A Friend of Kafka and other stories [antikvár]

author's note The stories in this collection were all written in my later years, some of them quite recently. About one third are about immigrants in the United States, where I have now lived a longer time than in the country of my birth, Poland. I have translated these stories with the assistance of collaborators, and I find that I do much revision in the process of translation. It is not an exaggeration to say that over the years English has become my "second" language. It is also a fact that the foreign-language editions of my novels and stories have been translated from the English. My translators, whose names appear at the end of each story in this book, are not only my first readers but also my first constructive (I hope) critics. I have been a translator all my adult life and I consider translation the greatest problem and challenge of literature. The "other" language in which the author's work must be rendered does not tolerate obscurity, puns, and linguistic tinsel. It teaches the author to deal with events rather than with their interpretation and to let the events speak for themselves. The "other" language is often the mirror in which we have a chance to see ourselves with all our imperfections and, if possible, to correct some of our mistakes. A good half of these stories were edited by Rachel MacKenzie, senior editor of The New Yorker, and the whole collection was edited by Robert Giroux. I dedicate this book to my translators and editors. New York, June 2,1970 I.S.