Journal of Italian Translation

Journal 

of Italian Translation

Editor 

Luigi Bonaffini 

Associate Editors: 

Gaetano Cipolla 

Michael Palma 

Joseph Perricone 

Editorial Board 

Adria Bernardi Geoffrey Brock 

Franco Buffoni Barbara Carle 

Peter Carravetta John Du Val 

Anna Maria Farabbi Rina Ferrarelli 

Luigi Fontanella Irene Marchegiani 

Sebastiano Martelli Adeodato Piazza Nicolai 

Stephen Sartarelli Achille Serrao 

Cosma Siani Joseph Tusiani 

Lawrence Venuti Pasquale Verdicchio 

Justin Vitiello 

Journal of Italian Translation is an international journal devoted to the translation 

of literary works from and into Italian-English-Italian dialects. All translations 

are published with the original text. It also publishes essays and reviews dealing 

with Italian translation. It is published twice a year: in April and in November. 

Submissions should be both printed and in electronic form and they will not 

be returned. Translations must be accompanied by the original texts, a brief profile 

of the translator, and a brief profile of the author. All submissions and inquiries 

should be addressed to Journal of Italian Translation, Dept. of Modern Languages 

and Literatures, 2900 Bedford Ave. Brooklyn, NY 11210 or l.bonaffini@att.net 

Book reviews should be sent to Joseph Perricone, Dept. of Modern Language 

and Literature, Fordham University, Columbus Ave & 60th Street, New 

York, NY 10023 or perricone@fordham.edu 

Subscription rates: 

U.S. and Canada. Individuals $25.00 a year, $40 for 2 years. 

Institutions: $30.00 a year. 

Single copies $15.00. 

For all mailing overseas, please add $10 per issue. Payments in U.S. dollars. 

Journal of Italian Translation is grateful to the Sonia Raiziss Giop Charitable 

Foundation for its generous support. Make checks payable to Journal of Italian 

Translation 

Journal of Italian Translation is published under the aegis of the Department of 

Modern Languages and Literatures of Brooklyn College of the City University of 

New York 

Design and camera-ready text by Legas, PO Box 149, Mineola, NY 11501 

ISSN: 1559-8470 

© Copyright 2006 by Journal of Italian Translation

Journal 

of Italian Translation 

Editor 

Luigi Bonaffini 

Volume I, Number 2, Fall 2006

In each issue of Journal of Italian Translation we will feature a noteworthy 

Italian or Italian American artist. 

In the present issue we feature the work of Nicolò D’Alessandro, a gifted 

and well-known graphic artist who lives and works in Palermo, Sicily. 

Alcune considerazioni a proposito dei miei Tarocchi 

di Nicolò D’Alessandro 

I Tarocchi sono comunemente conosciuti come un mazzo divinatorio di 

carte e sono soggetti a molte utilizzazioni anche da ciarlatani e maghi, ma 

nel loro significato più vero rappresentano cose completamente diverse. Il 

nome Tarocchi che deriva da Tariqa, nell’antica lingua dei Sufi, era usato per 

definire il “percorso”. Tariqa, infatti, significa “Via — Sentiero” ed i Sufi, altri 

non erano che “Viandanti” che percorrevano strade spirituali per compiere 

“percorsi mistici” nel mondo. 

I “Tarocchi” che sono una sorta di “codice”, assumono il ruolo di 

immagini-tipo altamente simboliche, originarie-arcaiche, che fanno parte da 

sempre della memoria collettiva. In chiave filosofica, risultano essere il 

“modello originario” delle cose del mondo, del quale modello le 

manifestazioni sensibili della realtà non sono che imitazioni. 

Attraverso i simboli, le figure dovrebbero esprimere il lavoro interiore che 

l’uomo deve compiere per realizzare la propria evoluzione. In definitiva per 

attuare con consapevolezza il suo destino. 

I “Tarocchi” sono composti da 78 carte. Di queste, 56 (quattro semi da 

quattordici) sono definiti Arcani minori, mentre gli altri ventidue sono 

chiamati Arcani maggiori o archetipi dal greco archetypon: archè, ’principio’ 

+ typon ’modello’. Affrontando la complessità del tema: gli Arcani maggiori, 

pubblicati in questa rivista Journal of Italian Translation, sono le icone delle 

quali mi sono interessato per moltissimi anni. Ho lavorato su queste tavole 

dal 1978 al 1984, disegnando a china su cartoncino il cui formato è di cm. 50 

x 70.

Journal of Italian Translation 

Volume I, Number 2, Fall 2006 

Table of Contents 

Essays 

Angela M. Jeannet 

Una doppia infedeltà ...................................................................................... 7 


Translating Andrea Camilleri into English: an Impossible Task? ......... 13 

Daniela Caselli 

Eliot, Pound, Waley, Sayers: Notes Towards a Politics of Translation 

1920-1960 ................................................................................................ 25 

Translations 

Anne Milano Appel 

English translation of excerpts from the novel Alla cieca by 

Claudio Magris ...................................................................................... 45 

Santi Buscemi 

English translation of the Golden Oranges, a fairy-tale by Luigi 

Capuana .................................................................................................. 64 

Barbara Carle 

English translation of poems by Alfredo De Palchi ................................. 79 

Blossom S. Kirshenbaum 

English translation of excerpts from Fernanda Pivano’s Cos’è più 

la virtù ...................................................................................................... 86 

Emelise Aleandri 

English translation of scenes from Riccardo Cordiferro’s 

L’onore perduto ........................................................................................ 95 

Antonio Melchior 

English translation of excerpts from Aldo Palazzeschi’s Il Doge ......... 108 

Anthony Mortimer 

English translation of Michelangelo’s burlesque poems and 

Sonetti alla notte ..................................................................................... 118 

Special Features 

Poets on Poets 

Edited by Michael Palma 

Ned Condini 

English translation of poems by Carlo Betocchi ..................................... 136 

Charles Martin 

English translation of nine sonnets by G.G. Belli ................................... 152

Confronti poetici 

Edited by Luigi Fontanella 

Featuring Rowan Ricardo Phillips and Claudio Damiani ................... 164 

Classics Revisited 

Joseph Tusiani translates Giovanni Pascoli’s “Italy” ........................... 169 

Perspectives from the Other Shore 

Edited by Adeodato Piazza Nicolai 

Italian translations of poems by Adrienne Rich and Rita Dove ........... 203 

New Translators 

Edited by John DuVal 

Jordan Mills Pleasant 

English translation of two sonnets from Dante’s tenzone with 

Forese Donati ........................................................................................ 217 

Gianluca Rizzo 

Italian translation of poems by James Shevill ......................................... 220 

Traduttori a duello 

Edited by Gaetano Cipolla 

English translations by Michael Palma and Gaetano Cipolla of 

“Elogio degli amori ancillari” by Guido Gozzano ......................... 230 

Book Reviews 

Stefano Baldassarri. Review Article – The Taming of the Secretary 

Reflections on Some English Translations of Machiavelli’s 

Il Principe. .............................................................................................. 235 

Joseph Tusiani. Ninety Love Octaves by Antonio Veneziano. Edited, 

introduced and Translated by Gaetano Cipolla. ............................. 253 

Joseph Tusiani. Land of Time. Selected Poems 1972-2003 by Luigi 

Fontanella. Edited by Irene Marchegiani. ........................................ 255 

Cosma Siani. Labirinti e vulcani nel cuore della Sicilia by Justin Vitiello. 

Translated by Veneziano Broccia and Justin Vitiello. ................... 258 

Gregory Pell. New Life: (a fictitious autobiographical story) by Barbara 

Carle. Translated by Marella Feltrin-Morris. ................................... 264

Una doppia infedeltà 

di Angela M. Jeannet 

Angela M. Jeannet is Charles A. Dana Professor of Romance 

Languages, Emerita. She has taught at the University of Colorado 

(Boulder), Austin College (Sherman, TX), Pennsylvania State University, 

and Franklin and Marshall College (Lancaster, PA). 

Her publications include New World Journeys: Contemporary 

Italian Writers and the Experience of America (edited and translated 

with Louise K. Barnett, Greenwood Press, 1977); Parliamo dell’Italia 

(University Press of America, 1984); Natalia Ginzburg: A Voice of 

the Twentieth Century (edited with Giuliana Sanguinetti Katz, University 

of Toronto Press, 2000); Under the Radiant Sun and the Crescent 

Moon: Italo Calvino’s Storytelling (University of Toronto Press, 

2000); one volume of poems, In forma di corona (Firenze: L’autore 

libri, 2001); and several translations, The Edge of Europe by Angela 

Bianchini (University of Nebraska Press, 2000), Journal by Maria 

Bellonci (Mondadori, 2002), The Woman Outlaw by Maria Rosa 

Cutrufelli (Legas Books, 2004), and short stories by Clara Sereni 

and Elisabetta Rasy (Italica Press, 2004). 

She has published numerous articles and book reviews about 

French and Italian twentieth-century fiction and criticism in Italian 

and North-American journals. Some brief pieces (in Italian) 

have appeared in Tuttestorie (2001, Rome, Italy). 

Mi occuperò qui solamente della traduzione di opere letterarie, 

lasciando da parte la questione della traduzione commerciale e 

scientifica e del lavoro d’interprete, anche se quelle attività sono 

affini e considerarle ci può insegnare molto. Prima farò delle 

osservazioni generali per entrare in argomento. 

Al giorno d’oggi, contrariamente anche soltanto a 30-40 anni 

fa, nel campo della traduzione sono più numerosi e agguerriti i 

non-occidentali e devo dire che trovo più illuminanti le pagine di 

studiosi nuovi, per esempio i saggi raccolti in Translation Studies 

(Translation Studies. Perspectives on an Emerging Discipline. Ed. 

Alessandra Riccardi. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2002) che non 

gli studi tradizionali. È anche significativo che molti testi sulla 

traduzione scritti o curati da cinesi, indiani e italiani escano in

8 


veste inglese..... L’egemonia della lingua inglese e della cultura 

americana presenta nuove sfide a chi viene da altre culture, 

specialmente con il trasformarsi di assetti politici e sociali che 

includono migrazioni umane su scala mondiale. Come scrive 

Margherita Ulrych nella collezione che ho menzionato: “Translation 

not only reflects but also directs transcultural contacts and 

exchanges......it is the means by which ideas, styles, and genres 

transit from one language and culture to another and is thus a 

powerful tool in the construction of languages and cultures; it can 

be the site for resistance by the receiving culture to the permeability 

of the incoming influence” (199). A questo proposito mi è parso 

particolarmente interessante il volume di Eugene Chen Eoyang 

dal titolo “Borrowed Plumage” (Polemical Essays on Translation. 

Amsterdam-New York: Rodopi, 2003). Nonostante la sensibilità 

crescente per la complessità del tradurre, però, alcuni studiosi, 

perfino un George Steiner, tendono ancora a parlare della 

traduzione in termini primariamente linguistici come rivela l’uso 

in inglese degli acronimi SL e TL che corrispondono alle espressioni 

Source Language e Target Language. Si è consapevoli della dimensione 

culturale solo in seconda istanza. 

È curioso poi che chi traduce si veda ancora con gli occhi di 

un pubblico per il quale tradurre è, per citare Gregory Rabassa in 

Translation. The Theory and Practice (ed. Avadhesh K. Singh. New 

Delhi: Creative Books, 1996), “a kind of bastard art, an intermediate 

form, and as such always vulnerable to attack” (21). Invece la 

presenza di chi traduce sta prendendo sempre più importanza di 

questi tempi, mano a mano che diventa più evidente la funzione 

fondamentale di ogni forma di traduzione nel plasmare e rivelare 

aspetti, eventi e rapporti all’interno del nostro mondo. 

Sempre nel volume citato, Translation Studies, trovo un articolo 

che mi servirà d’avvío a un discorso che mi sta a cuore. Lawrence 

Venuti, traduttore dall’italiano in inglese, cita William Weaver il 

quale asserisce che “tradurre è in gran parte un’attività irriflessiva, 

con decisioni che si prendono inconsciamente e con scelte quasi 

istintive basate sulla conoscenza dell’autore e del periodo storico” 

( 219). Sulla base di questa testimonianza, Venuti inizia un esame 

della traduzione in chiave psicoanalitica, enumerando le 

“differenze “ irriducibili insite nella traduzione. “Translators...can 

never entirely avoid the loss that the translating process enforces 

on the foreign text, on its meanings and structures, figures and

Angela Jeannet 

traditions. and translators cannot obviate the gain in their translating, 

the construction of different meanings, structures, figures 

and traditions and thereby the creation of textual effects that go 

far beyond the establishment of a lexicographic equivalence” (TS 

219). Gli esempi e le analisi che Venuti presenta sono molto meno 

convincenti delle sue premesse (chi si basa su un metodo specifico 

spesso lo usa in modo troppo meccanico), ma il suo contributo— 

per me—porta la discussione nella direzione giusta. 

