{{Short description|Polish scholar}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Jacek Baluch | birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1940|3|17}} | birth_place = Kraków, Poland | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=y|2019|7|3|1940|3|17}} | death_place = Kraków, Poland | citizenship = Polish | workplaces = Jagiellonian University | alma_mater = Jagiellonian University | thesis_year = 1968 | honorific_prefix = | children = three | fields = Czech literature, versification, theory of translation | resting_place = Salwator Cemetery }}
'''Jacek Bogdan Baluch''' (17 March 1940 – 3 July 2019) was a Polish scholar, writer, poet, translator and politician.
== Life == Jacek Baluch was born on 17 March 1940 in Kraków.{{cn|date=April 2024}} He studied Slavic philology at the Jagellonian University in Kraków and at Charles University in Prague. He was a Slavist, and in the first place a Bohemist. He took an M.A. in 1962, earned his doctor's degree in 1968 and obtained habilitation in 1982. Much later, in 2008, he was nominated a professor.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Oficjalna strona Prezydenta Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej / Archiwum Lecha Kaczyńskiego / Aktualności / Rok 2008 / Prezydent RP wręczył nominacje profesorskie |url=http://www.prezydent.pl/archiwum-lecha-kaczynskiego/aktualnosci/rok-2008/art,148,329,prezydent-rp-wreczyl-nominacje-profesorskie.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170510080016/http://www.prezydent.pl/archiwum-lecha-kaczynskiego/aktualnosci/rok-2008/art,148,329,prezydent-rp-wreczyl-nominacje-profesorskie.html |archive-date=2017-05-10 |access-date=2024-01-10 |website=prezydent.pl}}</ref> He had a wife and three children.
He died on 3 July 2019 in Kraków.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://krakow.onet.pl/krakow-pogrzeb-prof-jacka-balucha-b-ambasadora-rp-w-pradze/7esyjz9|title=Kraków pożegnał prof. Jacka Balucha, b. ambasadora RP w Pradze|date=2019-07-15|website=Onet Kraków|language=pl|access-date=2019-07-19}}</ref>
=== Political activity === Baluch was very active in the Solidarity movement in the early eighties. Because of that, he was imprisoned at Załęże by Martial law. In the years 1990–1995 he was the ambassador of the Republic of Poland to Czechoslovakia and (after the secession of Slovakia) to the Czech Republic. He is said to play an important role in establishing cooperation in the Visegrád Group.<ref>[https://visegradgroup.eu/the-visegrad-book/vondra-alexandr-visegrad Alexandr Alexandr Vondra, Visegrad Cooperation: How Did It Start?]</ref> In 2015 he was awarded by the Czech government for his work for Polish-Czech good relations<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://mzv.cz/jnp/cz/kalendar_akci/x2015_06_09_ministr_zaoralek_udeli_ceny.html |title=Archived copy |access-date=2019-07-15 |archive-date=2019-07-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190715002625/https://mzv.cz/jnp/cz/kalendar_akci/x2015_06_09_ministr_zaoralek_udeli_ceny.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> with the prize Gratia Agis.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://prague.mfa.gov.pl/cs/c/MOBILE/news/tytul_strony |title=Bývalý velvyslanec prof. Jacek Baluch vyznamenán českým ministrem zahraničních věcí |website=prague.mfa.gov.pl |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160915191726/http://prague.mfa.gov.pl/cs/c/MOBILE/news/tytul_strony |archive-date=2016-09-15}} </ref>
=== Scholarly work === Baluch wrote many books and papers on Czech literature, especially about avant garde (''poetismus'' in Czech) and fiction by Bohumil Hrabal. He has been a teacher of some generations of students in Kraków and Opole. His main interest were versification and the theory of translation.
=== Poetry and translations === Baluch was a writer and poet. He writes chiefly short pure nonsense poems, for example Limericks.<ref>Jacek Baluch, Jak układać limeryki? [How to write limericks?], Scriptum, Kraków 2013.</ref> He also translated some books and poems from Czech into Polish. Among others, he translated and edited a book of Medieval Czech love poetry. He made a translation of the famous children's poem ''Lokomotywa'' (''The Locomotive'') by Julian Tuwim from Polish into Czech.<ref>Joanna Maksym-Benczew, Jubileusz 65 rocznicy urodzin Jacka Balucha, Bohemistyka, 4/2005, pp. 305-306 (in Polish).</ref>
== Honours == *Officer of the Order of Polonia Restituta (Poland, 2014)<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://prawo.sejm.gov.pl/isap.nsf/DocDetails.xsp?id=WMP20020080143|title=Postanowienie Prezydenta Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej z dnia 23 listopada 2001 r. o nadaniu orderów i odznaczeń.|date=23 November 2001|website=prawo.sejm.gov.pl|access-date=2019-07-03|archive-date=2020-06-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200614015113/http://prawo.sejm.gov.pl/isap.nsf/DocDetails.xsp?id=WMP20020080143|url-status=dead}}</ref> *Knight of the Order of Polonia Restituta (2001)<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://prawo.sejm.gov.pl/isap.nsf/DocDetails.xsp?id=WMP20140000762|title=Postanowienie Prezydenta Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej z dnia 20 maja 2014 r. o nadaniu orderów|date=20 May 2014|website=prawo.sejm.gov.pl|language=pl|access-date=2019-07-03}}</ref> *Commander of the Order of the White Double Cross (Slovakia, 1998)<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ocenenia.sk/ocenenie/rad-bieleho-dvojkriza-iii-triedy|title=Rad Bieleho Dvojkríža III. triedy - ocenenia {{!}} ocenenia.sk|website=www.ocenenia.sk|language=sk|access-date=2019-07-03|archive-date=2019-07-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190703183758/http://www.ocenenia.sk/ocenenie/rad-bieleho-dvojkriza-iii-triedy|url-status=dead}}</ref> *Medal of Merit, 1st Grade (Czech Republic, 1997)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.hrad.cz/cs/ceska-republika/statni-vyznamenani/medaile-za-zasluhy/seznam-vyznamenanych|title=Seznam vyznamenaných|website=Pražský hrad|language=cs|access-date=2019-07-03}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
== Bibliography == * ''Poetyzm. Propozycja czeskiej awangardy lat dwudziestych'', Wrocław 1969. * ''Język krytyczny F.X. Šaldy'', Kraków 1982. * ''Czescy symboliści, dekadenci, anarchiści przełomu XIX i XX wieku'', Wrocław 1983. * [ed.]: František Halas, ''Wybór poezji'', Wrocław 1975. * ''Drzewo się liściem odziewa'', Kraków 1981 (translation). * Ladislav Klíma, ''Cierpienia księcia Sternenhocha'' (translation). * Jaroslav Hašek, ''Historia Partii Umiarkowanego Postępu (w Granicach Prawa)'' (translation) * (together with Piotr Gierowski, ''Czesko-polski słownik terminów literackich'', Kraków 2016.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Baluch, Jacek}} Category:1940 births Category:Slavists Category:2019 deaths Category:Jagiellonian University alumni Category:Academic staff of Jagiellonian University Category:Recipients of the Medal of Merit (Czech Republic) Category:Officers of the Order of Polonia Restituta Category:Knights of the Order of Polonia Restituta Category:Ambassadors of Poland to Czechoslovakia Category:Ambassadors of Poland to the Czech Republic Category:Burials at Salwator Cemetery Category:Politicians from Kraków Category:Diplomats from Kraków Category:20th-century Polish translators