[1] He graduated at Politechnika Śląska (Silesian University of Technology) in Gliwice.
He is famous for translating two parts[4] of La Araucana (The Araucaniad) by the 16th-century Spanish poet Alonso de Ercilla y Zúñiga (1533–1594).
[5][6][7] In his translation Czesław Ratka retained the ottava rima of the original.
His version of the poem is regarded as excellent by critics and other translators, for example by Wojciech Charchalis[8] and Florian Śmieja.
[9] Czesław Ratka's work was compared to Piotr Kochanowski's translation of Jerusalem Delivered by Torquato Tasso (1618).