Sunday 29 March 2009

Stanislaw Lem

This portrait of Stanislaw Lem was not destined to appear on the book cover of a Lem's work encyclopedia.

I cannot help but wonder how the word "Sepulka" was translated into English - or maybe it was not translated at all and left in Polish. Apparently it was almost impossible to translate the word "Awruk!" that Lem invented as a battlefield cry of one of the nations in "Robot fairytales" - please do try reading it backwards in English translation as "tickuf!" which Michael Kandel came up with and soon you will understand why other translators failed...

Unfortunatley the author's wife did not like the image and I had to redesign the book cover using a photo from the author's archive.

P.S. More to learn about the author of "Solaris" here.