Polish literary award goes to Italian translator

Silvano de Fanti, a prominent Italian translator of Polish literature, has won the 2022 Transatlantyk Prize, which is given out for outstanding achievements in promoting works by Polish writers.

The statuette of the Transatlantyk award, an annual prize granted by the Book Institute to an eminent ambassador of Polish literature abroad.

Photo: PAP/Łukasz Gągulski

His major achievement is the translation of "Pan Tadeusz," the epic poem by Romantic writer Adam Mickiewicz, which describes the life of the Polish gentry in the early 19th century through a fictional account of the feud between two families of Polish nobles.

The translation of "Pan Tadeusz" had earlier won de Fanti the LILEC Award for Poetry Translation and the National Translation Award in Italy.

In addition to the classics of Polish literature, such as Cyprian Kamil Norwid, Bolesław Prus and Stanisław Wyspiański, De Fanti has also translated works by Nobel Prize winning writers Wisława Szymborska and Olga Tokarczuk, as well as Tadeusz Różewicz’s poetry.

The awards ceremony was held on Friday in the city of Kraków, during the World Congress of Translators of Polish Literature, which is attended by some 250 translators from 50 countries.

Previous winners of the Transatlantyk Prize include Lajos Palfavi, Bill Johnston, Antonia Lloyd-Jones, Ewa Thompson and Tokimasa Sekiguchi.

(mk)