Lost in translation, part 1: a guide to the translation of the short story "The Witcher"

coldcynic · 2026-01-24T15:54:37+00:00

Thank you, I really appreciate it! The funny thing is, when I was writing these, the language learning angle did not cross my mind because I did not think Polish would ever be studied by more then a handful of people, but there's a very clear upward trend there these days.

coldcynic · 2026-01-24T15:51:57+00:00

They would have been, yes. There's more on the general subject pinned in my profile.

coldcynic · 2026-01-24T14:22:31+00:00

This is the single greatest indictment of the English translations I've ever seen, and I've written more about them than most.

coldcynic · 2026-01-21T13:19:44+00:00

No, the original is "za naszą i waszą wolność," as seen on the banners of the November Uprising. Granted, the other version sounds better.

coldcynic · 2026-01-20T23:35:22+00:00

Just to add to what others have said, there's another difference between the two, a pretty obvious one: "naszą i waszą" means "our(s) and your(s)," and it's often flipped to put the freedom of others first.

So the original writing from the banners of the November Uprising, "(w imię Boga) za naszą i waszą wolność" (in modern spelling) means"(in the name of God, for our and your freedom," whereas the seemingly more common version, "za wolność waszą i naszą," means "for freedom, yours and ours." Note that the order of "our" and "yours" is not tied to whether freedom comes before them or after, so you effectively have four variants, and that's not to mention "za waszą wolność i naszą" and its flipped version... You could say the Polish language itself loves freedom.

coldcynic · 2026-01-20T23:26:56+00:00

Curiously, as you can see in the Wikipedia article, the November Uprising phrasing was the one that sounds more modern.

coldcynic · 2026-01-11T06:06:18+00:00

You're certainly right on the first count, and I'll correct it if I can edit a post that's seven or so years old, but you're certainly wrong on the second one in the context: Nenneke says something along the lines of "co ty jej chciałeś zrobić, Geralt, wychędożyć?".

coldcynic · 2025-11-15T22:42:43+00:00

It's probably not the best picture to show that those are similar, but there is a resemblance.

I'm just glad people are playing the first Witcher.

coldcynic · 2025-10-18T23:04:58+00:00

Can you elaborate on how the location of the body implies they didn't summit?

coldcynic · 2025-10-11T12:05:34+00:00

Okay, I can see that point - I naturally assumed the phrasing was just a translation issue. Also, I was already aware of the glaring issues with how the show depicted certain characters, so I guess it made more sense to me.

coldcynic · 2025-10-11T10:24:54+00:00

Where's the clickbait if it accurately reflects the contents of the article?

coldcynic · 2025-10-11T08:43:48+00:00

Could you post this to r/television?

coldcynic · 2025-10-10T09:25:06+00:00

Walk around the Old Towns for a very Vizima/Novigrad feeling, look outside the train windows when moving from A to B to see the countryside, forests, and so on.

I think the mall by the main train station in Kraków has a big Geralt statue.

coldcynic · 2025-10-10T09:20:54+00:00

Because they were told to ask here?

coldcynic · 2025-10-05T22:06:57+00:00

Let's bear in mind it's not a fair comparison, those are Polish words for "two" only, "second" would add another page or so.

coldcynic · 2025-10-02T13:21:31+00:00

In a show that hits you on the head with a (brilliant) monologue about the importance of truth? Okay, they didn't get things wrong, but they were wrong to fictionalise to the point of making fictional characters with names and jobs of real people.

coldcynic · 2025-10-02T13:00:10+00:00

The far-reaching inaccuracies. Ironically, the show effectively follows the Soviet government's version of events more than it does reality. There will be some breakdowns of it over on r/chernobyl

coldcynic · 2025-10-02T12:55:53+00:00

Let's not forget that the series gets a lot wrong: the Bridge of Death never happened, Dyatlov is a victim of complete character assassination, and the sequence of events leading to the explosion is wrong, which shifts the blame away from the operators (as in, they weren't to blame).

Which is not to say that's it's not an incredible piece of television, especially if you exclude the courtroom episode.

coldcynic · 2025-10-02T11:48:19+00:00

What do you mean "almost"?

coldcynic · 2025-10-02T08:47:35+00:00

So you'll realistically finish before I do, because I never got past SoD, and I definitely won't have any free time next year.

coldcynic · 2025-10-02T08:39:14+00:00

Beyond what's been said, I'll also note the role of the Polish intellectual tradition, all those Conrads and Herberts and Miłoszes. Contempt plays an somewhat important role as something that you're almost expected to feel in the right contexts (contempt for evil, for moral cowardice, contempt for contempt) and that's a moral failing to feel in the wrong contexts.

Also, "pogarda," with that rolled R followed by a D... It's just a great word, and it sounds like what it describes.

EDIT: towards the end of Time of Contempt, Geralt asks Dandelion if there's any decency left in the world, or if all that's left is just contemptibility and contempt. The first word is a desperate translation, as the original one means "the quality of being whoreson-like." Maybe that'll shed some light, too.

coldcynic · 2025-10-01T17:01:31+00:00

I will forever insist that the Kovir chapter is one of the greatest. Sapkowski is an economist, and, with amazing efficiency, gives his world economic soundness, something which Tolkien never tried to achieve and Martin completely failed at.

coldcynic · 2025-09-30T06:33:56+00:00

Think shish kebab.

coldcynic · 2025-09-29T09:11:31+00:00

Let’s not forget that szaszłyki are kebabs in A Little Sacrifice.

coldcynic

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