Day 101: Read in One Sitting
At the Monday meeting of a small publishing house in Żyrardów, the publisher, Benedykt (A), and two young members of his team, editor Klementyna (B) and Kryspin (C), who handles marketing, discuss the reprint of the debut novel they published this spring.
How to study this lesson 3 steps
- Read the situation under the title. It says who is talking and how they know each other, which decides how politely they speak.
- Read the dialogue line by line with its translation, until every line makes sense. Point at (or tap) a Polish word to see what it means.
- Spend at least 30 minutes listening to native Polish, for example from the Resources page. It doesn't matter if you don't understand it yet.
Dialogue
Audio recordings are on the way. For now, each lesson is the dialogue with its English translation.
Keys: E hide English · ← → previous / next day · point at a word to see its meaning
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A
W związku z dodrukiem potrzebujemy na okładkę cytatu z recenzji. Pani Klementyno, co pisze prasa?
Since we're reprinting, we need a quote from the reviews for the cover. Klementyna, what are the papers saying?
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B
Niewiele dobrego. W najważniejszej recenzji czytamy: „Czyta się ją jednym tchem, byle szybciej mieć ją z głowy”.
Not much that's good. The most important review says: 'You read it in one sitting, just to get it over with sooner.'
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C
To proste, panie redaktorze: tniemy po „jednym tchem” i mamy idealny cytat.
That's easy: we cut it after 'in one sitting' and we've got the perfect quote.
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B
Kryspinie, przecież to manipulacja. Użycie cytatu wbrew intencji recenzenta podważy naszą wiarygodność, a może nawet skończyć się pozwem.
Kryspin, that's manipulation, surely. Using a quote against the reviewer's intentions would undermine our credibility, and it could even end in a lawsuit.
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A
Przed podjęciem decyzji chciałbym wiedzieć, czy w tej recenzji jest cokolwiek, co da się uczciwie zacytować.
Before we make a decision, I'd like to know if there's anything in that review we can honestly quote.
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B
Jest jedno: „Po przeczytaniu ostatniej strony długo nie można zasnąć”. Tyle że z powodu irytacji.
There's one: 'After reading the last page, you can't get to sleep for a long time.' Only it's out of irritation.
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C
Paradoks polega na tym, że dzięki tej recenzji sprzedaż wzrosła trzykrotnie. W księgarniach pytają o „tę zjechaną książkę”.
The paradox is that thanks to that review, sales have tripled. In bookshops people ask for 'that book that got panned'.
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B
Czyli krytyk chciał nas pogrążyć, a zrobił nam najlepszą reklamę w historii?
So the critic set out to sink us and gave us the best publicity we've ever had?
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A
Wobec tego dajemy całe zdanie, z nazwiskiem recenzenta, dużą czcionką. Niech każdy sam sprawdzi, czy jest aż tak źle.
In that case, we'll run the whole sentence, with the reviewer's name, in big print. Let everyone see for themselves whether it's really that bad.
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