Mi sono divertita a pensare a un titolo per queste mie poche 

parole sulla traduzione. Prima ho scritto: “La traduzione in corpore 

vivi”. Mi piaceva l’allusione alla vivisezione. Poi mi è venuta 

in mente un’espressione più leggera e magari sensuale ”La doppia 

infedeltà” che sottolinea la “duplicità” del tradurre (Cees Koster, 

Translation Studies 26). E dirò qualcosa proprio su questo, cioè 

parlerò della traduzione in quanto ricerca di una fedeltà 

impossibile. 

Alla base di ogni infedeltà c’è l’amore e la traduzione è un 

atto d’amore. Ma è un amore dalle cento facce. Per appassionarsi 

alla traduzione infatti bisogna amare profondamente non solo delle 

lingue specifiche ma proprio quello strumento multiforme della 

nostra umanità che è il linguaggio. Nel tradurre si attinge anche, 

coscientemente o no, alla conoscenza che il corpo ha raccolto e 

elaborato durante tutta la sua vita. L’amore viene dalla scoperta 

di un’opera, scoperta che si vuole condividere con chi è al di fuori 

dei confini del nostro universo. Per esempio, è la passione che prese 

i giovani americani, come un William Weaver, quando arrivarono 

a Roma nel 1945 e scoprirono gli scrittori italiani, i Pavese, i 

Vittorini, i Silone. È la passione delle donne negli ultimi trent’anni 

che le ha portate a valorizzare de Cespedes, Ginzburg, Morante, 

Bianchini, Cutrufelli, Maraini. È l’aprirsi e il rivelarsi di paesi di 

antica civiltà come l’India e la Cina al nostro mondo che era rimasto 

chiuso nella propria ignoranza e senso di superiorità. Tradurre è 

la sfida all’incomunicabilità. È una forma di fiducia nell’altro, 

accompagnata dalla paura di non trovare le parole giuste per 

raggiungerlo 

Come si arriva a tradurre? A chi sogna di costruire la macchina 

traduttrice perfetta ricordo che essa esiste già in miliardi di copie 

da migliaia di anni. Di piccole dimensioni, fa il suo lavoro senza 

neanche accorgersene a cominciare dal momento in cui esce 

dall’antro in cui è stata costruita. È ogni persona. Odori, suoni, 

9

10 


sensazioni tattili, gesti, colori, diventano rapidamente per ognuno 

di noi parte di un raffinato complesso interpretativo. Su questo 

s’innesta la parola, nella versione che rimarrà la più intima, quella 

che chiamiamo “lingua materna”. Eventi—fra cui la lettura—miti, 

sogni, idee, stili modellano poi l’universo esistenziale di ogni persona. 

In contatto con altri individui, tradurre l’esperienza in materia 

linguistica diventa una tecnica/arte di meravigliosa complessità. 

E chi traduce per professione, dove si posiziona in questa 

storia? Ecco, qui troviamo gli amori molteplici e il desiderio di 

sperimentare una seconda, una terza, un’altra vita. Chi traduce 

vive più vite; deve vivere più vite. Nessuno al mondo, è vero—con 

buona pace dei reazionarî—vive una vita singola. Tutti partono 

all’avventura in linguaggi diversi, lingue non materne, dialetti, 

patois, gerghi.....Ma chi pratica la traduzione è consapevole sia 

della propria passione che dell’esistenza di altri amanti di quello 

strumento che lo affascina. Per soddisfare la propria passione si fa 

della traduzione un mestiere anche senza alcuna ricompensa 

eccetto il proprio godimento. E cosí chi scrive trova un amore simile 

al proprio in chi traduce. 

Che cosa fa chi ama? Cerca di arrivare al cuore, all’essere più 

profondo dell’altro. Ma rimane sempre un millimetro al di qua. Lo 

stesso avviene per chi ama qualunque testo. L’impasto di esperienza 

vitale divenuta espressione linguistica per mano di chi scrive è 

una complessità che dà le vertigini. Tutto c’entra: il corpo e la 

mente, l’immaginazione e la concretezza, la storia e il sogno. Si 

chiama “tradurre” l’uscire da sé, dal proprio universo, ed entrare 

nella vertigine altrui, un’avventura esaltante e presuntuosa. Uno 

abbandona il conosciuto—o meglio, ciò che è quasi conosciuto—e 

cerca di afferrare il quasi sconosciuto. Chi traduce si trova preso 

fra due universi che lo attraggono e lo eludono. Parlare d’infedeltà, 

come tanti hanno fatto, non si addice soltanto alla traduzione—la 

famosa “bella infedele”—ma anche al rapporto con l’universo di 

chi traduce con l’universo di origine. Si tratta insomma, 

inevitabilmente, di una doppia infedeltà. 

Cosa concludo? 

Non ha alcun senso parlare di “traduzione letterale” come si 

fa con gli studenti, o di “traduzione infedele” usando un vecchio 

cliché. C’è solo la “traslazione” di un mondo in un altro, cioè un 

tentativo di fedeltà totale destinato a fallire. Chi traduce porta tutta 

se stessa all’atto di tradurre. E trova davanti a sé una complessità


che la sfida, che esige un lavoro minuzioso e audace. Oserei dire 

che c’è solo una traduzione possibile per ogni momento della vita 

individuale e per ogni momento storico (e qui cominciano altre 

complicazioni). 

Chi traduce quindi deve possedere fino all’intimo due universi 

o più—e questo condanna al privilegio di sentirsi al tempo stesso 

profondamente radicati e disperatamente divisi. 

Infine: ogni traduzione si propone, anche senza esserne 

cosciente, come seduzione verso la conoscenza del testo di origine. 

Perché ogni amante vuole che altri sappiano della sua buona 

fortuna. Nella certezza che nessuno arriverà mai alla quasi- 

perfezione della propria lettura. 

Stando cosí le cose, uno deve per forza meravigliarsi che ci 

siano persone disposte a affrontare, traducendo, un’insicurezza 

garantita. Ma non è anche straordinario che si osi amare? 

Opere utili 

AA. VV. La traduzione. Saggi e studi. Trieste, 1973 

Banti, Anna. “Del tradurre” Paragone XXXIV (1983) 3-5 

Eoyang, Eugene. “Borrowed Plumage.” Polemical Essays on Translation. 

Amsterdam-New York: Rodopi, 2003 

Hofstadter, Douglas. Le Ton beau de Marot. New York: Basic Books, 1997 

Masiola Rosini, Rosanna. Trilogia: tematiche in traduzione. Vol. 1. La 

traduzione è servita, ovvero Food for Thought. Trieste: Edizioni Università di 

Trieste, 2002 

Steiner, George. After Babel. Aspects of Language and Translation. New 

York: Oxford UP, 1975 

Taylor, Christopher. Aspects of Language and Translation. Contrastive 

Approaches for Italian/English Translators. Udine: Campanotto, 1990 

Translation Studies. Perspectives on an Emerging Discipline. Ed. Alessandra 

Riccardi. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2002 

Translation. The Theory and Practice. Ed. Avadhesh K. Singh. New Delhi: 

Creative Books, 1996. 

11

The Magician, China Ink, 70x50 cm.

Translating Andrea Camilleri 

into English: an Impossible Task? 

by Gaetano Cipolla 

Gaetano Cipolla is a well known authority on Sicily. He is a 

Professor of Italian at St. John’s University. He is President and 

Editor of Arba Sicula, an international organization that promotes 

Sicilian language and culture, and President of Casa Sicilia. He 

has translated L’origini di lu munnu, Don Chisciotti and Sanciu Panza 

and Moral Fables by Giovanni Meli; The Poetry of Nino Martoglio, 

Malidittu la lingua/Damned Language by Vincenzo Ancona; and 

Nino Provenzano’s Vinissi/I’d Love to Come... As publisher/editor 

of Legas, Dr. Cipolla has founded two series of books dealing with 

Sicilian culture: “Pueti d’Arba Sicula,” which has already published 

7 volumes, and “Sicilian Studies” with 12 volumes to its 

credit. Dr. Cipolla also edited J. Kirk Bonner’s Introduction to Sicilian 

Grammar, and is the author of The Sounds of Sicilian: a Pronunciation 

Guide, (Legas) available on CD. His most recent works are 

Siciliana: Studies on the Sicilian Ethos, (2005) a collection of his essays 

on Sicily and Ninety Love Octaves by Antonio Veneziano, edited, 

introduced and translated into English verse by G. Cipolla. 

(2006). 

Andrea Camilleri—who seems to have replaced Gesualdo 

Bufalino and Vincenzo Consolo as the current writer who best 

expresses the island’s “sicelitude”—is enjoying tremendous popularity 

in Italy. His books seem to be ubiquitous and he seems to 

have an inexhaustible supply of them stashed away in his desk 

drawer. So much so that I saw an article in Arte e Folklore di Sicilia, 

a quarterly publication of Catania, which proclaimed in capital 

letters “Basta, Camilleri!”which I could readily translate with 

“Enough already, Camilleri!” making a rhyme without attempting 

to do so. At any rate, everyone who dabbles in translation or 

has an interest in it when the subject of Camilleri comes up, inevitably 

asks “how in the world can you translate Camilleri?” Needless 

to say, I count myself among those who have asked the same

14 


question. The straight and immediate answer that comes to my 

mind is that you really cannot translate Camilleri, if you expect to 

present an English-speaking Camilleri. But I would give the same 

answer to the question “how can you translate Dante, or Petrarch 

or Calvino?” Theorists of translation can tell you in two hundred 

pages or more that translation is an impossible task. The reality is, 

however, that translation has always been part of the literary world 

and it has been accomplished in various degrees of fidelity since 

the beginning of time. As a practicing translator I am more interested 

in the pragmatic aspect of translation that accomplishes every 

day something that presumably is impossible to do. Thus, it is 

true, Camilleri is impossible to translate, but I venture to say that 

his books will in fact be translated one after the other. Already the 

first translation has come out. It’s The Shape of Water, La forma 

dell’acqua, translated by Stephen Sartarelli and I understand that 

two more novels will be coming out in April. Many more of 

Camilleri’s books have been translated into French and Spanish, 

although I have no data on these. I do have a copy of La forme de 

l’eau, by the French translator Serge Quadruppani and I have been 

comparing it to the English translation to see how the two approached 

the subject. 

As most of you know, If you have read any of Camilleri’s 

books, the problem of translation is complicated by the writer’s 

intentional interspersing of his text with Sicilian words or expressions 

camouflaged as Italian and his frequent use of Sicilian especially 

in dialogues. It is clear that the conscious use of dialect, 

whether in an undiluted form or camouflaged, transformed or even 

parodic, constitutes the most obvious element of this writer’s style. 

A translator faces three different challenges of various difficulties. 

The first is the fairly straight forward problem of translating Italian 

into English which ought not create much of a problem; the 

second is the frequent use of the Sicilian language—notice I said 

language, not dialect—in dialogues with people who for one reason 

or another speak in that language. This too should not represent 

an unsurmountable difficulty since Sicilian is a language like 

all the others and as such can and is normally translated to English. 

The easiest way of translating these dialogues is to add a 

qualifying sentence that says these words word were spoken in 

Sicilian. Another way could be to translate the dialogues into slang 

or colloquial speech. The third and certainly the most difficult 

subtext to translate in Camilleri is his unpredictable and whimsi-


cal interspersing of the narrative with Italianized Sicilian words. 

The use of these words, in fact, distinguishes Camilleri from other 

Sicilian writers such as Vitaliano Brancati, Sciascia or Bufalino, 

who used Sicilian occasionally but always with transparent objectives. 

At any rate, it is probably the most recognizable feature of 

his style and no doubt contributed, in some measure, to the huge 

success of his work. 

This kind of linguistic code-switching is not discussed by academic 

translation theorists and practitioners. No one, at least as 

far as I have been able to read, has addressed the problem from a 

theoretical or practical point of view. Luigi Bonaffini in an article 

on the translation of dialect poetry confirms that the American 

translators he has studied completely ignore the problem and proceed 

as if the original texts were written by a monolingual author. 

But this is a serious problem, especially when you translate from 

Italian which is unique among the romance languages for having 

dialects that are not dialects but different languages that boast of 

a long and important literary tradition. Thus, translation theorists 

are not much help to us in this endeavor. In my translation of 

Giovanni Meli’s Don Chisciotti and Sanciu Panza I encountered some 

code-switching that I tried to differentiate from the regular text 

by using a more archaic/poetic diction than in the normal text. 

