«Wallace jest ponadczasowy – rozmowa z Jolantą Kozak, tłumaczką „Niewyczerpanego żartu” Davida Fostera Wallace’a»

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TL;DR

A Booklips.pl Q&A (12 October 2022, section wywiady) in which Sebastian Rerak interviews Jolanta Kozak, the Polish translator of Infinite Jest — Niewyczerpany żart (W.A.B., 2022) — published as the Polish edition reached shops, more than a quarter-century after the 1996 English original. This is the archive's first Polish translator-primary. Kozak had already brought Wallace into Polish (she translated Brief Interviews with Hideous Men — Krótkie wywiady z paskudnymi ludźmi — and, the same 2022 year, D.T. Max's biography Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story / Każda historia miłosna jest historią o duchach), so she reads him «jak mało kto» (as few do — gloss ours). The load-bearing threads are craft-testimony: four years of work (she had budgeted one), driven by a book she describes as krnąbrna (unruly — gloss ours) that spoke when it wanted, usually at night, so that she wrote the first part by hand, at night, under the novel's dictation; a Wallace-scholar-and-tennis-fan editor, Jarosław Hetman of the University of Białystok, who vetted the tennis terminology she lacked; a reading of the campus/halfway-house geography as deliberately expressive (the flattened mountaintop elite academy above, the addicts' halfway house below); and a Romantic-humanist reading of the whole novel (transformation as the only salvation; Gately as the one nadzwyczajny — extraordinary — figure). She calls his forecasts essentially our present, notes the one thing he missed (the mobile phone), and reads Niewyczerpany żart as Wallace's post-irony turn toward sincerity. Title line: «Wallace jest ponadczasowy» — Wallace is timeless.

Wallace's own voice is never quoted verbatim here — the two places Kozak reports his words (the fragmentary-world remark; the grotesque/joy interview cluster) are indirect renderings, never his English (see Accuracy notes).

Key claims (Kozak, firsthand unless marked)

