The Polish Book Institute

A translation of one of Józef Mackiewicz's most important novels, Nie trzeba głośno mówić (“No Need to Speak Out Loud”), has recently been published in Romania. The publication of the book translated by Constantin Geambaşu was supported by the Book Institute as part of the ©POLAND Translation Programme.

The novel Nu trebuie să vorbeşti cu voce tare, as reads the title of the Romanian edition of the book, was published by the Casa Cărții de Știință in Cluj-Napoca.

Józef Mackiewicz's No Need to Speak Out Loud covers the history of the years 1941-1945, from the beginning of the German-Russian war to the collapse of Germany - as it was viewed and experienced by the inhabitants of the borderlands of the Republic of Poland, in the Vilnius region, and in Belarus. It is a story of short-lived hopes after the Bolshevik retreat and then attempts to salvage something more in the face of a new threat by the Germans and the victorious return of the Red Army - until the final, all-crushing, disaster. At the same time, the novel paints a picture of the conflict - and here lies its political core - between the close-up view of the situation, by the people there, and the direction and orders coming from Warsaw.

The publication of the novel is part of the celebrations of the Year of Józef Mackiewicz.

The translator of the book, Constantin Geambaşu, is a one-man-institution; he has about fifty translations of Polish books to his name, which have been published in the most prestigious Romanian publishing houses. In 2016, the Book Institute awarded Geambaşu with the prestigious Transatlantyk Award, which is granted to the most outstanding translators of Polish literature into foreign languages.