Stanislaw Lem - Translations of his books

Okay, I'm started reading Solaris and quickly discovered it's essentially a translation of a translation ... that is, it was translated from Polish into French, and what I'm reading is the translation of the French edition into English ... I can't help but feel there must have been quite a bit, uh, lost in the translations ... is anyone aware of just a Polish to English tranlsation of this? Or how how Lem felt about this "double translating"?

I don't think that there is a direct Polish to English translation of Solaris. As for Lem's other work the best translations were done by Michael Kandel.

A lot of Lem is quite difficult to translate because of the wordplay he tended to use. I seem to remember that this was touched on in Hofstadter's Le Ton Beau de Marot.

I remember the "Sampson" poem from the Cyberiad -- the electronic poet was tasked to write a poem in which every word started with the letter 'S'. I thought the translator must've been a genius to pull it off, but someone told me that Lem actually wrote in English. Was that someone wrong?

I loved Solaris, both movies, but haven't been able to like any of his books.
They come across as really juvenile, which is a shame, as the movies are quite mature. The exploration of self, and personal reality could be a fascinating subject, especially in SF.

I doubt that the poem was in English. Lem's work all saw print in Poland first.

I have seen even better feats of translation. Georges Perec's novel La Disparation contains no letter "e" and was written in French. It was translated into English as A Void and still contains no letter "e".

{edited to correct touchstones}

Well, I didn't think Solaris was "juvenile" ...

Solaris juvenile? That is bizarre....Some of his more lighthearted stuff, like The Cyberiad or Tales of Pirx the Pilot are just that, lighthearted "tales" but still deep with meaning.

I have only read Lem in polish, but now that you asked I might as well check the translations.. I always assumed that most of the translations were good as he gained so much recognition.
Fun fact- we read Tales of Pirx in primary school and I got into a huge quarrel with the rest of the class because they claimed the fly was real and I thought it was just a simulation. Ah well.

I second Kandel's translations. The Cyberiad would not be as great without his love in the translation work. Also a good reason to search for Mortal Engines, which is an anthology in which, in addition to translating, Kandel choose the specific short stories and he introduces the work. When I got to reading Solaris I felt a bit spoiled for having stumbled upon the better translations first.

I was given Solaris in English via French as a present by a Polish friend who believed that the translation was fairly accurate.

As for the idea that the book was juvenille, that in my opinion is quite an amusing idea.

I also thought both films paled in comparison to the book.