Regards translating the Cyberiad, the famous scene where Klapaucius tests Trurl's AI poetry machine has been translated by Michael Kandel:
“Have it compose a poem — a poem about a haircut!
But lofty, noble, tragic, timeless, full of love,
treachery, retribution, quiet heroism in the face
of certain doom! Six lines, cleverly rhymed, and
every word beginning with the letter S!!”
“And why not throw in a full exposition of the
general theory of nonlinear automata while you’re
at it?” growled Trurl. “You can’t give it such
idiotic — ”
But he didn’t finish. A melodious voice filled the
hall with the following:
“Seduced, shaggy Samson snored.
She scissored short. Sorely shorn,
Soon shackled slave, Samson sighed,
Silently scheming,
Sightlessly seeking
Some savage, spectacular suicide.”
... I don't know any Polish, but having found a more literal rendering of the original[1] it seems Kandel has not made it worse!
Kandel cheated a little by giving himself more interesting task, but in the end it's even better than the original. More universal and emotional, when original was just funny.
I once asked Michael how he translated the list of imaginary things beginning with 'N' destroyed by Trurl's machine in the process of making 'nothing.'
1: https://medium.com/@mwichary/seduced-shaggy-samson-snored-72...