“… ALLE DE TING HVIS TAB STADIG GIVER MIG AMPUTATIONSSMERTER” – OM MIGRATIONSERFARINGENS SPROGLIGE OG OVERSÆTTELSEMÆSSIGE ASPEKT

Abstract

The contribution attempts to analyse aspects of language and translation as a part of a migration experience. The point of departure for the analysis is selected works by three Polish-Danish authors. The above-mentioned aspects are considered to be a permanent fixture in Polish-Scandinavian migration literature. The term 'translation' should not only be understood as a linguistic operation but also as a necessary attempt to make oneself and one's own identity understandable in a new cultural and intellectual context. The authors (Janina Katz, Alicja Fenigsen and Bronislaw Świderski) are all Polish Jews, who had to leave Poland after 1968, during a period of increasing anti-Semitism. They present different attitudes and feelings (nostalgia, duplicity and rootlessness) towards their mother tongue, Polish, and different strategies on how to deal with the foreign reality – from attempting to assimilate to recognizing the impossibility of altering their image (and self-image) as strangers. Although all the works analysed are autobiographically inspired, they express the universal condition of the subject in an era of migration.