- Karl Dedecius
Karl Dedecius (*
May 20 1921 inŁódź ) is a renowned German translator of Polish andRussian literature .Life
Dedecius was born to German parents in the city of
Łódź ,Poland , then a multicultural city, which at that time had recently once again become a part of theSecond Polish Republic . Dedecius attended the Polish Stefan-Żeromski High School, where he received his high-school degree (Abitur ). After the German invasion of Poland in theSecond World War , Dedecius was first drafted into the Reich Labor Service (Reichsarbeitsdienst ) and then into theGerman Army . He was severely wounded in theBattle of Stalingrad and became a prisoner of war. During his time as a prisoner of war in theSoviet Union , he taught himself Russian. Dedecius wrote, "„I lay in my sick-bed, and the nurses brought me books by Lermontov, for instance. For one year, I learned theCyrillic Alphabet and Russian by reading Lermontov and Pushkin. Eventually, the guards asked me to write love-letters for them, because I wrote like Pushkin“" [ [http://edu.apple.pl/43_lodz/dedecius.html "Karl Dedecius Biography in Polish"] ] .Dedecius was released in 1950. He settled at first with his fiancé in
Weimar , inEast Germany . In 1952, he emigrated toWest Germany and became an employee of theAllianz AG insurance company. In his free time, he occupied himself with Polish culture and with Polish literary translation, and maintained contact with Polish writers. Dedecius remarks: “Only when I had gotten myself set up in life and enjoyed some stability was I able to turn to literature in a long-term and systematic way, although my career, you could say, had nothing whatever to do with writing." In the introduction to the Polish edition of “On Translating,” Jerzy Kwiatkowski wrote: “Speaking formally, one could say that this translator’s great work came about on his evenings off, as a result of a hobby.” [ [http://edu.apple.pl/43_lodz/dedecius.html "Karl Dedecius Biography in Polish"] ] .In 1959, he published his first anthology, "Lektion der Stille" (Lesson of Silence). In the following years, he translated, so to speak in his free time, such well-known polish writers as
Zbigniew Herbert ,Stanisław Jerzy Lec ,Czesław Miłosz ,Tadeusz Różewicz andWisława Szymborska . He also published essays on literature and translating technique.In 1979/1980, he initiated the
German Poland Institute inDarmstadt , whose director he remained until 1999. He also continued his literary activities, however. Dedecius’ main achievements, in addition to the 50-volume “Polish Library”, include a Canon , which appeared between 1982 and 2000 in theSuhrkamp Verlag publishing house, and the 7-volume “Panorama of Polish Literature of the 20th Century” (1996-2000), whose final volume presented a kind of autobiography.Dedecius has received many
honorary doctorate s, prizes, and awards. In 1990, he received thePeace Prize of the German Book Trade , in 1997 theSamuel-Bogumil-Linde-Preis . Since 2004, theRobert Bosch Stiftung , in cooperation with the German Poland institute, awards the Karl-Dedecius-Preis for translators, which is endowed with a prize of €10,000.References
This article is a translation of [http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Dedecius the equivalent German-language wikipedia article] (retrieved
August 17 , 2006). The following references are cited by that German-language article:Works
*1971: "Deutsche und Polen. Botschaft der Bücher." [Germans and Poles: The Diplomacy of Books] München: Hanser. ISBN 3-446-11481-5.
*1974 "“Überall ist Polen”" [Poland is Everywhere] , Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp. ISBN 3-518-36695-5
*1975: "Polnische Profile" [Polish Profiles] . Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp. ISBN 3-518-02570-8.
*1981: "Zur Literatur und Kultur Polens" [On the Literature and Culture of Poland] Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp. ISBN 3-518-02571-6
*1981: "Polnische Pointen Satiren und kleine Prosa des 20.Jahrhunderts" Karl Dedecius. Ullstein Buch
*1986: "Vom Übersetzen. Theorie und Praxis" [On Translating: Theory and Practice] Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp. ISBN 3-518-37758-2.
*1988: "Von Polens Poeten" [On Poland’s Poets] Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp. ISBN 3-518-37979-8.
*1990: "Lebenslauf aus Büchern und Blättern" [A Curriculum Vitae Made of Books and Pages] Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp. ISBN 3-518-40309-5.
*1996: "Ost West Basar. Ansprachen Essays Würdigungen." [East-West Bazaar: Addresses, Essays and Appreciations] With a Foreword byMarion Gräfin Dönhoff . Selected and with an Afterword by Andreas Lawaty. Zürich: Ammann-Verlag. ISBN 3-250-10283-0
*2000: "Panorama der polnischen Literatur des 20. Jahrhunderts. Abt.V. Panorama. Ein Rundblick" [Panorama of Polish Literature of the 20th Century: Section V. Panorama.] Zürich: Ammann-Verlag. ISBN 3-250-50005-4.
*2002: "Die Kunst der Übersetzung" [The Art of Translating] Berlin: Logos Verlag. ISBN 3-8325-0000-6.
*2006: "Ein Europäer aus Lodz : Erinnerungen" [A European from Lodz: Memoirs] Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, ISBN 3-518-41756-8Literature
* Elvira Grözinger, Andreas Lawaty (Eds.): "Suche die Meinung: Karl Dedecius, dem Übersetzer und Mittler zum 65. Geburtstag" [Searching for the Opinion: Festschrift for the Translator and Intermediary Karl Dedecius on his 65th Birthday] Wiesbaden 1986, Otto Harrassowitz. ISBN 3-447-02630-8.
* Manfred Mack (Ed.): “Karl Dedecius und das Deutsche Polen-Institut. Laudationes, Berichte, Interviews, Gedichte” [Karl Dedecius and the German Poland Institute. Laidatios, Reports, Interviews, Poems] . Darmstadt 1991, Justus von Liebig Verlag, ISBN 3-87390-098-X.
*Hubert Orłowski : "Karl Dedecius", in Marek Zybura (Ed.): "...nie będzie nigdy Niemiec Polakowi bratem...?" Wrocław: Okis. pp. 268-279. ISBN 83-904842-0-X.References
External links
* [http://www.zeit.de/archiv/1986/11/Zt19860314_076_0095_Li Marion Gräfin Dönhoff, „Beheimatet in Polen und Deutschland. Aus einer Laudatio auf Karl Dedecius...“, DIE ZEIT 11/1986]
* [http://zeus.zeit.de/text/archiv/2002/04/doenhoff_3.xml Marion Gräfin Dönhoff, „Mittler zwischen schwierigen Nachbarn“, DIE ZEIT 04/2002]
* [http://dedecius.ub.euv-frankfurt-o.de/ Karl-Dedecius-Archiv im Collegium Polonicum]
* [http://www.deutsches-polen-institut.de Deutsches Polen-Institut, Darmstadt]
* [http://www.boersenverein.de/de/96671?pid=111861 Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels]
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