The text of the Don Chisciotti is written in Sicilian but on two occasions 

the Knight of La Mancha quoted Petrarch. To encourage 

his squire to be more adventurous Don Chisciotti uses one of 

Petrarch’s Italian lines: “un bel morire tutta la vita onora” which 

I rendered with “a worthy death brings honor to thy life”, where 

the archaic-poetic word “thy” was meant to signal that it was a 

poetic quotation. But Camilleri’s use of Sicilian goes beyond the 

occasional quotation. It constitutes an intrinsic part of his style 

and as such its function must be understood before any attempts 

can be made not to duplicate it—because that is impossible—but 

to come as close to it as possible. To develop a strategy the translator 

must understand what Camilleri is trying to accomplish by 

interjecting the Italianized Sicilian into his narrative. This task is 

not an easy one and it certainly would require a great more study 

than I have been able to devote to it. Nevertheless, a few observations 

can help us to orient ourselves as we attempt to offer solutions 

to the problem at hand. 

With this in mind, I picked out at random a paragraph from 

one of the thirty stories in Un mese con Montalbano, the Sicilian 

15

16 


police inspector whom the French liken to their Inspector Maigret. 

The story is entitled “La Sigla”. Let’s read the paragraph: 

Calorio non si chiamava Calorio, ma in tutta Vigata lo 

conoscevano con questo nome. Era arrivato in paisi non si sa 

da dove una ventina d’ anni avanti, un paro di pantaloni ch’ 

erano più pirtusa che stoffa, legati alla vita con una corda, 

giacchetta tutta pezze pezze all’arlecchino, piedi scavusi ma 

pulitissimi. Campava dimandando la limosina, ma con 

discrezione, senza dare fastiddio, senza spavintare fimmine e 

picciliddri. Teneva bene il vino, quando poteva accattarsene una 

bottiglia, tanto che nessuno l’aveva veduto a malappena brillo: 

e dire che c’erano state occasioni di feste che di vino se n’era 

scolato a litri. 

The italics are mine and indicate Sicilian words and expressions 

that the author uses throughout the book as an intrinsic component 

of his style. For the moment, we will postpone any consideration 

of how these stylistic devices characterize the text. But, as 

anyone can see, their employment has a definite impact on the 

reader, each word or expression is charged to express significant 

bits of meanings, nuances and color that cannot be completely 

ignored by the would-be translator without flattening the text, reducing 

a stereophonic sound into a single speaker. 

The author here is making great demands on the translator. 

The italicized words are in effect Sicilian words that have been 

modified to sound Italian by changing a vowel or two, and they 

can be understood because the author placed them in a context 

that even non-Sicilians can guess at, even though they may not 

know the exact meaning. Calorio is thus the shortened form of 

Calogero, but it is not Caloriu, which is the exact Sicilian name. 

The word paro is the same as paio in Italian, but in Sicilian it would 

be written as paru. We can guess why Camilleri chose to use “paro” 

instead of “paio” (it is easier for Sicilian speakers to say “paru” 

instead of “paio”). The etymological equivalent of pirtusa in Italian 

is “pertugi” (holes), but in Italian they would identify physical 

holes in structures, not holes in clothing, as the Sicilian pirtusa does 

here. “Dimandando la limosina” would be “domandando 

l’elemosina” in Italian, but “dumannannu a limosina” in Sicilian. 

The double “d” of “Senza dare fastiddio” identifies it as Sicilian. 

“Senza spavintare fimmine e picciliddri” in Italian would be “senza


spaventare donne e bambini” and in Sicilian “senza fari scantari 

fimmini e picciliddri”. The “ddri” ending of “picciliddri” identifies 

the speaker as a person from the area of Agrigento where the 

cacuminal sound of “ddu” as in “Turiddu” is pronounced as 

“Turiddru”. “Accattarsene” might not be readily understood as 

the equivalent of “comprarsene” if the context did not come to 

clarify it. In Sicilian, of course, the verb “accattari” from “acheter” 

commonly replaces the Italian “comprare.” The use of Italianized 

Sicilian or Sicilianized Italian as the case may be, was originally 

thought to be an impediment to non-Sicilians. In fact, in the first 

edition of Il filo di turno, the editor at Mondadori required Camilleri 

to add a glossary that would explain the Sicilian words to non- 

Sicilian readers. This feature has been dropped from subsequent 

books because it is in reality unnecessary for Italians. They can 

understand the text because Camilleri has become more skilled in 

placing them in a context that explains them better. Even if the 

terms are not understood exactly, Italians have a good idea of the 

possible meanings. At any rate, the presence of these words adds 

a certain strangeness to the narrative that the translator cannot 

ignore. The problem for non-Italians reading Camilleri in Italian is 

probably insurmountable because those who have learned Italian 

in school in a foreign country are notoriously poor at making connections 

between words that vary even very slightly from the dictionary 

meanings. Such people have difficulty equating “limosina” 

with “elemosina” “paro” with “paio.” 

Let us look at the paragraph in an attempt to discover whether 

the use of Sicilian adds dimensions of meaning and style that must 

be retained or somehow acknowledged by the translator. 

The use of the form Calorio instead of Calogero has two purposes: 

it identifies the locus of the action and it suggests that the 

person has also been adopted as one of their own even though he 

is a foreigner. We are in Sicily and specifically in a town of which 

Saint Calogero is the Patron Saint. Vigàta is Camilleri’s fictional 

town, but it could be anywhere from Sciacca to Porto Empedocle. 

Saint Calogero, if I am not mistaken, is in fact the patron Saint of 

Sciacca and a few other towns in the Agrigento province. So perhaps 

a note should point this out. The term “paisi” is so close to 

“paese” it does not need an explanation, but it begins a series of 

interjections in Sicilian whose presence is highly subjective and 

unpredictable. There are cases when the Sicilian term used does 

not have an Italian counterpart and Camilleri uses it because the 

17

18 


Sicilian is far more expressive and renders better what he had in 

mind. But in general, there does not seem to be any logic, either 

linguistically determined or contextually driven for the intrusion 

of such terms. Their presence does not seem to emerge out of a 

need to make a particular statement. One could ask Camilleri why 

he places Sicilian words into his narrative, I am confident he has 

been asked although I don’t know what his response may have 

been, but even if we knew what he said we would have to assess 

the effect that their presence has on the reader. I suggest that two 

of the reasons for the interjections are primarily to add color and 

to identify the narrator as a Sicilian. Ultimately it seems to me that 

Camilleri probably speaks like that himself, that is, from time to 

time, and in an unpredictable manner, he interjects Sicilian words 

into his speech. If that is so what purpose do the interjections have. 

I think that Camilleri uses this device for the purpose of making a 

connection with his listener, of somehow taking the reader into 

his confidence, by speaking a language that by its restrictive nature 

constitutes a “secret” jargon that both the writer and his listener 

understand. It is a method of drawing the readers into the 

web that he is spinning, an act of captatio benevolentia. Sicilians 

have been historically conditioned not to speak in their own language 

to strangers or anyone whom they do not know or trust. 

Camilleri, I think, is throwing in his Sicilian expressions as hooks 

to draw readers into his world. As a literary ploy this is not new. 

Boccaccio establishes the same kind of relationship with his readers, 

a kind of complicity between author and reader that excludes 

some of the characters themselves. As Boccaccio lets us be a knowing 

audience, participants in the joke, Camilleri by using his 

Sicilianized Italian or Italianized Sicilian is forming a bond with 

the reader who understands—the trick is that after a while everyone 

understands—and the use of a different code does not exclude 

anyone. 

These preliminary and somewhat tentative conclusions may 

be sufficient to start working on a strategy for the translation of 

Camilleri’s text. Let’s try to give a straightforward rendition of the 

paragraph without making any attempt at signaling the shift in 

code in the original. 

Calorio’s name was not Calorio, but in Vigata everyone 

knew him with that name. He had come to town, —nobody 

knows from where—about twenty years back, with a pair of 

pants more holes than fabric, tied at the waist with a rope,


with a little jacket with so many patches he looked like a 

Harlequin, barefoot, but with very clean feet. He begged for a 

living, but discreetly, without bothering anyone, or scaring the 

women and children. He could hold his wine well, when he 

could afford to buy a bottle, so much so that nobody ever saw 

him even slightly drunk, in spite of the fact that there had 

been times during feast days when he had put away quite a 

few liters. 

Few would argue that this is not a faithful rendition of the 

Italian text, in terms of the information conveyed. What is missing 

is the writer’s voice, his gently mocking tone that emerges from his 

problematic use of the dialect. Having lost the metalinguistic component, 

i.e. the use of the dialect, the rendition is definitely flatter 

than the original. What options are open to a translator? It seems 

to me that if he wants to maintain a multilevel linguistic code he 

must couch his rendition with a least two, and possibly more, linguistic 

codes that would be accessible to the readers. If the audience 

for the novel is English, the translator could try to use standard 

English with American English as subtext. If he is American 

he might utilize expressions and idiomatic sentences that can be 

identified with a local dialect to render the Sicilianized Italian expressions. 

For example, whenever possible he might interject 

Brooklinese or a local jargon of some kind into the stream of standard 

American English. Naturally the risk is great that the translator 

would introduce an alien dimensions into the novel, disregarding 

the fact that the action takes place in Sicily and such interjections 

would be considered out of sync with the environment. 

Failing this option, it seems to me, the only option left for the translator 

is to develop his own multiple level language made up of 

sequences that he himself considers normal and interjecting from 

time to time expressions that deviate in a consistent way from the 

dominant language. The types of deviation naturally would depend 

on the translator’s background and preparation. But the deviations 

would not have to coincide with Camilleri’s own departures 

from standard Italian. An attempt to make the deviations 

coincide with Camilleri’s would probably be counterproductive. 

The translator would have to listen to his own voice and from time 

to time revert to his own subcode in a way that would mimic 

Camilleri’s own procedure. With this in mind let us try a different 

rendition of the passage we have already translated. 

19

20 


‘The following might be an improvement: 

Calorio was not his name, but in Vigata the whole town 

knew him as Calorio. About twenty years back, he had turned 

up in town from God knows where, with a pair of britches that 

were draftier than a barn on account of the many holes, tied 

with a rope around his waist, and with a raggedy jacket so 

patched up he looked like a circus clown. He walked barefoot, 

but his feet were spotless. He scraped along by begging but 

without making a nuisance of himself, never bothering nobody, 

or scaring the womenfolk or young’uns. He held his liquor so 

well, when he could scare up enough to buy himself a bottle, 

that nobody ever saw him even slightly pickled;tough there had 

been times on Feast days when he had put away quite a few 

quarts. 

The italicized words were chosen to convey a subtext normally 

associated with a slangy, folksy, homespun, Southern vocabulary 

that mimics though not in an obvious way what Camilleri 

is doing. Questionable grammatical structures like “never bothering 

nobody” or the use of local jargon “womenfolk and young’uns” 

or colloquial terms like “scare up,” “pickled,” or scraped along” 

produce a multivoiced narrative that is akin to Camilleri’s. No doubt 

this is only an approximation of Camilleri’s style. No translator 

expects a perfect correspondance between his version and the original. 

Translation is like riding a seesaw with the translator sitting 

on one end and the original author on the other. The translator’s 

goal is to keep pace with the author, but he cannot help to rise 

higher at times or sink lower than the author. It is impossible to 

synchronize his movements so that they match perfectly with the 

author’s. The important thing is to maintain a balance that allows 

peaks and valleys on either side. Some time the translator will overshoot 

the target, sometimes he will come up short. The important 

thing is to remain within an acceptable range of the author’s text. 

The sample translation of Camilleri’s text was simply meant 

to point the way. I think that after a while the translator would 

develop a sub language that would serve him well whenever his 

fancy called for it. But it would be almost like speaking in falsetto. 

The danger to overdue it, of course, would be ever present. This 

danger must have dawned on Camilleri himself, for as his stories 

develop, he seems to lighten the dosage of the code-switching to a


bare minimum and often dropping it altogether. In the Forma 

dell’acqua for example, in the last few chapters, except for one or 

two words, Camilleri uses standard Italian, almost as if he forgot 

to throw in a few of his trademark words or perhaps because he 

wanted to develop his detective conclusions and the words would 

have been a distraction. 

When I learned that Stephen Sartarelli had translated La forma 

dell’acqua I bought a copy to see how he had solved the problems 

discussed above. And I must say, he solved the problem by completely 

ignoring it. In all fairness to him, I think Sartarelli did a 

creditable job. His translation is highly readable, accurate in terms 

of the content of Camilleri’s text. He captures Camilleri’s irony 

fairly well and I did not find any factual misreadings of the text. 

