Translating Judith Wright into Italian:a linguistic study of several poems

Abstract

A total of about seventy poems , taken from Judith Wright’s ‘Collected poems’ (1942-19T0) and ‘Alive’ (1940-1970), have been translated into Italian with the aim of investigating the process of translation. There were no Italian translations of any of these poems when f began the study (1). A close examination line by line was made of each poem in order to establish a classification system for the translation problems which arose. The first chapter of the thesis describes in detail three major kinds of problem which are labelled as vocabulary, syntax and metrics. The divisions were made possible since the problems fell into categories concerning the translation of English words into Italian, syntactic changes due to the different structures of the two languages and metrical problems (such as pronunciation, rhythm, and variations of verse length in the two languages). Each category comprises several entries, each of which represents a particular problem type. Where appropriate, an initial subdivision was made into problems of general English and problems of Australian English (in vocabulary), or to separate problems inherent in poetry (in syntax). An illustration of these categories with detailed examples chosen on the basis of their frequency of occurrence and difficulty is found in the second chapter. A study of specific poems as application of these principles then follows in the final chapter. A selection of fifty-three poems with the Italian translation will be contained as appendix in a separate volume. I began by translating into Italian a total of a hundred and twenty poems with the aim of gaining some insight into the translation process. At first f studied several Australian contemporary poets but later decided to restrict the study to Judith Wright’s poetry. The choice was made after a trip throughout Australia during which I met most of the poets whose work I was studying. Judith Wright sincere and deep appreciation of the environment and culture of her country, was most appealing to me and interesting to make available (through translation) to the Italian audience of a totally different environment and culture. Her feeling for the country and her interest in history is particularly present in her early poetry, which is strongly related in her early life in a farming community near Armidale, N.S.W. Thus her work seemed most suitable for the purpose of analysing translation problems concerning cultural and environmental differences. Most of all, Judith Wright was willing to discuss her poetry, even questions of interpretation (which could be presented as translation problems) and the clarity with which she did so was of great value for my work as translator. 1) An anthropology of Modern Australian poetry edited by prof. B. Hickey containing five poems by Judith Wright with an Italian translation was published by Edizioni Accademia, Milan, in 1977.