Czesław Ratka

Czesław Ratka (born 1952) is a Polish engineer and translator.^[1] He graduated at Politechnika Śląska (Silesian University of Technology) in Gliwice.^[2] He specialised in electronics.^[3] He was especially concerned with hygrometry. He has been interested in Spanish language and literature for forty years. He is famous for translating two parts^[4] of La Araucana (The Araucaniad) by the 16th-century Spanish poet Alonso de Ercilla y Zúñiga (1533–1594). For this translation he was awarded with the Cervantes Institute Award.^[5][6][7] In his translation Czesław Ratka retained the ottava rima of the original. His version of the poem is regarded as excellent by critics and other translators, for example by Wojciech Charchalis^[8] and Florian Śmieja.^[9] Czesław Ratka's work was compared to Piotr Kochanowski's translation of Jerusalem Delivered by Torquato Tasso (1618).^[10]

References

1. Zofia Zaleska, Półtorej oktawy na dzień. Rozmowa z Czesławem Ratką (in Polish).
2. 25 April 2014 Czesław Ratka winning Cervantes Award.
3. „Araukana” teraz po polsku (in Polish).
4. Florian Śmieja, „Araukana” w tłumaczeniu Czesława Ratki (in Polish).
5. Inżynier elektronik Czesław Ratka odebrał Nagrodę Instytutu Cervantesa (in Polish).
6. Aleksandra Lipczak, To wygląda na szaleństwo. Rozmowa z Czesławem Ratką, inżynierem elektronikiem i autorem przekładu chilijskiej epopei „Araukana” (in Polish).
7. Premio de Traducción Literaria del Instituto Cervantes en Polonia (in Spanish).
8. Marta Natalia Wróblewska, „Tłumaczy się, co jest”. Wojciech Charchalis w „Świętach z tłumaczami” (in Polish).
9. Joanna Sokołowska-Gwizdka: Naukowa wędrówka po hiszpańskojęzycznej literaturze (in Polish).
10. Czesław Ratka and his "Araucana."