Nevertheless, Sartarelli’s English text is monolingual, with one exception 

where he translates some Sicilian dialogue with American 

slang or colloquialism. But the code-switching that we have talking 

about is completely ignored. And I must say that the French 

translator who addressed the problem and claimed that he would 

occasionally intersperse his translation with Francitan terms, that 

is, a kind of modern provençal, if I understand it correctly, to provide 

a similar code-switching as Camilleri, does not seem to do 

much of it, although my French is probably not good enoug to 

spot the code-switching. Allow me a brief comparison between 

the three texts: 

Pino e Saro si avviarono verso il posto di lavoro ammuttando 

ognuno il proprio carrello. Per arrivare alla mànnara ci voleva 

quasi una mezzorata di strada se fatta a pedi lento come loro 

stavano facendo. Il primo quarto d’ora se lo passarono 

mutàngheri, già sudati e impiccicaticci. Poi fu Saro a rompere il 

silenzio. 

“Questo Pecorilla è un cornuto” proclamò. 

“Un grandissimo cornuto” rinforzò Pino. 

I have added the italics to the words that represent 

Camilleri’s code-switching. Here is the French translation: 

Pino et Saro se dirigèrent vers leur lieu de travail en tirant 

chacun sa carriole. Pour arriver au Bercail, il fallait une demi- 

heure de route, quand on la suivait à pas lents comme eux. Le 

21

22 


premier quart d’heure, ils le passèrent sans mot dire, dejà tout 

pegueux de sueur. Puis ce fut Saro qui rompit le silence. 

—Ce Pecorilla est un cornard, proclama-t-il. 

—Un cornard de premiere grandeur, rajouta Pino. 

And here is Sartarelli’s rendition: 

Pino and Saro headed toward their assigned work sector, each 

pushing his own cart. To get to the Pasture it took half an hour, 

if one was slow of foot as they were. The first fifteen minutes 

they spent without speaking, already sweaty and sticky. It was 

Saro who broke the silence. 

“That Pecorilla is a bastard,” he announced. 

“A fucking bastard,” clarified Pino. 

As you can see, neither translator has acknowledged the code- 

switching or made an attempt to go beyond the surface meaning 

of the words and even at that level one could be picky and find 

unfelicitous renderings. Monsieur Quadruppani actually has Saro 

and Pino pulling a two wheeled “carriole” behind them when they 

are pushing it in front of them. “Carriole” is a Provençal word 

described as having two wheels, thus not equivalent to the one- 

wheel Italian “carriola” with which he probably wanted to mimick 

Camilleri’s code-switching. In the process, however, he mistranslated 

the sentence. One could argue minor points in both translations, 

but let’s take one word that both translated in a similar fashion: 

“mutàngheri” Surely it means more than “sans mot dire” and 

“without speaking”. The word does not exist in Italian, but it’s 

understood because of the context. In Sicilian it means more than 

“taciturn,” “unspeaking,” it means an unwillingness to speak, a 

sullenness brought about by being engrossed in one’s thoughts, by 

mulling over things. It also means an inability to speak. Mutàngaru 

in the region of Agrigento describes also a deaf-mute who cannot 

speak clearly because he cannot hear. I would have said “brooding 

silently,” or “in bleak silence” or “stubbornly silent” or something 

like that. The word “ammuttando” is also more than “pushing” 

or the French “pulling” because the Sicilian is more than 

“spingere”. The word is strangely onomatopeic. I can’t seem to 

pronounce it without moving my body forward, which is exactly 

why Camilleri chose it. He wanted to convey the considerable en-


ergy required to make the carts move forward. Simply pushing or 

pulling would not do. 

I suppose it’s fair to ask how I would translate this passage. 

So here is my tentative version: 

Pino and Saro started out toward their assigned work area, 

each leaning forward on his cart. It would take half an hour 

to walk to the pasture if you moved one foot after the other as 

slowly as they were doing. They spent the first quarter of an 

hour, already sweaty and sticky, stubbornly clinging to their 

silence. Then Saro was the first to speak. 

“That Pecorilla is a cuckold!” he blurted out. 

“A major cuckold,” Pino added. 

Sartarelli’s use of the word “bastard” is probably more appropriate 

as an American epithet, but in using “cuckold” I wanted 

to retain a measure of the strangeness evoked by the code-switching 

in Camilleri’s text. Americans generally do not use the word 

and some would have to look it up in a dictionary. Hence “cuckold” 

would work almost the same way for Americans as one of 

Camilleri’s Sicilian words for Italians. In conclusion, while it is 

possible to achieve a similar effect in the English translation, it is 

very likely that the translator would adopt the minimax strategy, 

that is, he will try to obtain the maximum effect with the minimum 

of effort and in real life it takes too much time to imitate 

Camilleri’s style. Hence the English translations of his work will 

inevitably be monovocal. 

23

24 


The Tower, China Ink, 70x50 cm.

Eliot, Pound, Waley, Sayers: 

Notes Towards a Politics of Translation 1920-1960 

by Daniela Caselli 

Dr. Daniela Caselli is Lecturer in Twentieth-Century Literature 

and Culture at the University of Manchester. She is the author 

of Beckett’s Dantes: Intertextuality in the Fiction and Criticism 

(Manchester University Press, 2005) and articles on Djuna Barnes, 

Samuel Beckett, intertextuality, and poetic translation. 

The writings on translation by two household names of literary 

modernism – Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot – and by two minor 

modernist and late modernist figures – Arthur Waley and Dorothy 

L. Sayers – draw attention to how theories of translation have been 

instrumental in defining the politics of national and literary identity 

in the twentieth century. My analysis will focus on writers who 

enjoy the status of original authors (Pound and Eliot) and writers 

almost exclusively known for their translating activities (Waley) or 

enjoying popularity thanks to their detective fiction and academic 

credentials (Sayers). This comparison will look at the relationship 

between modernity and the past, genius and context, and elitism 

and democratization, always through the vantage point of theories 

of translation. This will lead me to explore how the politics of 

translation and the politics of literary history are intertwined. 

I. T.S. Eliot: Seneca’s tragedies, ‘italianità’, and the birth of a 

nation 

In his preface to Elizabethan Dramatists, T.S. Eliot claims to have 

included ‘Seneca in Elizabethan Translation’ (1927) in order to ‘vindicate 

Seneca from the charge of being responsible for the horrors 

of the Elizabethan and Jacobean theatre.’ 1 However, what is presented 

as a mere ‘vindication’ of the role of Seneca is soon transformed 

into a theory which places translation at the centre of the 

poetic and linguistic renewal which makes of the Elizabethan period 

the founding moment in the history of English letters and identity. 

The essay is divided into three sections, which analyse ‘the 

character, virtues and vices of the Latin tragedies themselves’; the

26 Journal of Italian Translation 

directions in which these tragedies influence Elizabethan drama; 

and ‘the part they played in extending the influence of Seneca and 

their actual merit as translations and as poetry.’ 2 Eliot wants to 

revive Seneca because no other author has been equally vilified in 

modern times and loved during the Renaissance; this Seneca is not 

Dante’s ‘Seneca morale’, but the one usually chastised for his excess 

and bombast, the ‘bad influence’ on Renaissance literature. 

Seneca’s tragedies, meant to be spoken rather than staged, are part 

of a ‘non-theatrical drama’ which is labelled by Eliot a ‘curious freak’, 

and linked, not unproblematically, to the notion of ‘race’: ‘the theatre 

is a gift which has not been vouchsafed to every race, even of 

the highest culture. It has been given to the Hindus, the Japanese, 

the Greeks; the English, the French, and the Spanish, at moments; 

in less measure to the Teutons and the Scandinavians. It was not 

given to the Romans, or generously to their successors, the Italians.’ 

3 The classic association between Latin countries and instinct 

justifies the Romans’ weakness for lowly comedy and circus and 

the Italians’ love for the Commedia dell’Arte and the puppet show. 

Moreoever, the questionable link between ‘race’ and genre allows 

Eliot to read Seneca as the product of Nero’s decadent era and as a 

representative of a Roman ‘latinità’ characterised by a conflict between 

passion and duty (the only one present in Seneca) and by 

rhetoric (a sign of modernity for Eliot): Seneca does not epitomise 

bad taste, he embodies the Latin era. 

This begrudging vindication soon develops into the arguments 

that Seneca’s responsibility for the ‘Tragedy of Blood’ (that is, for 

the horrors usually claimed to disfigure Elizabethan drama) has 

been overestimated; his role in initiating a rhetoric of bombast ‘misconstrued’; 

and his influence on Shakespeare and his contemporaries 

‘undervalued’. 4 Seneca’s influence is not on the plots of the 

Tragedy of Blood and Kyd’s Spanish Tragedy, which derive instead 

from contemporary French and, above all, from Italian theatre, 

‘blood-thirsty in the extreme’ and characterised by marvellous machinery 

and luxurious settings, revolving as it does around the spectacular 

and the sensational. Italian theatre had for Eliot everything 

it needed to dazzle the imagination ‘of unsophisticated northeners 

emerging into a period of prosperity and luxury.’ 5 

This rather predictable move in Eliot’s argument is based on 

the links between Italian character, sophistication, and cruelty – a


constant association in English literature, which has made ample 

use of Italy as a form of release of restraint. 6 Seneca is not a direct 

influence on English theatre; rather, Italian theatre has offered to 

Kyd and Peele their blood-thirsty plots. Seneca’s influence, too big 

to be ignored, is on the language; without it, it would be impossible 

to even conceive of Elizabethan theatre. Most importantly, his influence 

derives from the translations of his tragedies which circulated 

at the time: the Tenne Tragedies (1559 e il 1566). Among them, 

Troas (1559), Thyestes (1560) and Hercules Furens (1561) by Jasper 

Heywood, Oedipus of Alexander Nevyle (1563), Octavia of Nuce, 

Agamemnon, Medea, Hercules Oetaus and Hyppolitus of John Studley 

(1566 and 1567). The publication of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey’s 

Aeneid in 1557 provides Elizabethan drama with its ‘blank verse’, 

immediately put to use into the English versions of Seneca’s tragedies, 

which could not translate the solemn qualities of the Senecan 

iambic into the ‘old fourteener’ or the ‘heroic couplet’, and which 

therefore contributed both to the birth of the ‘blank verse’ and to 

the poetical renewal of the Elizabethan period. Such renewal is 

also based on radical modifications to the Seneca’s texts: in 

Heywood’s translation of the Troas, for instance, what was a simple 

mention of Achilles’ ghost becomes a soliloquy of 13 stanzas, conceived 

for the stage and boasting a rhetorical quality which Peele 

could not have equalled. Heywood and Studley still use the 

fourteener, but they juxtapose it to the blank verse in the chorus – 

which gives the translators an opportunity for adding, reducing, 

omitting and substituting in order to increase the dramatic effect – 

thus creating a contrast between old and new. The Tragedy of Blood 

was born thanks to Heywood’s translations, which marked the 

boundary between old and new versification. 

Eliot links this historical moment to the issue of national identity 

by claiming that while Boccaccio and Machiavelli in Italy and 

Froissart and Joinville in France had already formed the local mind, 

the Elizabethan mind ‘grew and matured through its verse rather 

than through its prose’. Prose evolved too, but much more slowly; 

the Tenne Tragedies demonstrate instead how the previously ubiquitous 

‘fourteener’ will have to give way to the ‘blank verse’ of Henry 

Howard whose Aeneid is taken to be not only a model of dignity, 

but also apt to the bombast of Seneca. If the fourteener was good 

for comedy, this new verse makes language explode ‘like new wine 

bursting old bottles’. The Elizabethan bombast is that still present 

27


in Chapman’s Iliad, and will settle only much later, in the sobriety 

of Dryden and Hobbes. 

Eliot reads the translations in the Tenne Tragedies as a historical 

passage from the old Tudor language, still chained to Chaucerian 

models, to the Elizabethan one, based on Seneca. Violence, excess, 

passion, and rhetorical are all linked to a sophisticated ‘foreigness’, 

that of Italy, following an ideological move which can be indeed 

traced back to the Elizabethan period. From Webster to Shakespeare, 

from Byron’s carnival to Forster’s Tuscany, ‘italianità’, excess, passion, 

violence, and rhetoric remain closely connected, and opposed 

to an idea of ‘Englishness’ as decorum, measure, but – surely – also 

as a limitation. 7 

Eliot thus redefines a central historical period through a theory 

of translation in which the influence of an Italianised Seneca and 

the invention of a Seneca of ‘horrors’, and ‘dramatic theatre’ are at 

the origins of the renewal of versification. Such a renewal is not 

only formal but also semantic, lexical, and epistemological. Eliot 

develops a notion of English tradition by distinguishing on the one 

hand its Anglosaxon past, a non-dramatic past, and on the other 

the foreign influence, or, even better, the Latin influence (a term 

which in this essay spans from ancient Rome to the Italian Renaissance). 

