The Polish Book Institute

A Catalan translation of Stanislaw Lem's Bajki robotów (“Fables for Robots”) has recently been published in Barcelona. The publication of the translation by Xavier Farré Vidal was supported by the Book Institute under the ©POLAND Translation Programme.

The book Faules de robots, as reads its Catalan title, has been published by the Kalandraka Catalunya publishing house.

Fables for Robots was first published in 1964. Lem combined seemingly alien worlds in this book: he moved the fairy-tale plot into space, and replaced princesses and wizards with intelligent and, above all, sentient machines. The result is a work that defies all classification, a work that can be read by younger readers, but also by discerning science fiction lovers, sparkling with brilliant humour and the masterfully funny grotesque.

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The ©Poland Translation Programme is one of the Book Institute's flagship programmes. Its aim is to promote Polish literature around the world by providing financial support for the publication of Polish books in translation into foreign languages. Foreign publishers may use the funding grant to finance part of the work's publication costs, including, among other things, the translation of the work from Polish into another language, the purchase of copyright licences, and the printing of the book. In 2023 alone, we have subsidised 229 foreign editions of Polish books to be published by publishing houses from 46 countries, to which we have allocated almost PLN 5 million. In all editions of the programme, we have already subsidised a total of more than 3,000 translations of Polish books into foreign languages.