Four years, not the one she budgeted. Ordinary 300–400-page books she turns around in three–four months; knowing IJ's rough content and bulk she expected a year and it took four (L89-96). Amusing aside: she first read IJ in Italian — a copy bought abroad — and judges it «bardzo dobre tłumaczenie» (a very good translation — gloss ours) (L94-96). [Inter-translator datum; see Cross-references — the Italian cluster.]
The book set the schedule, not her. In the first year she barely began, finding the novel's language and a voice for its characters; it was krnąbrna (unruly) and would not be translated on demand — «Przemawiała, kiedy chciała, najczęściej w środku nocy lub nad ranem» (it spoke when it wanted, most often in the middle of the night or toward morning — gloss ours) (L98-103).
The first part was written BY HAND, at night. Only at the second part did she timidly try composing straight onto the computer (L105-108). Why by hand: it is easier to write at night, and «ten materiał literacko-filozoficzny wymaga manufaktury» (this literary-philosophical material demands handcraft — gloss ours); she adds that Wallace too wrote by hand, «bo za szybko myślał» (because he thought too fast — gloss ours), while she wrote by hand because the text unfolded too fast before her and she had to slow it (L110-115). [The Wallace-wrote-by-hand line is Kozak's biographical assertion — see Accuracy notes.]
A Wallace-scholar/tennis-fan editor vetted the tennis. After a long search she found an editor who was «zarówno znawcą Wallace’a, jak i pasjonatem tenisa» (both a Wallace expert and a tennis enthusiast — gloss ours): Jarosław Hetman of the University of Białystok, who X-rayed the book, as she puts it, every possible way, and helped on tennis matters, since she neither plays nor knows the professional jargon (L134-139). Second research problem: drugs and addiction, which likewise «należało sięgnąć daleko poza tekst Wallace’a» (required reaching far beyond Wallace's text — gloss ours) to avoid errors (L141-145).
The geography is deliberately meaningful. Agreeing with Rerak that «nic nie jest przypadkowe» (nothing is accidental — gloss ours), she reads the spatial configuration as «szalenie wymowna» (enormously expressive — gloss ours): an elite tennis academy on a high mountain whose top was cut flat — «i tu następuje pogwałcenie natury» (and here a violation of nature occurs — gloss ours) — to hold the campus, raised away from the world; at its foot a halfway house for former addicts, «doły społeczne» (the social lows); the two close in a straight line but joined only by a long, winding road; and off to the side the Texas/Arizona-desert cliff where two spy-observers watch for the cassette of the film «zdolnym unicestwić człowieka» (capable of annihilating a person — gloss ours) (L147-161).
The endnotes as a length-hiding device (production-history claim). She translated each endnote in sequence, at the sentence where it is cued, so as not to lose track across seven hundred pages, and jokes she may be «jedynym czytelnikiem, który przeczytał „Niewyczerpany żart” w takiej postaci, w jakiej stworzył ją autor» (the only reader who read IJ in the form the author created it — gloss ours) (L189-196). She then asserts the novel was initially some sixty percent longer; the publisher balked at the size and pushed for cuts; Wallace, unwilling, resorted to «chytrej metody – przypisów» (a cunning method — the endnotes — gloss ours), folding whole chapters or large fragments into fine-print notes to shrink the visible book (L198-203). [Production claim — cite-as-written; see Accuracy notes: the held record (Pietsch/Max) differs on sequence and figures.]
Media prescience — his future is our present. IJ «odzwierciedla szum informacyjny» (reflects information noise — gloss ours); everything happens at once, the narration is cut up, «jakby autor stracił kontrolę nad mikrofonem» (as if the author lost control of the microphone — gloss ours) passed among characters in random order (L205-216). His forecasts she rates very accurate — «Jego przyszłość jest już w zasadzie naszą teraźniejszością» (his future is essentially our present now — gloss ours) — the one miss being that in his turn-of-the-2020s/2030s vision he «nie przewidział np. telefonu komórkowego» (did not foresee e.g. the mobile phone — gloss ours); despite that anachronism IJ holds up because it is «przede wszystkim książką o ludziach» (above all a book about people — gloss ours) (L218-228).
Romantic-humanist reading + Gately. She twice calls IJ a great Romantic novel — humanism, the biological essence of man, the conviction that man is destined for transformation «bo tylko ta może go uratować» (because only that can save him — gloss ours), and one character (the author's alter ego) turning from egoist to altruist (L77-87). Don Gately is the one «człowiek nadzwyczajny, ale w swej pozytywności» (an extraordinary man, but in his positivity — gloss ours), appearing «Dopiero w drugiej części» — only in the second part, its sentence-initial capital as printed (gloss ours) (L77-80). [Gately-first-appearance = cite-as-written; see Accuracy notes.]
The sincerity turn. After his debut The Broom of the System (written as an Amherst bachelor's thesis) succeeded, coinciding with his first major depression, Wallace concluded that literature which does not examine «co dziś znaczy być ludzkim, nie jest dobrą sztuką» (what it means to be human today is not good art — gloss ours) and resolved to «skończyć z ironią» (finish with irony) and write on «szczerości wypowiedzi» (sincerity of expression — gloss ours); Niewyczerpany żart was meant to be that — «powieścią pozbawioną podtekstów i wyszydzania rzeczywistości» (a novel without subtexts and without mockery of reality — gloss ours), though at times incredibly funny (L253-266). (Contains a marked rendering of a Wallace interview remark; see Accuracy notes.)
Timeless, not a period author. To the framing that Wallace gets called a cult author of Gen X / 90s counterculture (which may mislead younger readers), Kozak answers that his very apartness «uczyniło go ponadczasowym» (made him timeless — gloss ours): a loner with a small shifting circle whose only constant friend was the writer Mark Costello, his lifelong mental illness deepening his isolation; he spoke only for himself and refused to be a generational voice, though he started in the 1980s alongside Franzen and Saunders (L235-251).

Theories & evidence

Grades are conservative (mention unless argued); slugs are EXISTING canonical slugs only (verified against the registry's canonical crux-slug index); NONE coined. Firsthand translator-craft readings can rise to argued on the translator-endorses precedent, but this interview is mostly recounting/description.

