Motifs and themes in Emily Dickinson's poems translated by Ludmiła Marjańska

The article is intended to demonstrate selected motifs and themes of Emily Dickinson’s work which is a separate phenomenon in the poetry of the second half of nineteenth century. The poet’s work referring to timeless sense of human existence became a challenge for the Polish poet - Ludmiła Marjańska - who had ventured to translate it and was carrying on with the task throughout the years. Ludmiła Marjańska and Emily Dickinson were connected through richness of their inner lives. Each of the poets is an extraordinary individuality. Their works prove enormous joy of life and fondness of nature. They both deal with existential matters. Emily Dickinson considered the question of the way of existence - not only her own but of each individual - and her place in the world. She expressed it in her works. This paper is a brief introduction to Emily Dickinson and Ludmiła Marjańska and an analysis of selected poems by Dickinson with a bird motif, encumbered with diversified functions. This bird is a sign of joy, hope, reflection, but it also has a self-creative function. Further part of this paper presents some oneiric space as a poetic method employed in Emily Dickinson’s poems. Sleep in the poet’s works is multifaceted. The sleep motif combines the real and eternal worlds. Poetic translations by Ludmiła Marjańska evoke the spirit of the original. The poet believed that a good translation requires adequate preparation and an intuitive approach. In her translations of Emily Dickinson’s poems, the poet attempts to reflect the sound of a given piece of work in Polish. A poem read in an original language version sounds differently, and no translation is capable of exactly reflecting its content in a foreign language, but it may bring it closer