Jan Maria Kłoczowski | TRANSLATOR'S DAY | Albert Camus' "Witness of Freedom"

About the event

We warmly invite you to an event accompanying the celebration of International Translator's Day, organized among others by the Association of Literary Translators. We will meet with Jan Maria Kłoczowski, the translator of Albert Camus' collection of texts titled: "Witness of Freedom. Articles, Lectures, and Speeches from 1946-1958" (Agora 2024). The conversation will be led by Piotr Kieżun. 📚 Witness of Freedom is a collection of articles, lectures, and speeches by Albert Camus from 1947-1958. In these, Camus questions the causes of the human crisis in the post-war years, loudly protests against violence in Central and Eastern European countries, including Poland and Hungary. With fear but also determination, he encourages us to reflect on our own lives and the values we uphold. The message of the author of Witness of Freedom is universal and timeless, yet personal, making it impossible for the reader to remain indifferent to his words, even after many years. Albert Camus (1913-1960) – Nobel Prize laureate in literature in 1957; one of the most outstanding French intellectuals and humanists of the 20th century. His novels, such as The Plague or The Fall, the collection of essays The Rebel, and plays – Caligula or The State of Siege – have become permanent fixtures in the literary canon of the last century. Camus' works have been translated into Polish by Joanna Guze, Anna Wasilewska, Marek Bieńczyk, Tomasz Swoboda, Krzysztof Umiński, and Jan Maria Kłoczowski. Jan Maria Kłoczowski – translator of French literature. He has translated works by authors such as Marguerite Yourcenar, Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt, Emil Cioran, Marc Bloch, Philippe Jaccottet, and Patrick Deville. Nominated for the Gdynia Literary Award in the translation category (2023) for his translation of Jean Fabre's book Stanisław August Poniatowski and the Europe of the Enlightenment; winner of the Ossolineum Award for Poetic Translation (2024). Awarded the French Order of Arts and Letters at the officer level (2017). Piotr Kieżun – editor, literary critic. Since 2010, he has been a member of the editorial team of the weekly "Kultura Liberalna," where he led the book review section for over fourteen years. He writes about French culture and literature. An external expert in the Boy-Żeleński Publishing Support Program implemented by the French Institute in Poland. He works at the Book Institute. 📅 The event is part of the International Translator's Day 2025, organized by EUNIC Warsaw – the Association of Cultural Institutes of the European Union Member States, the Association of Literary Translators, the Representation of the European Commission in Poland, and the European Parliament Office in Poland. Partners: - Austrian Cultural Forum - Czech Center Warsaw - French Institute in Poland - Goethe-Institut - Embassy of Ireland in Warsaw - Lithuanian Culture Institute - Camões Institute in Warsaw - Romanian Cultural Institute in Warsaw - Embassy of Sweden in Warsaw - Hungarian Cultural Institute in Warsaw - Italian Cultural Institute in Warsaw - PROM Kultury Saska Kępa - Nowa Księgarnia - Wrzenie Świata bookstore - Najlepsza Księgarnia - K.K. Baczyński Bookstore - Czarne Bookstore - PIW Bookstore - Dwie Siostry Bookstore.