media-prescience — argued (translator-endorsement). Kozak makes the prescience case directly: IJ as a mirror of «szum informacyjny», his future = our present, the calibrated one-miss (no mobile phone) as proof the forecast was structural not gadget-level, IJ holding up because it is about people (K7 above; L205-228). More than a mention: she argues why the forecast lands.
sincerity-definition (adjacent cynicism-naivete, new-sincerity) — argued. The Broom-to-depression-to-finish-with-irony-to-sincerity arc is laid out as the design intent of IJ («powieścią pozbawioną podtekstów i wyszydzania rzeczywistości»), K9 (L253-266). Carries a marked Wallace-interview back-translation inside it — a held-English candidate awaiting its original.
eta-aa-mirror (adjacent boston-geography-code) — mention→argued. The elite-academy-above / halfway-house-below reading with the flattened mountaintop as «pogwałcenie natury» and the short-straight-line/long-winding-road detail (K5; L147-161) is an explicit endorsement that the vertical social geography is authored, not incidental.
gately-salvation (adjacent salvation-spectrum) — mention. Gately as the sole nadzwyczajny positive figure; the alter-ego's egoist→altruist transformation as the novel's only route to being saved (K8; L77-87).
endnotes-function — mention (production-history variant). Endnotes as Wallace's device to bury whole chapters and shrink the visible book after the publisher demanded cuts (K6; L198-203). This is a why-the-apparatus-exists claim, but framed as production history rather than close reading — and it diverges from the held Pietsch/Max account (Accuracy notes).
ij-autobiographical — mention. Reading D.T. Max's biography in parallel, Kozak reports the novel's universal psychological affliction as «odbiciem jego życia» (a reflection of his life — gloss ours), the biography confirming her interpretive/translation choices (L122-128).
encyclopedic-design — mention. Rerak's framing «powieść encyklopedyczna» (encyclopedic novel), unchallenged and elaborated by Kozak's passions-catalogue (tennis / pharmacology / American pop culture) (L57, 130-132).
macguffin-design (adjacent commercial-that-consumes, lea-entertainment-incarnate) — mention. The titular cartridge as a film «zdolnym unicestwić człowieka» watched-for by the desert spies (K5; L159-161).

Themes

Translation as slow handcraft, on the book's clock. The cluster's recurrent translator-testimony motif — the job dwarfing its estimate, the text setting the pace — recurs here in a distinctive night-writing, by-hand key (the «manufaktury» line). Rhymes with Blumenbach's afternoons on four lines and Kerline's 2.5 years (Cross-references).
Hardest author, and timeless. Borne out by «Cztery lata» and by the closing ponadczasowy thesis that his apartness is what keeps him current.
Inter-translator reading. Kozak's first encounter with IJ was the ITALIAN translation, which she praises — a translator judging a sister-language version. A concrete link into the Italian IJ cluster.
Romantic humanism as interpretive frame. Her organizing lens (humanism, biological man, transformation-as-salvation, lower culture feeding high) is a translator's whole-novel thesis, not a local gloss.

Cross-references

Italian IJ cluster — Kozak first read IJ in Italian and rates the translation highly (K1; L94-96). The archive's Italian translator-primaries: nesi-minimaetmoralia-intervista (Edoardo Nesi, Fandango 2000, the fax-correspondence primary) and gobetti-acqua-in-bocca-2013 (the tradurre production/translation history). A translator crossing language lines to praise another edition is a rare inter-cluster link.
Translator-testimony cluster (job-dwarfs-estimate / craft key). The four-years / night-work / by-hand testimony sits beside blumenbach-trashpool-2011 (afternoons on four lines), kerline-vice-2015 (2.5 years; did not read the novel first — Kozak, by contrast, read it three times before it opened), galindo-graca-infinita-historia-pessoal-2018, and news247-kaltsas-2026 (the newest translator interview; also the hardest-author / read-it-several-times register).
A special tennis helper. Hetman-the-Wallace-scholar-and-tennis-fan editor echoes the other translators' found-the-right-helper testimonies; the tennis-as-translation-difficulty thread also recurs in the Nesi note (Nesi's own tennis-playing youth as a translation asset).
Polish sibling (concurrent). A second Polish source from the same 2022 Polish-edition moment — the Dwutygodnik interview kozak-dwutygodnik-2017 — the SAME translator five years earlier, mid-translation (November 2017): the night-work compulsion, the title reasoning, and the hardest-author verdict all appear there in their earlier form, before the edition existed. The two Kozak interviews bracket the Polish IJ: the 2017 mid-work testimony and this 2022 publication-year retrospect.
Around-the-world reception frame. esposito-ij-around-the-world for the global-translations map into which the Polish edition slots.

