Bolesław Taborski (7 May 1927 – 6 December 2010) was a Polish poet, literary and drama theoretician, essayist, prolific translator of English and Polish, and a long serving
BBC Polish Section editor and presenter. He chronicled and translated into English the work of some of the most notable Poles of the
Post-war era of the 20th century, such as
Lech Wałęsa,
Jan Kott, and
Jerzy Grotowski.[1] His undoubted influence on
modern theatre has yet to be assessed in detail. He had a personal friendship with
Pope John Paul II which grew out of their shared interest in literature and the fact that Taborski was his literary translator into English.
In 1946 he arrived in the United Kingdom. After graduating in English Literature and Drama at
Bristol University, he joined the editorial board of the Polish magazine, Merkuriusz Polski Nowy. He was a member of the émigré poetic movement
Kontynenty. For thirty years from 1959 he was on the staff of the
BBC service to Poland, among other programmes, editing and presenting the Sunday arts broadcast, latterly known as The Arts by the Thames ("Sztuka nad Tamizą").
His extensive translation output includes translating the work of
Graham Greene,
Robert Graves,
Philip Larkin and
Robert Lowell into Polish.[3][4] Probably his most influential translation into English was professor
Jan Kott's Shakespeare our Contemporary, which inspired theatrical directors for a generation, people like,
Peter Brook and
Charles Marowitz.[5] He also worked with
Jerzy Grotowski to make him more accessible to an English speaking audience.[6] Taborski was himself the author of several texts on theatre.[7][8][9][10]
Taborski's translations into English also include the plays of Karol Woytyła,
Pope John Paul II.[11] He came to know Woytyła personally and travelled to Rome where they discussed literature for over a decade.
Bolesław Taborski married Halina, a professor and latterly, chancellor of the
Polish University Abroad; they had a daughter. He was a long-standing member of the
SPP, Polish Writers Association and of the
PEN club. He published a memoir of his time in the Warsaw uprising, Moje Powstanie - wtedy i teraz (1998).
Wprost w moje serce uderza droga wszystkich: o Karolu Wojtyle Janie Pawle II – szkice, wspomnienia, wiersze (2005) ("Everyone's Journey Makes My Heart Jump: About Karol Woytyła, John Paul II – Sketches, Recollections, Poems")
Selected works on theatre
Nowy teatr elżbietański (1967), "The New Elizabethan Theatre"
Polish Plays in English Translations - A Bibliography (1968)
^Wieniewska, Celina. Laskowski, Jacek. Taborski, Bolesław (1982). The Book of Lech Wałęsa, introduction by
Neal Ascherson, trans: Celina Wieniewska, Jacek Laskowski, Bolesław Taborski. Harmondsworth:
Penguin.
ISBN0140063765 (pbk)
^Taborski, Bolesław. (1967). Nowy teatr elżbietański, Publisher:
Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie
^Taborski, Bolesław. (1972). Byron and the Theatre, Volume 1 of Poetic drama & poetic theory in "Salzburg studies in English literature", Ed. James Hogg. Publisher:
University of Salzburg, Institut für Englische Sprache und Literatur
^Taborski, Bolesław. (1972). Byron and the Theatre, Volume 1 of Poetic drama & poetic theory in "Salzburg studies in English literature", Ed. James Hogg. Publisher:
University of Salzburg, Institut für Englische Sprache und Literatur