If the ‘latinità’ is a justification for the ‘bombast’ of Seneca, 

it is again the ‘latinità’, reincarnated into Italianness, which justifies 

the excesses of the Tragedies of Blood. 

The birth of Englishness coincides with the birth of theatre, or, 

better, of a ‘theatrical drama’, a drama of action and not only of 

language, and prepares the ground for a Shakespeare who would 

be unthinkable without such translations. The Elizabethan period 

is thus the foundation of a notion of Englishness, 8 it is the historical 

locus in which tradition recognises its own origins. Tradition springs 

out of a cultural innovation which translation makes possible. Since 

for Eliot ‘few things that can happen to a nation are more important 

then the invention of a new form of verse’, 9 when he introduces 

Pounds’ Selected Poems he links his own free verse to the Elizabethan 

theatre, establishing a connection between his own originality 

and a period which simultaneously represents the origin, the 

change, and the development of a nation. 10 

II. Pictorial visibility, translation and totalitarianism: Ezra


Pound 

In his introduction to Ezra Pound’s literary essays, T.S. Eliot 

claims that ‘any pioneer of a revolution in poetry – and Mr. Pound 

is more responsible for the XXth Century revolution in poetry than 

is any other individual – is sure to attack some venerated names.’ 11 

This is the well-known picture of Pound as a revolutionary, an image 

which Pound himself promoted and reproduced in his theories 

of translation focused on the shock of the new. Some of Pound’s 

writings on translation, less known than his essay on Cavalcanti, 

can be helpful to reconsider the image of Pound as a solitary genius 

who, again in Eliot’s words, ‘invented’ Chinese poetry ‘as we know 

it today’. 12 

Translation connects two main aspects of Pound’s thought: 

on the one hand, the notion that Chinese ideograms embody the 

natural link between thing and word, an idea which Pound inherits 

from Fenollosa; on the other hand, concepts of purity, order, 

coherence, will, and dynamism, which gradually coincide with a 

fascist idea of renewal based on authoritarianism and anti-semitism. 

Pound’s 1919 essay The Chinese Written Character as a Medium 

for Poetry 13 in which he transcribes and develops the late Ernest 

Fenollosa’s notes, is an early theorisation of how the Chinese written 

character can be a source of innovation thanks to its non-arbitrary 

relation between thing and word: 

But Chinese notation is something much more than 

arbitrary symbols. It is based upon a vivid shorthand picture 

of the operation of nature. In the algebraic figure and in 

the spoken word there is no natural connection between 

thing and sign: all depends upon sheer convention. But 

the Chinese method follows natural suggestion. […] One 

superiority of verbal poetry as an art rests in its getting 

back to the fundamental reality of time. Chinese poetry 

has the unique advantage of combining both elements. It 

speaks at once with the vividness of painting, and with 

the mobility of sound. It is, in some sense, more objective 

than either, more dram[a]tic [sic]. In reading Chinese we 

do not seem to be juggling mental counters, but to be 

watching things work out their own fate. 14 

29


The hybrid nature attributed to the Chinese character enables 

Pound to believe that ‘the Chinese written language has not only 

absorbed the poetic substance of nature and built with it a second 

world of metaphor, but has, through its very pictorial visibility, been 

able to retain its original creative poetry with far more vigour and 

vividness that any phonetic language.’ 15 The Chinese written character 

thus seems to possess the energy towards which poetry aspires 

and which attempts to reproduce by crowding – since it has 

no better tools – the highest number of meanings into one word or 

one line. 16 

Energy, a very important concept within Pound’s process of 

innovation and one which finds a home in the Chinese character, 

will lead him to claim in 1937 that his ‘version’ of Confucius’ Ta 

Hio is his ‘most important work in the last three decades.’ 17 In this 

essay Pound asserts that a ‘diseased’ and ‘degraded’ West is in urgent 

need of Confucius; connecting Confucian will and Dantean 

directio voluntatis, and ranging through a wide spectrum of medical 

metaphors spanning from the hypodermic needle to the straight 

jacket, Pound hails the forty-six characters of the Ta Hio as the beginning 

of a process of renewal which will invigorate a paradoxically 

ill-fed West. Translation, the moving across cultures, and the 

publication of works with both original and facing translation are 

thus presented as a way of regenerating the West linguistically and 

culturally. 

The necessary character of the Ta Hio will be violently expanded 

upon in the essay ‘Mang Tsze (The Ethics of Mencius)’, 18 in which 

Pound defends his previous work from the accusations of having 

modernised Confucius and distinguishes between inclusion and 

ambiguity in translation. Pound’s attacks against what he calls ‘under-translation’ 

(paradoxically seen as a sign of the translator’s lack 

of humbleness) can be traced back to the difference he drew in 

1920 between two kinds of obscurity in translation, one unjustifiably 

linked to the expression and one inherent in the ‘thing’, and 

thus defended in the name of modernist experimentalism: 

Obscurities not inherent in the matter, obscurities 

due not to the thing but to the wording are a botch, and 

are not worth preserving in a translation. The work lives 

not by them but despite them. Obscurities inherent in the 

thing occur when the author is piercing, or trying to pierce


into, uncharted regions; when he is trying to express things 

not yet current, not yet worn into phrases; when he is ahead 

of the emotional, or philosophic sense (as a painter might 

be ahead of the colour sense) of his contemporaries. 19 

In Pound avant-garde and translation are experimental activities 

which ought to be ‘before their time’, and yet they are closely 

connected to reactionary ideological positions. Through Dante’s 

Latin (whose directio voluntatis is evoked more than once) and ancient 

Greek, Pound claims that Mang Tsze, against Christian ethics, 

is in favour of an economy of abundance; through a sinister 

and violent anti-semitic attack, the author distinguishes between 

such an economy and what he describes as ‘the semitic excess’. 

This is exemplary of the very problematic role which translation 

plays in Pound. What Pound describes as Mang Tsze’s ‘original’ 

text, which is praised as Confucian because ‘totalitarian’, 20 is opposed 

to the ‘semitic insanity’ and to Socrates. It will have, according 

to Pound, ‘a fresh impact on to more thoughtful minds.’ 21 

Pound will go as far as claiming in 1941 in an article published 

on the Meridiano di Roma that: 

Confucio ed il suo più grande commentatore 

Menzio, hanno un significato per noi oggi in Italia. Hanno 

una funzione nel programma educativo del Fascismo anche 

se non ce ne rendiamo pienamente conto. Mussolini e Hitler 

per magnifico intuito seguono le dottrine di Confucio. Re 

Vittorio Emanuele è un sovrano confuciano. Non basta 

leggere una sola volta una sua versione, bisogna, come io 

stesso continuo a fare, leggere e rileggere il testo originale e 

ideogrammico col commento accanto.’ [Confucius and his 

greatest commentator, Mang Tsze, are significant for us in 

Italy. They have a role within the fascist educational 

programme even though we might not fully realise this. 

Mussolini and Hitler thanks to their magnificent intuition 

follow Confucius’ doctrines. King Vittorio Emanuele is a 

Confucian sovereign. It is not enough to read once his 

translation, one must – as I do – read and reread the original 

text written in ideograms with its facing commentary]. 22 

Pound’s trajectory goes from the Chinese character’s dyna- 

31


mism to the power of the fascist anti-semitic State. 23 The essay on 

Mang Tsze and its later ramifications raise the classic problem of 

the paradoxical proximity of avant-garde and fascism in modernism. 

24 In Pound, a past which is both geographically and temporally 

distant (twentieth-century Provence, thirteenth-century 

Tuscany, and the China of Confucius or Mang Tsze) is used to advocate 

for an urgent solution to the problem of a diseased and decadent 

society. 25 In this way, translating is ideologically aligned with 

a reactionary dynamism which coincides with order, hierarchy, 

and authoritarianism. China’s alterity is transformed into a totalitarian 

model to emulate, producing a structure able to survive only 

by debasing another kind of alterity, which in Pound is Jewishness: 

following a classic reactionary model, Pound defines ‘semitism’ as 

the omnipresent threat, origin of a degraded and diseased society 

which can aspire to its renewal only by blindly obeying a totalitarian 

regime. Such a regime is represented by Confucius and Mang 

Tsze, who represent a different kind of otherness able to rejuvenate 

a decadent society. Such Confucius and Mang Tsze are eminently 

Poundian characters, who are said to be different but mirror what 

is already there: the totalitarian state. 26 

III. The invisible translator: Arthur Waley 

Arthur Waley is the first twentieth-century writer to translate 

the great names in Chinese and Japanese poetry, giving shape to a 

picture of the East which will dominate the West for over a century. 

He is also the figure most frequently juxtaposed to Pound’s 

modernist take on the Orient. 27 A comparison between Waley and 

Pound casts some light on the different connections that these two 

writers establish between translation and national identity; it will 

also question the frequent role of Pound as the only mediator between 

West and East in histories of literature. 

Octavio Paz, in Nineteen Ways of Looking at Wang Wei, claims 

that he has never been persuaded by Pound’s theories of translation, 

but that he has always been fascinated by his activity as a 

translator, and in particular as a translator of Chinese poetry. Such 

a division enables Paz to praise the fresh quality of Pound’s translations 

while rejecting the more problematic ideological implications 

of his theories of translation. Paz follows Eliot in saying that 

Pound invented Chinese poetry in the West, and both agree that 

Pound’s great contribution has been to destroy the myth that trans-


lation can bring back an untainted idea of the original. For Eliot, 

the original is matter an sich, unknowable by definition: thus, every 

translation must be rethought as an interpretive exercise bound to 

its own time, able to enrich and renew the existing poetic tradition. 

28 Pound the ‘fabbro’ [forger] and the artifex, rather than the 

theoretician, is rescued by the critical tradition: he is the artist who, 

according to Hugh Kenner’s famous definition, ‘never translates 

into something which already exists in English.’ 29 

To avoid cleansing Pound’s reputation as a practitioner from 

the debris of his anti-semitic theorisations and to redefine the link 

between translation and totalitarianism, it is politically useful to 

look at Arthur Waley (1889-1966). 30 Poet and translator at the margins 

of the Bloomsbury group, Waley has often been fashioned in 

literary histories as the anti-Pound: if Pound is the source of modern 

poetic revolution thanks to his translations able to invent the 

Orient, Waley is the learned translator from the Chinese and the 

Japanese, laboriously and painstakingly constructing the first bridge 

between modern East and West. Critics Ivan Morris and Jonathan 

Spence have attempted to vindicate Waley’s importance in having 

altered forever the way in which the twentieth century conceives 

of the Orient by drawing attention to how twentieth century artists 

from Bertold Brecht (Chinesische Gedichte, 1939) to Blair Fairchild 

(Songs from the Chinese, 1922), Aaron Copland (Old Poems, 1923), 

and Benjamin Britten (Songs from the Chinese, 1957), 31 had access to 

the East exclusively through Waley’s translations. 

Morris and Spence also underline how Waley remained a 

marginal figure in Bloomsbury; he determinately shun from fame, 32 

as can be observed in the interview Waley gave to the BBC in 1963, 

which has led critics like Paz to claim that Waley is an important 

figure but that his many talents were ‘less intense’ than those of 

Pound. 33 Critic Wai-lim Yip follows the existing critical opposition 

of Pound and Waley too when he describes Pound’s translating as 

‘breaking through verbal barriers into the core of the poem’ 34 while 

dismissing Waley as someone who ‘endorsed the theory of literal 

translation’. 35 Precision, erudition, and care to detail quickly become 

the attributes which damn Waley with faint praise: such qualities 

are soon transformed into an academic limitation useful to prop 

up the figure of a Pound able to move ‘beyond’ language, of ‘breaking 

syntactical barriers’, and of reaching that mythical poetic centre 

which in Yip seems to transcend language itself. 

33


Waley possibly contributed to casting himself as the anti-Pound 

when in a talk at the British Museum in 1918 he harshly criticises 

Pound’s translation of Li Po, mocking his incompetence (famously, 

Pound only translated with the help of cribs) and presenting alternative 

translations. 36 This anecdote is not aimed at reclaiming Waley 

as the ‘real’ or reliable translator whilst dismissing Pound’s amateurishness, 

but at drawing attention to how Fenollosa’s fin-de-siècle 

Orientalism (from which Pound derives his theories) can be 

contextualised by looking at how China inherited the role of ellenic 

ethical and aesthetical ideal constructed by the generation preceding 

that of Pound and Waley. 37 Once Pound’s solitary figure is set 

against this tradition and against the backdrop of the metrical, 

rhythmical and structural changes introduced by Waley in the poetry 

he translates, he can be read not as being ‘ahead of his time’, 

but as part of a more complex literary and cultural landscape. 

