Jaroslav Hašek, The Good Soldier Schweik. three translations to English ((1930, 1973, 1997-2007)

According to available information, it is still true that the most translated Czech novel is The Good Soldier Schweik (1921-23) by Jaroslav Hašek. By 2013, it had been translated into 58 languages. Schweik’s journey to the world began with translations into German, initially continuing mainly in the countries of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire and further in Russia and Ukraine. This artistic vision of war absurdities became widely known, especially after WWII and inspired such famous antimilitary works like Catch XXII by Joseph Heller, Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut or the novels about Private Ivan Chonkin by Vladimir Voinovich. The character of Schweik is provocative and not easy to explain because from time to time, it is not easy to draw a line between idiotism and his common sense allowing him to survive almost everything. The attention of literary criticism is also often paid to Schweik’s specific way of thinking and narration that can be difficult for translating this novel to other cultural contexts. The quality of three English translations (1930, 1973, 1997-2007) differs to a considerable extent and, therefore, we will consider whether it is useful to offer innovated versions of classical texts to the reading public again and again.