Krzysztof Bartnicki

(b. 1971) – a writer, translator, lexicographer.

He has written many books on translation theory and numerous Polish-English dictionaries, and is also a translator of James Joyce. He coined the notions of the ‘crossed translation’ and the ‘teleological dominant’.

In 2012, he published Finneganów tren, the first full Polish translation of the famed modernist work by James Joyce, Finnegans Wake, considered to be untranslatable. It was accompanied by a book with over a thousand textual variants (Finneganów bdyn). The translation brought the author a great deal of recognition. The same year, he published Da Capo al Finne, a translation of Joyce’s work into a musical cryptogram (after removing symbols that did not correspond to any musical notation, the translator created a score in which pop tunes from a much later date emerge), and two years later, Finnegans _ake / F_NNEGANS _A_E, an (alleged) score for Joyce’s E flat major suite. With Marcin Szmandra, he created Finnegans Meet (2015), a book in the form of a Rolodex made of calling cards alluding to characters in Joyce’s work.

He represents the anonymous author of ‘Prospekt emisyjny’ (Emission Brochure), submitted for the Polityka Passports in 2010. He translated and edited ‘Fu wojny’ (The Fu of War), a collection of ancient Chinese texts on translation, from the perspective of the art of war. He has also translated ‘Spoglądając przez ozonową dziurę’ (Peeking Through the Ozone Hole) by Zenon Fajfer, a major text of Polish liberature, and Stanisław Dróżdż’s poetry debut, ‘Pozasłowne śródsłów międzysłowia’ (Inwards Beyond the Words Between, a bilingual publication). He has made unpublished (apart from his blog) translations of Bolesław Leśmian’s poetry into English. In 2024, he released his translation of a sci-fi/fantasy poetic novel by Harry Josephine Giles, Port hwjezdny Topjo (Deep Wheel Orcadia), in which he used a mix of various languages used (presently and historically) in Pomeranian lands, including Kashubian, Polabian and Scythian.

In 2023, he released ‘Garutko sobotniej ropy’ (Saturday Blight Fever), or the ‘Polishification’ of ‘Pieśń świętojańska o Sobótce’ (St. John’s Eve) by Jan Kochanowski, a translation of the poetry cycle into modern-day culture and language. Two years later, Bartnicki did the same thing for the epic poem ‘Szachy’ (Chess) combined with an extensive translator’s note.

He has won the Gdynia Literary Award in the prose category for ‘Myśliwice, Myśliwice’ (Hunters, Hunters) and, on two occasions, a Literatura na Świecie Award. He received a scholarship from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (2006) and the Marshall of the Silesian Voivodeship (2020). He has received the Krakow UNESCO City of Literature Award. He has published articles in such journals as Przekładaniec and Między Oryginałem a Przekładem.