Winnie-the-Pooh jako obcy polskiej literatury

Abstract

A.A. Milne is known primarily as an author of four books for children – two volumes of poetry, When We Were Very Young (1924) and Now We Are Six (1927), and also two collections of stories, Winnie-the-Pooh (1926) and The House at Pooh Corner (1928). These books have been extremely successful all over the world, but in Poland the most popular have been the collections of stories about the adventures of the teddy bear and his friends. The translations by Irena Tuwim – Kubuś Puchatek and Chatka Puchatka (both 1938) – have become beloved books for many readers. Shortly after the Second World War and in the next decades the words spoken by Miś o Malym Rozumku [the Bear of a Very Little Brain] and by other animals from the Forest came into use in Polish. Irena Tuwim’s transalation very fast became canonical, but at the same time Winnie-the-Pooh became unknown. This article is devoted to the Polish reception of A.A. Milne’s work for children. It examines why Kubuś Puchatek became so popular in the post-war years, but also how this success have influenced the reception of subsequent translations.