| Sumario: | The article focuses on Adam Mickiewicz’s *Pan Tadeusz*, a seminal 1834 Polish epic poem often regarded as Poland’s national epic but less recognized internationally due to historical and linguistic factors. It examines the challenges of translating *Pan Tadeusz*—notably its complex form of nearly five thousand rhymed Alexandrine couplets—and compares two recent English translations: Bill Johnston’s 2018 verse translation and Christopher Adam Zakrzewski’s 2024 prose version. Johnston’s translation strives to recreate the poem’s poetic form and rhythmic qualities using iambic pentameter and varied rhyme, while Zakrzewski’s prose aims for accessibility and readability, presenting the work more as a historical novel. Both translations address the tension between preserving the poem’s stylistic richness and making it available to English readers, with Johnston’s version praised for its poetic fidelity and Zakrzewski’s for its clarity and narrative flow.
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