“Someone I’ve Been Watching for Awhile”. Selected linguistic and semantic problems in English and Spanish translations of Wisława Szymborska’s poem Ktoś, kogo obserwuję od pewnego czasu

Abstract

This paper aims at identifying the most important aspects of Wisława Szymborska’s poem Ktoś, kogo obserwuję od pewnego czasu that should be preserved in the translation and then reflecting on how those aspects were rendered in the English and Spanish translations. By comparing and contrasting two translations not only with the original but also with each other the author attempts to answer the question what strategies are used and whether the similar translation strategies can be used in different languages. Furthermore, to what extent the use of a particular strategy is determined by the requirements of a target language or depends on the translator’s choice.