In his interview to Roy Fuller in 1963 and in the 1960 introduction 

to the reprint of A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems (published 

in 1962), Waley discusses his own activity as a translator in 

terms that are quite different from the image of the quiet, laborious 

craftsman which we encounter in the history of literature. Waley 

humbly compares the translator with the musician, who is supposed 

to interpret rather than compose; he also refuses the notion 

of genius which underlies Pound’s oeuvre. 38 However, he rejects 

what Lawrence Venuti calls ‘the translator’s invisibility’, 39 vindicating 

instead his role in renewing modern British poetry. By recounting 

an apparently harmless anecdote in which at a party he 

was once violently accused of having ‘revolutionised English poetry’, 

ruining it with his unconventional poetic strategies, Waley 

fashions himself as an important figure within modernism. 

Not dissimilarly to what Eliot does in his essay on Seneca, Waley 

places translation at the centre of modern British poetry, and claims 

that his ‘sprung rhythm’ does not come from Eliot (via Hopkins) 

but directly from his translations from the Chinese, thus opening 

up a possible an alternative genealogy of modernist verse. 40 

For Eliot, English poetry springs from the clash between the 

non-dramatic pre-Elizabethan period and the influence of an 

italianised Seneca created in translation; for Waley, it is the problem 

of translating the rhythms of Chinese poetry which led him to 

break with traditional poetic models and contribute to a modernism 

not linked to Eliot’s Hopkins or to Pound’s ‘make it new’, but to


the geographical and historical difference encountered in ancient 

China and Japan. 

Pound’s genius can be constituted in criticism and self-criticism 

as unique and absolute precisely because – and not in spite of 

– the link between cultural renewal, fascism, anti-semitism, and 

authoritarian positions. A re-evaluation of Waley, a minor figure 

in the histories of the twentieth century, can help us instead to rethink 

the ideological implications in the notion of genius, and open 

up new interpretations focused on observing how innovation in 

poetry is not only formal, but also epistemological, and lead us to 

revision literary tradition from the point of view of translation. 

IV. Dorothy L. Sayers, Dante, and the ‘common reader’ 

Dorothy L. Sayers (1893-1957), poet and scholar, 41 is mostly 

renown for her detective stories. 42 She is also the author of the translation 

of the Divina Commedia for Penguin (Inferno 1949, Purgatorio 

1955 and Paradiso completed after Sayers’s death by Barbara 

Reynolds in 1962). 43 In her posthumously published essay entitled 

‘The Art of Translating Dante’ (1965), 44 Sayers sketches a history of 

translations of Dante in England, quoting from a range of translations, 

discussing their merits and faults, and developing a theory of 

translation based on the practice of translating. 45 

Sayers highlights how Dante’s role changes in time; for instance, 

Boyd, caught up in his efforts to ‘improve’ the Commedia 46 , 

describes Dante as ‘wild’ and ‘wanting in connection’; in later years, 

some passages from the Inferno, among which the Paolo and 

Francesca and the Conte Ugolino episodes, achieve a canonical role 

thanks to the gothic re-evaluation. Sayers also connects the importance 

of Dante to the influence which the wars of independence in 

Italy had over England, triggering the Romantic Revival and its 

creation of the middle ages as a place of Christian faith and artistic 

beauty. 

Sayers makes ample use of quotations in order to evaluate each 

time the difficulties of translating. She condemns the often lamented 

lack of terza rima in English as an excuse to avoid tackling what 

she calls the ‘national habit’ of thinking in quatrains rather than in 

tercets. She then reformulates the possibilities of terza tima in English 

and uses Bickersteth as an example of a translator who uses 

rhyme to revitalise the line; she opposes this to the problems she 

find in the 1943 Laurence Binyon’s translation and, in the end, pro- 

35


poses her own translations as a possible solution. 

Should we happen to be suspicious of this teleological arrangement, 

in which her own translations appear as the apex, Sayers 

demonstrates to be fully aware of this risk, as she had done in a 

previous essay titled ‘On Translating the Divina Commedia’, 47 originally 

a paper given in 1954 at Girton College, Cambridge. Sayers 

here humorously reflects on the position of each translator of Dante: 

if a translator presumes to be able to be better than all his predecessors 

he risks appearing a ‘presumptuous ass’, but if he humbly asserts 

of not being able to be better than them, then he is a presumptuous 

ass, as he is unable to give his readers a reasons for buying 

his inferior translations. 48 

Eliot claims, as we have seen, that the original is unknowable 

insofar as it is matter an sich, always and only interpretable, and 

thus translatable; Sayers instead thinks of the original as plenitude, 

which the translation can never quite reproduce. For Sayers, something 

is always lost in translation. Although her position seems rather 

more conventional, Sayers surprisingly reaches conclusions similar 

to Eliot’s, albeit going through a different route: she sees translation 

as an interpretive act characteristic of its age, always linked to 

its own historical moment, always part of an infinite series of attempts. 

Unlike Pound, who foresees a cultural role for his translations, 

Sayers refuses to theorise translation ‘a priory’ and claims 

that any translator would be lucky to ‘live up to a quarter of his 

own theory’. 49 

But what are her objectives in translating Dante? She wants 

to produce a ‘popular’ translation, a translation able to reach the 

‘common reader’. This, of course, links translation with national 

identity, since she uses Dante to make a diagnosis of her contemporary 

England. Until the preceding generation Dante was well 

known, but today, says Sayers, to be ‘literate’ does not mean to be 

‘educated’ and Dante must be made understandable, readable, and 

economically affordable. This new audience is described with a 

vocabulary which brings us back to Virginia Woolf, since Sayers 

refers to a ‘common reader’ 50 and underlines the connection between 

art consumption and material conditions, just like Woolf does 

in Three Guineas. 51 At one guinea a canticle, three well-commented 

canticles, says Sayers, are not a sum which the common reader will 

not be able to afford. The reader in Sayers also refers to a female 

readership, as shown not only by the allusions to Woolf but also by


the quotation chosen by Sayers to describe it: ‘non solamente maschi 

ma femmine, che sono molti in questa lingua, volgari e non letterati’ 

(not only male but also female, who are many in this language, 

speaking in vernacular and not educated). 52 

Sayers’s translation wants to face a new image of modernity, 

on the one hand criticising the ‘misplaced reverence’ towards Dante 

which transforms ‘hypertrophic decorum’ into the rule of translating, 

53 and on the other vindicating Dante as great poet in order to 

stimulate other translators to use the widest range of styles available 

to them, not to be afraid of rhyme, 54 and not to italianise their 

beats, estranging the English language in a series of endless special 

effects. This essay invites its readers to appreciate the comic together 

with the solemn aspects of Dante’s work and to look at how they 

alternate and merge. For Sayers it is in practice and not in theory 

that translation survives or dies. 55 

Translating becomes in Sayers a way to rethink literary and 

cultural history, which gradually becomes also a social history of 

modern England, and a way to reconsider how highbrow literature 

can be made available to the common reader without dumbing 

it down. Such a dichotomy, of course, is resisted also in her own 

practice, which alternates translating Dante to writing about the 

adventures of her detective Lord Peter Whimsey. 

Conclusions 

The essays on translation by Eliot, Pound, Waley and Sayers 

indicate how between the 1920s and the 1960s translation mediates 

not only ideas of origin but also of change and modernity. Sayers 

and Waley’s fame will probably always be linked to their work 

as translators rather than as poets in their own right, unlike Eliot 

and Pound. And yet, an analysis of the politics of translation upheld 

by the four authors may be the beginning of an alternative 

history of literature from the point of view of translation. Such a 

history of literature may appear at fist less appealing, deprived as it 

would be of solitary geniuses; it would have the advantage, however, 

of being able to account for the complex historical texture 

which makes mediation and negotiation the basis not only of translation, 

but also of literary renewal. 

A different version of the article appeared in Traduzione e poesia 

nell’Europa del Novecento, ed.Anna Dolfi (Rome: Bulzoni, 2004), 69- 

90. 

37


Notes 

1. T.S. Eliot, ‘Elizabethan Dramatists’ (London: Faber and Faber, 1968 

[1963]), p. 6. 

2. T.S. Eliot, ‘Elizabethan’, p. 11. 




6. T.S. Eliot, ‘Elizabethan’, p. 33. Suffice it to think of Shakespeare’s Italy 

and of Byron’s carnivals, but also of contemporary British crime fiction set in 

Italy, such as that produced by Michael Dibdin, or of Jeanette Winterson’s 

Venetian ‘passions’. 

7. Michele Marrapodi et. al (eds.), Shakespeare’s Italy: Functions of Italian 

Locations in Renaissance Drama (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1993). 

8. Antony Easthope, Englishness and National Culture (London: Routledge, 

1988); Philip Dodd and Robert Colls (eds.) Englishness (London: Routledge, 

1987); Paul Langford, Englishness Identified (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 

2001); Gary Taylor, Reinventing Shakespeare (London: Chatto & Windus, 1990); 

Alessandra Marzola, Englishness (Florence: Carocci, 1999). 


10. Ezra Pound, Selected Poems, edited and with an introduction by T.S. 

Eliot (London: Faber and Faber, 1928), pp. x-xi. 

11. Literary Essays of Ezra Pound (London: Faber and Faber, 1974 [1954]), p. 

xi. 

12. Ezra Pound, Selected Poems, p. xvii. 

13. Ernest Fenellosa and Ezra Pound The Chinese Written Character as a 

Medium for Poetry, Little Review, 6:5, (September 1919), pp. 62-64; reprinted in 

Ezra Pound’s Poetry and Prose, Contributions to Periodicals, eds. Lea Baechler, 

James Longenbach and Walton A. Litz (New York: Garland, 1991), vol. III, pp. 

326-328; 331-336; 346-351; 361-364. Among the many works by Pound on the 

East see Cathai (London: Elkin Mathews, 1915), translated as Catai, ed. Mary 

de Rachelwiltz (Milan: Scheiwiller, 1987); Plays Modelled on the No, (1916) ed. 

Donald Gallup (Toledo: Friends of the University of Toledo Libraries, 1987); 

Ezra Pound and Ernest Fenollosa, ‘Noh’ or Accomplishment: A Study of the 

Classical Stage of Japan (London: Macmillan, 1916); Confucio. Ta Hsueh.Ta S’eu. 

Dai Gaku. Studio integrale, Italian version by Ezra Pound and Alberto Luchini 

(Rapallo, 1942); Testamento di Confucio, versione italiana di Ezra Pound e Alberto 

Luchini (Venezia: Casa delle edizioni popolari, 1942); Confucio. Studio integrale 

dell’asse che non vacilla, (1928) con una nota di Achilles Fang (Milan, 1955). 

See also Ezra Pound and Japan. Letters and Essays, ed. Samehide Kodama 

(Redding Ridge: Black Swan, 1987) and Makoto Ueda, Zeami, Basho, Yeats, 

Pound. A Study in Japanese and English Poetics (The Hague: Mouton, 1965). 

14. ‘The Chinese Written Character’, p. 332. 

15. ‘The Chinese’, pp. 349-50. 

16. ‘The Chinese’, p. 362.


17. Ezra Pound, ‘Immediate Need for Confucius’, Aryan Path, (August 

1937), reprinted in Selected Prose, 1909-1965 (London: Faber and Faber, 1973), 

pp. 89-94, p. 89. 

18. Ezra Pound, ‘Mang-Tsze (The Ethics of Mencius)’, in Selected Prose, pp. 

95-111. 

19. Ezra Pound, Translators of Greek: Early Translation of Homer in Instigations 

of Ezra Pound Together with an Essay on the Chinese Written Character by 

Ernest Fenellosa (New York: Boni and Liveright, 1920), reprinted in Literary 

Essays of Ezra Pound, pp. 249-275, pp. 268-269. See also The Spirit of Romance 

(Norfolk (Connecticut): New Directions, 1953), in which Pound writes: ‘I resolved 

[…] that I would know the dynamic content from the shell, that I would 

know what was accounted poetry everywhere, what part of poetry was ‘indestructible’, 

what part could not be lost by translation, and – scarcely less important 

– what effects were obtainable in one language only and were utterly 

incapable of being translated.’ p. 5. 

