weird fiction are not very common in Europe, let alone in Poland, therefore, due to its international character, this particular conference deserves to be covered on Confusio Liguarum. 

I will focus here on those presentations that have particularly drawn my attention and on day 2 only, as it was this day that was fully dedicated to presentations delivered in English, French and Italian. 

About Confusio Linguarum

Welcome to Confusio Linguarum - my personal blog dedicated to visionary literature, transligualism and bibliophily.

A few words to explain what CL is about:

First of all, visionary literature, works of surreal/philosophical/metaphysical dimension that also include works of weird/horror fiction. Key areas of interest include:

• weird fiction in the tradition of: Poe's and Gogol's arabesques, Aickman's strange stories, Grabinski's psychofantasies, Ligotti's existenstial/oneiric nightmares or Franz Hellens' réalités fantastiques
• Belgian l'école belge de l'étrange
• French les contes insolites and decadent movement with supernatural elements
• German unheimliche Phantastik
• Latin American magic realism
• Romanian symbolism in fiction and poetry

To make things more interesting this blog will have a translingual dimension. I'd like to spend some time dealing with translingual writing and authors who "flaunt their freedom from the constraints of the culture into which they happen to be born” ... “by expressing themselves in multiple verbal systems” as Steven G. Kellman defines in Switching Languages Translingual Writers Reflect on Their Craft. I am keen on delving into obscure works and identifying translation gaps. Neglected works of visionary literature as well as works lost in translation will find their place here. I will be happy to present noteworthy translations from English into other languages (and vice versa).

There are plenty of niches from which obscure voices of visionary fiction emerge. Those barely ever make it to the other side of the language barrier. I would like to spend some time discussing literary developments and markets in various parts of the globe, with special focus on European countries, mainly: France, Belgium, Germany, Poland and Romania.
If time allows, I would also like to conduct several short interviews with literary visionaries and translators.

Last but not least, this is a personal blog so I will be happy to share with readers my case of bibliophily: unique publications I'm especially fond of, curiosities found in books and in second-hand bookstores (tagged as "cabinet of curiosities"), personal anecdotes and some brief mentions of collaborations I was involved in a more or less significant way plus my own "self-published" volumes. 

For me personally, languages and literature have always gone together with travel, so I will be randomly sharing experiences from literary journeys. I hope these won't be too disappointing of a read.

Some other points to consider:

• I am not a writer, a critic let alone a scholar. I do not support any literary awards nor do I belong to any literary communities/societies with closed membership. My passion for literature stems from the urge of maintaining contact with languages I've learned and I see myself as a reader and independent observer. This blog is just a repository of insights into literature, transligualism and bibliophily and will not be used for promotion. 
• English is my third language from among several in which I can read. I apologize in advance for any infelicitous turns of phrase. I often succumb to confusio linguarum myself!
• I take liberty in linking back to sites containing media in other languages or quoting non-English texts without necessarily finding time to translate them.

I hope the content in each article will compensate for the broad if less coherent array of subjects I will be dealing with and that you will find here something you are looking for!