Forgotten Translations by Władysław Chrapusta from the Collection of the Jewish Historical Institute. Recalling from Oblivion an Unusual Figure of a Self-Taught Translator and Bilingual Poet

Abstract

When upon his departure from Poland in autumn 1931 “the national poet of Israel,” Chaim Nachman Bialik, was asked by a journalist, Yehuda Warszawiak, what had most impressed him, he reportedly replied that it had been the meeting in Krakow with a Polish Hebraist, Władysław Chrapusta. The aim of this articles is to recall from oblivion the extraordinary figure of this self-taught translator and bilingual poet, as well as to shortly present his biography and achievements based on a preliminary survey of the holdings of the private family archives and the collection stored at the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw. The additional aim of the paper is to present some of his forgotten translations from Hebrew and Yiddish into Polish.