Czytelnik (publisher) on kapuscinski.info

"The Emperor" in Chinese

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 00:00:00 +0000

A press conference took place at the Polish Embassy in Beijing with the participation of Professor Wu Lan, who translated Ryszard Kapuściński’s “The Emperor” into Chinese. The ceremony was attended by the Polish Ambassador to China, Tadeusz Chomicki, outstanding translators of Polish literature, representatives of Chinese publishing circles, students of the Polish studies department of the Beijing Foreign Studies University, as well as Chinese and Polish media. This is already the second book by Ryszard Kapuściński translated by Professor Wu Lan. In 2009 “Travels with Herodotus” appeared in Chinese bookshops. The translator emphasised that Kapuściński’s objective view of Africa attests to the Poles’ openness to other cultures. Professor Wu Lan now plans to translate another book by the outstanding Polish reporter, “Imperium”. After the press conference Professor Wu Lan signed copies of “The Emperor” for the readers present at the Embassy.

"Scenes from Life in the Empire" — a review of "Imperium"

Thu, 02 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Author: Izabella Sariusz-Skapska. Source: Znak no. 3/1994. Published: 1994-03-01

The material for describing the Empire was supplied to Ryszard Kapuściński by notes from several journeys, begun at a time when even the greatest dreamers had not dared imagine they would live to hear the Soviet Union referred to in the past tense. Kapuściński describes his encounters with that world in three acts, so to speak. The First Encounter (1939–1967) begins with the entry of Soviet troops into the author’s hometown, Pinsk in Polesie. The Second Encounter contains the section A Bird’s-Eye View (1989–1991), set at the twilight of the communist colossus, when Kapuściński, like “an ubiquitous reporter,” traversed many republics — the counter on those expeditions clicking over “some 60,000 kilometres.” And finally — the third act: The Sequel Continues (1992–1993). In other words: is the succession after the Empire still up for grabs? Or is this ending simply a journalist’s trick — never closing a topic? A threatening memento…

How I Came to the Idea of Translating "The Emperor" into English

Fri, 05 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Author: Katarzyna Mroczkowska-Brand. Source: http://alfaomega.webnode.com/products/ryszard-kapu/ Date of publication: 2010-03-09

It was March 1979; the aeroplane was flying over the Atlantic, and above the clouds things were for the time being fairly smooth and calm; it was only before the inland stopover at Gander in the Canadian province of Newfoundland that there were to be scenes of infernal proportions: three attempts at landing — the pilot changed his mind at about half a metre above the ground, pulling the plane up again — as well as terrible turbulence that almost prevented the plane’s wheels from making contact with the landing place, a runway covered in a thick layer of snow. For the moment one could enjoy the reading of a new book. Someone among friends, just before departure, had put into my hands “The Emperor” by Ryszard Kapuściński, saying that this was the book everyone in Warsaw was reading at the moment. He added that in Poland it was then compulsory reading, interpreted as a text with a double meaning. Ostensibly about the court of Emperor Haile Selassie, but really about the red court of the Central Committee (of the Polish United Workers’ Party) or, going lower, of the Provincial Committee or the District Committee. Ostensibly about the mechanisms of servility and toadying in the imperial chambers of Ethiopia, but really about those very mechanisms in the offices and antechambers and corridors of power in the People’s Republic of Poland and about those gathered around power.

Newsweek Polska Library of Thought — 235 Books of the Century: "The Emperor"

Fri, 05 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Author: Newsweek. Source: Newsweek. Date of publication: 2005-03-01

“Manuscripts don’t burn” — wrote Mikhail Bulgakov in “The Master and Margarita”. And since then we often repeat that sentence, seeking in it confirmation of our faith that literary truth always triumphs, that it is stronger than the inattention of readers, than the persecutions of dictators. Even — than the passage of time" — so begins the preface to the Newsweek Polska supplement “235 Books of the Century”, authored by Piotr Bratkowski. It presents a proposal for the library of the contemporary intellectual. It includes titles from the last sixty years, among them: The Captive Mind by Czesław Miłosz, A World Apart by Gustaw Herling-Grudziński, The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera, Rising ‘44 by Norman Davies, and The Emperor by Ryszard Kapuściński.

The Emperor — A Pamphlet on Totalitarianism. Review of the Book "The Emperor"

Fri, 05 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Author: Maciej Skórczewski. Date of publication: 2000-02-01

Ethiopia, mid-1970s. Night, silence, tension and fear palpable in the air. Somewhere in the remotest corner of Addis Ababa, in the quietest house, in deep conspiracy, an interview begins — or rather a long monologue of witnesses. People who, on account of what they did in the past, are condemned to constant hiding. Outside, a revolution is progressing. The country is gripped by civil war; a struggle for power is being waged. A decisive advantage is being gained by the mutinous army, the army that until recently served its ruler faithfully — the Emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie I. It is the year 1975; the storm calms down, a second war begins — a war in which victors hunt the vanquished, a war in which death is delivered not by technology but by an “ordinary” denunciation by a neighbour. In such conspiratorial conditions we meet people who until recently served the highest authority in Ethiopia — Emperor Haile Selassie I. And so begins another and one of the finest books by Ryszard Kapuściński, entitled “The Emperor”. A book that has been universally recognised as a pamphlet on totalitarianism.

The Lawyer Demanded Notarised Documents from Ethiopia

Fri, 05 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Author: William R. Brand. Source: http://alfaomega.webnode.com/products/ryszard-kapu/ Date of publication: 2010-03-09

We met Ryszard Kapuściński in Kraków, on a muggy day, in late spring 1981. In the pocket of his beige jacket he had a pack of “Radomskie” cigarettes. He said to me: “With that beard you look like a mujahideen.”

He was not an author frequently published outside Poland, and Kasia and I had never before translated a whole book. After nine months of trying, we still had no publisher and had translated only one third of “The Emperor”. We would probably have given up, if not for one thing he said to us that day.