Notable passages

(All glosses OURS, paraphrase-grade; the Polish is the verbatim anchor. Line numbers are physical lines in the local txt.)

The three-readings «grozę» (dread). L64-75. Rerak opens on a remark Kozak once made that IJ «budzi grozę»; she splits it: the book as a phenomenon («nieprzeniknioną istotą nagromadzonych słów» — an impenetrable being of accumulated words) that only opened at the third reading, and the dread of the content itself (no normal people; everyone afflicted).
Night-writing by hand. L105-115. The first part composed only at night, by hand, «niejako pod dyktando powieści» (as if under the novel's dictation); the «manufaktury» line; the paired hands — Wallace's (too-fast thought) and hers (too-fast unfolding text).
The vertical geography. L150-161. The clearest close-reading moment: the flattened mountaintop academy above, the halfway house below, the winding road between, and the desert cliff with the two cassette-watching spies.
The only-reader-who-read-it-as-the-author-made-it joke. L189-196. The endnote-by-endnote method and its wry payoff.
The microphone. L212-216. The passed-around-microphone image for IJ's cut, simultaneous narration — Kozak's own figure, a translator's compression of the novel's form.
The timeless close. L235-266. Apartness → timelessness; the Costello detail; and the Broom→depression→sincerity arc that ends the interview on the post-irony thesis (title echo: Wallace jest ponadczasowy).

Accuracy notes

Cite-as-written throughout. Line numbers are the local txt.

«Wallace też pisał ręcznie, bo za szybko myślał» (L113-114) is Kozak's biographical assertion, not a sourced quotation of Wallace. Held as her claim; the D.T. Max biography is the place the by-hand detail would be checked.
Endnotes-as-length-hiding + the sixty-percent-longer figure (L198-203) is a production-history CLAIM that diverges from the held record. The Pietsch/Max account has the manuscript cut in negotiation with editor Michael Pietsch (roughly several hundred pages), and the endnote apparatus as a formal/structural choice, not primarily a bulk-hiding dodge adopted because the publisher demanded cuts. Kozak's sequence (publisher balked, so Wallace resorted to the cunning method of endnotes) and the sixty-percent figure are hers — reproduced as stated, not adopted as fact; the published Pietsch/Max record is the authority.
«Dopiero w drugiej części pojawia się Don Gately» (L78-79). Gately is prominent in the novel's second half, but he first appears earlier (the Ennet House / burglary material). Kozak's second-part placement is a reading of his weight, not a pagination fact — cite-as-written.
Franzen/Saunders 1980s grouping (L246-251). Kozak places Wallace «startował w latach 80. obok» Franzen and Saunders writing postmodern novels. Loose as literary history (Saunders debuted 1996; the ironic-postmodern label fits the three unevenly) — her characterization, cite-as-written.
HELD-ENGLISH CANDIDATE #1 — fragmentary-world statement (L209-210). «Wallace zresztą mówił, że skoro świat jest fragmentaryczny, to i jego opis powinien być taki» is indirect reported speech — a rendering of a Wallace statement whose English original is not established here, and never his verbatim. The likeliest homes of a fragmentary-world/mimetic-form remark are the McCaffery, E Unibus Pluram, and Salon interviews; no match is asserted.
HELD-ENGLISH CANDIDATE #2 — the grotesque/joy interview cluster (L253-263). Kozak EXPLICITLY marks this as her rendering of a Wallace interview: «(nie chcąc przeinaczyć słów Wallace’a, zacytowałam właśnie jego wypowiedź z jednego z wywiadów).» The cluster — reality-as-grotesque taken as axiom; the question of why humans stay «zdolni do radości, dobroci i autentycznych związków»; literature that fails to examine «co dziś znaczy być ludzkim» being not good art — strongly echoes the McCaffery interview (Review of Contemporary Fiction, Summer 1993; the held note prints “Fiction's about what it is to be a fucking human being”). No resolution is asserted: the cluster is presented only as Kozak's Polish rendering, never as Wallace verbatim; any English use would quote the held interview itself.
«pierwszy raz czytałam ją po włosku … bardzo dobre tłumaczenie» (L94-96). Kozak's judgment of the Italian IJ is her firsthand opinion (quotable as hers); it is not evidence about the Italian text's quality — cite as her view.