The “Burgunda” of the original Polish title evokes “Burgundy wine” or “a Burgundian,” and not the French region of Burgundy itself. At the moment of its French translation, Witold Gombrowicz considered changing the title from Ivona, Princess of Burgundia to Princess Anemia.
The Estonian translation of Ivonne was published in Tallinn in 1998.
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“[…] Ivona is more a product of biology than sociology; and then, she originated in that region within me where I was assailed by the limitless anarchy of form, of human form, of its dissoluteness and licentiousness. So it was always within me ... and I was within it... .”
—A Kind of Testament: Interviews with Dominique de Roux [Trans. Hamilton] |
Drawing by Andrzej Mleczko to illustrate the program for the play directed by Janusz Goliński, Łódź, 1976.