Translation’s Deceit: Czesław Miłosz and Negro Spirituals

This article discusses the politics of translation of eleven negro spirituals, which Czesław Miłosz produced in 1948, while working as a cultural attaché of the Polish embassy in Washington D.C. Initially, Miłosz intended to publish all of these translations in the Polish literary weekly Nowiny Literackie. Although only a few of these translations appeared in the weekly, the article proposes that Miłosz’s project played a role in opposing the Soviet cultural and political domination of Poland after World War II. Drawing parallels between research on slavery and the analysis of power structures in post-war Poland presented in The Captive Mind, the article argues that Miłosz’s translations were driven by the “ethics of deception” akin to resistance strategies inscribed in the original contexts of production of negro spirituals. The article relies on theories of translation developed by deconstruction to question the traditional hierarchies between “translation” and “the original,” and, consequently, to complicate Miłosz’s position as “a translator” of spirituals. Since spirituals are improvisational by origin, specifi c examples of Miłosz’s translation choices demonstrate that his role in the translation process was participatory and creative rather than imitative. Thus the article concludes that the translation of spirituals enabled Miłosz both to be and not to be the author of these texts, a subversive move in the Soviet-dominated system, where direct expressions of longing for freedom (only implicitly voiced in the spirituals) may not have been welcome. This interpretation is consistent with Miłosz’s other early works, which draw parallels between Polish post-war and slavery/colonial experiences, and adds to current debates on the possible convergences between post-Soviet and postcolonial conditions