About the Work

by Rob Myatt

The second novel, and sixth publication, from author and award-winning poet Dariusz Adamowski, Scraps is an ambitious yet ultimately successful piece of non-linear storytelling that tackles the theme of loss from multiple angles, simultaneously addressing notions of family and romantic love and the journey of human self-discovery. What drew me to this work, in particular, was the way in which the protagonist’s homosexuality is treated in exactly the same way that heterosexuality is usually treated in literature—i.e., it is not actually addressed. In fact, words that mark sexuality are not used anywhere in the work: it is just one more story of love lost.

One challenge in translating Scraps was Adamowski’s use of non-linear storytelling. The present-day storyline is constantly interrupted with “scraps” of backstory, and as such the author switches tenses from one chapter to the next, or even within chapters on occasion. In working on this piece, I found myself at times falling into the trap of simply continuing in the same tense and had to double and triple-check each and every verb in order to make the English feel as dizzying to read as the Polish does.

Another element of the text that required handling with care was the use of regionality in some of the dialogue. The varieties of English that immediately came to mind when reading these sections says a great deal about the society and culture I as a translator grew up in, but I put these thoughts aside and instead cobbled together a language that could simply be described as “non-standard.” I had no intention of perpetuating “provincial” stereotypes in my translation work (nor is this what the language in Scraps is doing), while I also felt that, for example, it was important to keep the story situated firmly in rural Poland, not the English countryside. 

The setting of the story, deep in the countryside of Eastern Poland, posed another translation hurdle. Poland as a whole is still quite a religious country, and although it tends to be more Eastern Orthodox than Catholic, the region where Scraps takes place is no exception. When translating some of the swearing in the text, it struck me how many of the English language phrases are couched in religious terms. Yet, it would have been highly inappropriate and out of place for the more devout characters, in particular, to be seen yelling “Jesus Christ!” or “Oh, Lord!” and the like. While a simple “Damn” felt justifiable for the more curmudgeonly residents of the village, for others I felt the best solution was to express their indignation or exasperation through the odd “Ah,” “Oh” and “Oh, my”.

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Dariusz Adamowski is a Polish poet and novelist. His debut collection of poems Adamowo was released in 2006. He is an author of three volumes of poetry, a novel for children (Wrota Światów/The Gates of the Worlds), a collection of short stories (Baśnie/A Fairytale) and a novel (Skrawki/Scraps). His poems in translation appeared in Anthology#2, an anthology of new Polish poets. He has also published in literary magazines and journals, including Odra, Topos, Rita Baum, Gazeta Wyborcza. His poems have been awarded several prizes and distinctions at poetry contests.

Rob Myatt has been working as a translator since 2014, primarily from Danish, German, Swedish, Russian and Polish into English. He has been published in Your Impossible Voice and was shortlisted for the John Dryden Prize 2021 for his translation of Tretii Shar (The Third Balloon) by renowned Kyrgyz author Kuseyin Esenkozhoev from the Russian. His first non-fiction translation Människans Samhälle (Human Society) was also published in 2021. 


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