20. ‘The Confucian is totalitarian’, in Mang-Tsze, p. 99. 

21.‘The Confucian’, p. 110. 

22. ‘Confucio filosofo statale’, Meridiano di Roma, 6: 9 (11 May 1941), pp. 

[1]-2, ristampato in Ezra Pound’s Poetry and Prose, vol. VIII, pp. 119-120, p. 119. 

23. ‘Alla comprensione della forza e del tono giusto del pensiero di 

Confucio, una comprensione della natura dell’ideogramma è indispensabile. 

L’ideogramma rappresenta più di una parola; cioè per tradurlo bisogna 

qualche volta adoperare tutta una frase. E in questa frase bisogna qualche 

volta indicare la fonte, ed il fondo dell’idea “graffiata”.’ ‘Ta Hio’, in Meridiano 

di Roma, 6: 46 (16 November 1941), p. 7; in Ezra Pound’s Poetry and Prose, vol. 

VIII, pp. 149-150, p. 149. 

24. Charles Ferrall, Modernist Writing and Reactionary Politics (Cambridge: 

Cambridge University Press, 2001). 

25. ‘The first great distinction between Chinese taste and our own is that 

the Chinese like poetry that they have to think about, and even poetry that 

they have to puzzle over. This latter taste has occasionally broken out in 

Europe, notably in twelfth-century Provence and thirteenth-century Tuscany, 

but it has never held its own for very long.’ ‘Chinese Poetry’, in Today, 3: 14 

(April 1918), pp. 54-57; in Ezra Pound’s Poetry and Prose, vol. III, pp. 84-86, p. 

85. 

26. Anthony Julius, T.S. Eliot, Anti-Semitism, and Literary Form (Cambridge: 

Cambridge University Press, 1996). 

27. Edward W. Said, Orientalism (New York: Pantheon, 1978). 

28. Hugh Kenner, ‘Introduction’, Selected Poems, pp. xvi-xviii. 

29. Ezra Pound: Translations, with an introduction by Hugh Kenner (Norfolk 

(Ct): New Directions, 1979 [1954]), p. 9; my translation. The comparison 

between Waley and Pound is also made by Charles Tomlinson in his The 

Oxford Book of Verse in English Translation (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 

1980), pp. xiii-xvii. 

39


30. Among his many translations I would like to list here: A Hundred and 

Seventy Chinese Poems (Londra: Constable & Co, 1918 [1917]); More Translations 

from the Chinese (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1919); The Poet Li Po 

Ad 701-762 (London: East and West Ltd, 1919); Japanese Poetry. The «Uta» 

(Oxford: Clarendon, 1919); The Nô Plays of Japan (London: George Allen and 

Unwin, 1921); Zen Buddhism and Its Relation to Art (London: Benn, 1923); An 

Introduction to the Study of Chinese Painting (London: Benn, 1923); The Temple 

and Other Poems (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1923); The Pillow Book of 

Sei Shônagen (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1928); Translations from the 

Chinese, illustrated by Cyrus LeRoy Baldridge (New York: A.A. Knopf [1941], 

1964); The Tale of Genji (New York: Modern Library, 1960), translated into 

Italian as Il Racconto di Genji (Milan: Bompiani, 1947). 

31. Francis A. Johns, A Bibliography of Arthur Waley (London: George Allen 

and Unwin, 1968), p. 18. 

32. Jonathan Spence in ‘The Explorer Who Never Left Home – Arthur 

Waley’, in Renditions, 5 (Autumn 1975), pp. 75-80, p. 75. Waley worked as 

curator of the Oriental Sub-Department of Prints and Drawings of the British 

Museum between 1913 and 1929. 

33. Octavio Paz and Eliot Weinberger, Nineteen Ways of Looking at Wang 

Wei. How a Chinese Poem is Translated (Berkeley, CA: Group West-Moyers Bell, 

1987), p. 35. 

34. Wai-lim Yip, Ezra Pound’s Cathai (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 

1969), p. 101. 

35. It remains unclear what Wai-Lim Yip means by literal translation. 

Wai-lim Yip, Ezra Pound’s Cathai, p. 89, note 26. 

36. ‘Arthur Waley was apparently very unhappy with Pound’s translation 

[of Li Po], and he decided to show Pound a few things by retranslating Li 

Po’s poems that Pound had rendered. These are found in a paper that he read 

before the China Society at the School of Oriental Studies in London, on November 

21, 1918.’ Yip, Ezra Pound’s Cathai, p. 88. Yip describes how Achilles 

Fang first observed that Waley’s speech was an attack against Pound in his 

article ‘Fenollosa and Pound’, Harvard Journal of Asian Studies, 20; 2 (June 

1957), pp. 213-238, p. 221. 

37. ‘The Explorer Who Never Left Home’, p. 76; Spence quotes Waley’s 

introduction to his first book, A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems (1917) to 

argue in favour of a view of China in which friendship dominates over romantic 

love. Waley was a harsh critic of his own early positions in the 1962 

re-edition. 

38. ‘It is not, after all, as though the translator has to be or even had better 

be a creative genius’, Madly Singing in the Mountain. An Appreciation and Anthology 

of Arthur Waley, ed. Ivan Morris (London: Allen and Unwin, 1972), p. 

157. 

39. Madly Singing, p. 156. 

40. Paz, Nineteenth Ways of Looking.


41. On Dorothy L. Sayers, see James Brabazon, Dorothy L. Sayers, The Life of 

a Corageous Woman, with a preface by Anthony Fleming and an introductory 

note by P.D. James (London: Gallancz, 1981), reprinted in 1988 as Dorothy L. 

Sayers, a Biography; Barbara Reynolds, Dorothy L. Sayers, Her Life and Her Soul 

(London: Sceptre, 1998); Trevor H. Hall, Dorothy L. Sayers, Nine Literary Studies 

(London: Duckworth, 1980); Ralph E. Hone, Dorothy L. Sayers, A Literary Biography 

(Kent (Ohio) and London: Kent State University Press, 1979); Terrance 

L. Lewis, Dorothy L. Sayers’s Whimsey and the Interwar British Society (Lewiston 

(NY) Lampeter: Edwin Mellen Press, 1994); Barbara Reynolds, The Passionate 

Intellect: Dorothy Sayers Encounter with Dante (Kent (Ohio) and London: Kent 

State University Press, 1988); Catherine Kenney, The Remarkable Case of Dorothy 

L. Sayers, (Kent (Ohio) and London: Kent State University Press, 1990); 

Janet Hitchman, Such a Strange Lady, an Introduction to Dorothy L. Sayers, 1893- 

1957 (London: New English Library, 1975); As Her Whimsey Took Her. Critical 

Essays on the Works of Dorothy L. Sayers, ed. Margaret P. Hannay (Kent (Ohio) 

and London: Kent State University Press, 1980); Robert B. Harmon and Margaret 

A. Burger, An Annotated Guide to the Works of Dorothy L. Sayers (New York 

and London: Garland, 1977); Colleen B. Gilbert, A Bibliography of the Works of 

Dorothy L. Sayers (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1979). 

42. Among her most famous detective stories are Gaudy Nights, Busman’s 

Honeymoon, Strong Poison, Unnatural Death, Five Red Herrings, and Murder Must 

Advertised; Lord Peter Whimsey is Sayer’s aristocratic but ‘modern’ detective. 

43. The Divine Comedy. Hell, translated by Dorothy L. Sayers 

(Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1949); The Divine Comedy. Purgatory, 1955; The 

Divine Comedy. Paradise, 1962. See also Dorothy L. Sayers, The Mind of the 

Matter (London: Methuen, 1941); Introductory Papers on Dante (London: 

Methuen, 1954); Further Papers on Dante (London: Methuen, 1957): The Poetry 

of Search and the Poetry of Statement and Other Posthumous Essays on Literature, 

Religion and Language (London: Victor Gollancz, 1963); Unpopular Opinions 

(London: Victor Gollancz, 1946); Why Work? An Address (London: Methuen, 

1942); Correspondence, Selections. The Letters of Dorothy L: Sayers, ed. Barbara 

Reynolds, with a preface by P.D. James, 3 vols. (Cambridge: Dorothy L. Sayers 

Society, 1998). 

44. Dorothy L. Sayers, ‘The Art of Translating Dante’, in Nottingham Medieval 

Studies. Dante Centenary Number, ed. Louis Thorpe, vol. 9, 1965, pp. 15-31. 

45. She claims that Jonathan Richardson (1665-1745) was the first Englishman 

after Chaucher to translate passages from the Commedia; Thomas 

Gray’s version follows, written between 1737 and 1740 (but only published 

in 1884), after which we have the first complete translation by William Higgins, 

who only published a few passages in 1760. Sayers then analyses terza rima 

translations: the first done by William Hayley in 1782; then the first complete 

translation in terza rima, by Henry Boyd in 1802; and finally that of ‘Dante’ 

Cary (Henry Francis Cary, 1772-1844), published in its entirety in 1812, and 

for years the reference text for Dante’s readers in England. Sayers then analy- 

41


ses the golden age of translation for Dante, the Victorian period, in which at 

least twenty translations of the Commedia were published between 1833 and 

1915; she then concludes with a reading of Bickersteth’s learned translation 

and J.D. Sinclair’s prose translation. 

46. For an interesting parallel with Shakespeare’s reception in Italy see 

Angela Locatelli, L’eloquenza e gli incantesimi. Interpretazioni shakespeariane 

(Milan: Guerini e Associati, 1988). 

47. Dorothy L. Sayers, ‘On Translating the Divina Commedia’, Nottingham 

Medieval Studies, 2, 1958, pp. 38-66. 

48. ‘On Translating’, p. 38. 


50. Virginia Woolf, The Common Reader (London: Hogarth Press, 1925) 

and The Common Reader. Second Series (London: Hogarth Press, 1932). 

51. Virginia Woolf, Three Guineas (London: Hogarth Press, 1938). 




55. By quoting from Longfellow, Cary, and Bickersteth, Sayers looks at the 

passage from Paradiso XI in which the quick ‘scalzarsi’ of Bernardo followed 

by Egidio and Silvestro has created so many problems for translators. Her 

practical solution is then offered. ‘On Translating’, p. 61.

Traduzioni /Translations

The Emperor, China ink, 70x50 cm.

Alla cieca 

by Claudio Magris 

Anne Milano Appel, a former library director and language 

teacher, has been translating professionally for more than ten years. 

She is active in both ALTA and ATA and is a member of PEN. 

Several of her book-length translations have been published, and 

shorter works that she has authored or translated have appeared 

in other professional and literary venues. Her translation of Stefano 

Bortolussi’s novel Head Above Water was the winner of the 2004 

Northern California Book Award for Translation. Her translation 

of Terror: The New Anti-Semitism and the War Against the West, by 

Italian journalist Fiamma Nirenstein, was published in 2005 by 

Smith & Kraus Publishers, and translations of books on Treviso and 

Venice were published by Vianello Libri, also in 2005. The novel 

The Mosaic Crimes by Giulio Leoni is forthcoming by Harcourt. 

Claudio Magris was born in Trieste, Italy, in 1939. A versatile 

and prolific writer, his work includes essays, novels, plays and travelogues, 

often with a blending of genres. Among his works published 

by Garzanti are: Dietro le parole (1978), Itaca e oltre (1982), 

Illazioni su una sciabola (1984), Danubio (1986; published in the 

United States as Danube in 1989 to great acclaim), Stadelmann (1988), 

Un altro mare (1991), Microcosmi (1997, for which he received the 

Premio Strega and which appeared in English in 2001 as Microcosms), 

and La mostra (2001). His most recent works are the novel 

Alla cieca (2005) and the novella Lei dunque capirà (2006). A professor 

of German Literature at the University of Trieste, Magris is a 

regular contributor to the Italian daily, Corriere della Sera. He lives 

in Trieste. 

Translator’s Note 1 

The two works by Claudio Magris from which these passages are drawn 

are closely related thematically and metaphorically, though formalistically 

they are quite different. In the expansive, densely written Alla cieca (Garzanti, 

2005), the novel that precedes Lei dunque capirà (Garzanti, 2006), one of the 

narrative voices, who composes inscriptions to be carved on headstones, explains 

that the story to be written on the tombstone must be concise yet provide 

all the essentials: gravestones are concentrated novels. Or better yet, he


says, novels are expanded gravestones. If Alla cieca can be said to be an expanded 

commemorative stone, a lapide dilatata, the novella Lei dunque capirà is 

indeed lapidary by contrast: a few brief lines carved simply and incisively on 

the marble of the page. 

To be sure, there are similarities between the two works. The female 

protagonist of Lei dunque capirà shares an identity with the donna-polena (figurehead) 

and the donna-scudo (shield) of the earlier book; and each book recasts 

an ancient myth: Jason and the Argonauts in one, Eurydice and Orpheus 

in the other. Still, the formal differences are the most strikingly apparent. 

Unlike the collective “I” that narrates in Alla cieca, the novella takes the form 

of a monologue, the single voice of a self-styled Muse who in life – now she is 

in the afterlife – inspired her poet-husband to greatness. Whereas Alla cieca is 

an intense maelstrom, a veritable vortex of voices that is almost impenetrable, 

Lei dunque capirà is spare, essential, minimalist. 

Since Magris is postmodern, in his hands the classical stories of Jason 

and the Argonauts, Eurydice and Orpheus become upended myths, archetypal 

narratives turned on their head. In Alla cieca, Jason and his crew bring 

Greek culture but also violence, civilization and barbarism, when they go in 

search of the Golden Fleece, and the fleece is sullied. Similarly the “Eurydice” 

of Lei dunque capirà is an anti-heroine, or at best an ambivalent figure. Like the 

ship’s figurehead of Alla cieca with whom she is associated, she encapsulates 

both noble qualities and less noble ones. She is the woman who protects, the 

donna-scudo, but also the woman who can lead to ruin. Both figures are connected 

with abandonment and loss, as well as with deliverance and salvation. 

Given Magris’ obsession – love affair? – with the sea, it is not surprising 

that the icon that becomes the central metaphor is the polena, the carved figure 

on the prow of a sailing vessel whose gaze was intended to find the way. Nor 

is it surprising that ambivalence is the dominant note. Is Magris’ figurehead 

a negative or a positive symbol? Does it show the way or is it symbolic of the 

events of history, of men’s actions, that go along “alla cieca”, indifferently? 

Magris’ world – his sea – does not lend itself to binary distinctions. The 

answer, like the sea, like life itself, is ambiguous, or rather ambivalent, multi- 

valent. In a context that embraces the coexistence of opposites, of a multiplicity 

of values and meanings, the figurehead is both positive and negative… 

and more. In one sense it represents those who turn a blind eye, who look and 

move on: “guarda e passa” as Virgil tells Dante. Alternatively it is the image 

of a humanity that has lost its way, yet plows ahead sightlessly, gropingly 

through life’s seas: an act of faith. Living is believing, one of Alla cieca’s narrators 

tells us; it is faith that makes life what it is.

Anne Milano Appel/ Claudio Magris 

47


dal romanzo Alla cieca 

di Claudio Magris (Garzanti, 2005) 

[Capitolo 8] 

Ho amato il mare più della donna, prima di capire che sono la 

stessa cosa. Ma questo l’ho capito tardi, tanto più tardi di quella 

sera a Londra, quando, scappando da quella ragazza, sono andato 

a sbattere nella squadra dell’arruolamento forzato, che mi ha 

trascinato su un barcone sul Tamigi e di lì a bordo del Surprize, una 

bella nave da guerra. Sì, sono scappato. Capita. Lei non ha mai 

provato la paura? Quel corpo che non è più tuo, neanche l’odore lo 

riconosci, un sudore acido – non ti comandi più, non puoi ordinarti 

di non sudare, di non avere quell’odore. 

A me piace comandare – anche obbedire, è lo stesso, sono io 

che decido, anche di sottomettermi al Partito, per esempio. Si sa 

quello che si deve fare e sotto a chi tocca. Ma quel-la sera a Londra, 

sbarcato dalla Jane, in quella locanda, con quella ragazza, non 

sapevo chi comandava e chi obbediva. Il mio corpo era là, lontano, 

sudato, gelato; sentivo che nell’amore, neanche in quello di cinque 

minuti, non si comanda e non si decide. Come si fa, con una ragazza 

come quella, cosa le si dice, chi è che comincia, che cosa succederà... 

Via, tagliare la corda, anche brutalmente se quella insiste, 

appena girato l’angolo passerà questa paura, questa vergogna. Mi 

potrò bere da qualche parte un boccale di birra fresca, che ora non 

mi vuole andar giù, ah la birra, fresca, schiumosa, senti di nuovo le 

braccia, le gambe; anche il sudore è diverso, un buon sudore. E una 

delizia quando la birra ti scende in gola e in pancia e quando, poco 

dopo, vai a pisciarla, anche l’uccello è nuovamente sciolto e disinvolto, 

ogni tanto ti gonfia chissà perché i pantaloni ma è affar suo e 

non gli badi, come quando ti viene su un rutto, tanto fa presto a 

tornare a posto. 

D’accordo, quella volta la birra non l’ho bevuta, la squadra 

dell’arruolamento forzato mi ha beccato quasi subito, nel vicolo, 

prima che potessi infilarmi in un’altra taverna. Ma non è questo 

che conta. Mi dispiacciono assai di più quelle malignità insinuate 

dai miei biografi, più o meno tutti – Clune, Stephenson, Davies, e 

adesso anche quel Dan Sprod, che la sa così lunga. E vero che ho


from the Novel Alla cieca 

by Claudio Magris (Garzanti, 2005) 

English Translation by Anne Milano Appel 

[Chapter 8] 

I loved the sea more than women, before I understood that 

they are one and the same. But I only understood this later, much 

later than that night in London when, fleeing from that girl, I 

ended up running into an impressment squad, that dragged me 

onto a scow on the Thames and from there on board a fine warship, 

the Surprize. Yes, I fled. It happens. Haven’t you ever been 

afraid? That body that is no longer yours, you don’t even recognize 

its odor, a sour sweat – you’re no longer in control, you can’t 

order yourself not to sweat, not to have that odor. 

I like to be in command – also to obey, it’s all the same, it’s I 

who decide, even whether to submit to the Party, for example. 

You know what you have to do and under whose command. But 

that night in London – after disembarking from the Jane – that 

night in that tavern with that girl, I didn’t know who was in 

command and who was obeying. My body was there, remote, 

sweaty, chilled; I felt that when it came to love, even the five- 

minute variety, no one is in command and no one decides. What 

do you do, with a girl like that, what do you say to her, who is it 

that makes the first move, what will it be like… 

Go ahead, clear out of there, cut and run, even brutally if 

she won’t take no for an answer, as soon as you turn the corner 

the fear will pass, the shame. I’ll be able to get a pint of cold beer 

somewhere – beer I can’t seem to get down now – ah yes, beer, 

cold, frothy, you can feel your arms again, your legs; even the 

sweat is different, a good sweat. It’s a delight when the beer slides 

down your throat and into your belly, and when, soon afterwards, 

you go to take a piss, even your pecker is free and easy 

again, relaxed; every once in a while, who knows why, it makes 

your pants bulge, but that’s its business and you don’t pay any 

attention to it – any more than when you have to burp – especially 

since it’s quick to settle back in place. 

To be sure, that time I did not get to drink any beer, the 

forced labor impressment squad grabbed me almost immediately, 

in the alley, before I could slip into another tavern. But that’s not 

what matters. What I find a lot more objectionable are those malicious 

remarks insinuated by my biographers, more or less all of 

49


scritto di essere stato l’unico, tra i miei fratelli, a non venir allattato 

da mia madre, sono andato a controllare, e allora si sono sbizzarriti 

su questa mancanza del seno, non devo certo spiegare a Lei queste 

manie, che anche qui dentro non mancano... A par-te che non sono 

io a dire così, è Thomas, nelle Avventure di Thomas Walter – l’ho 

scritto in carcere a Newgate, quel romanzo, lo dice pure quel mio 

pignolo biografo, e ho inventato tutto – Oh dio tutto, non si inventa 

mai niente, se è per questo, e quando si scrive «io»... e come si 

potrebbe invece dire «lui», che è una bugia ancora più grande di 

«io»? Non vorrete mica dirmi che è con lui che state parlando 

adesso... 

E va bene, quella volta non ho fatto l’amore, che lo scrivano 

pure. Mi piace una biografia che racconti tutto quello che uno non 

fa – Ma bisognava esserci, quella sera, per capire... quella confusione, 

nella taverna e fuori, strade affollate, grida, risse, qualcuno per terra, 

mezzo accoppato, i merciai ambulanti che gli passano accanto 

offrendo a squarciagola panpepato, la gente che corre ai banchi di 

mamma Proctor azzuffandosi per il posto migliore da cui assistere 

alle impiccagioni a Tyburn, i galli che si straziano nei combattimenti 

al Cockpit, l’orso incatenato che sbrana i cani al Bear Garden e quei 

baracconi con i loro mostri, quei bruti imbambolati... 

E in tutta questa baraonda, due creature sole e perdute, io e te, 

ragazza senza nome, che cosa avremmo dovuto fare se non fuggire, 

senza dire neanche per cinque minuti false parole d’amore né 

simulare gesti d’amore? Quella sera sono fuggito, disertore del campo 

di battaglia dell’amore, feroce come tutti i campi di battaglia. Fossi 

sempre fuggito così, an-che più tardi, forse adesso – poi invece non 

sono stato più capace di scappare né di mollare la bandiera – 

bisognerebbe averne sempre tre o quattro, di bandiere, se consegni 

quella giusta a chi di dovere, dicendo che l’hai strappata al nemico 

nella polvere della battaglia, ti prendi anche un premio, e ti paghi il 

vino all’osteria... e invece guarda dove ha finito per portarmi la 

bandiera rossa, sempre stretta in mano, altro che tagliare la corda – 

[Capitolo 18] 

Mi scusi di nuovo, dottore, è stato solo un capogiro, per un 

momento non ho visto più nulla, solo un pulviscolo abbagliante 

che mi feriva gli occhi. Capita. Adesso è passato e tutto è chiaro, 

come il volto di Maria. Colpa di quella porta girevole, a vetri, del


them – Clune, Stephenson, Davies, and now even that Dan Sprod, 

who thinks he’s so smart. It’s true that I wrote that I was the only one 

of my siblings not to be nursed by my mother – I went and checked – 

and so they had a great time with my having lacked the breast, surely 

I do not have to explain these obsessions to you, since they are common 

even in here… Aside from the fact that it is not I who says that, 

it is Thomas, in the Adventures of Thomas Walter – I wrote that novel in 

prison, in Newgate, even that pedantic biographer of mine says so, 

and I invented all of it – Oh God, all of it, no one ever invents anything, 

for that matter, and when one writes “I”… yet how could one 

say “he” instead, since it is an even greater lie than “I”? You don’t 

mean to tell me that he’s the one you’re talking to now… 

All right then, that time I did not make love, let them go ahead 

and write it. I like a biography that recounts everything you don’t do 

– But you had to be there, that night, to understand… that confusion, 

in the tavern and outside, the crowded streets, the shouts and brawls, 

someone lying in the gutter, half dead, the peddlers passing nearby 

hawking honeyed fruit cake at the top of their lungs, people flocking 

to Mother Proctor’s Pews scuffling to get the best place from which to 

watch the hangings at Tyburn gallows, the roosters ripping each other 

to pieces in the cockfights at the Cockpit, the chained bear tearing the 

dogs limb from limb at the Bear Garden and those large tents with 

their monsters, those dazed brutes… 

And in all this pandemonium, two lost, solitary creatures, me 

and you, a girl without a name, what should we have done if not flee, 

rather than uttering false words of love or faking loving gestures, even 

for five minutes? That night I fled, a deserter from the battlefield of 

love, savage like all battlefields. If only I had always fled like that, later 

on as well, perhaps now – later instead I was no longer able to flee, or 

abandon the flag. One should always have three or four of them, flags 

that is; if you hand over the right one to those concerned, saying that 

you tore it away from the enemy in the dust of battle, you will receive 

an award besides, and they will pay for your wine at the tavern… 

and instead, look where the red flag ended up taking me, that flag 

forever in my grip, a far cry from cut and run – 

[Chapter 18] 

Forgive me again, doctor, it was only a sudden dizziness, for a 

moment I couldn’t see anything anymore, just a dazzling dust mote 

that was hurting my eyes. It happens. Now it’s gone and everything 

is clear, like Maria’s face. The fault of that revolving door, 

51


caffè Lloyd, a Fiume, dove andavamo qualche volta la sera. Una 

volta l’ho vista arrivare; io ero già dentro ad aspettarla, lei ha 

attraversato la strada, mi ha sorriso oltre la porta trasparente ed è 

entrata facendo scorrere i pannelli; mentre lei passava fra loro la 

sua figura e il suo vi-so si sono specchiati in quei cristalli che 

roteavano e si sono frantumati in cangianti riflessi, una manciata 

di schegge luminose e dissolte. Così, tra una porta girevole e l’altra, 

è sparita. 

Devo essere rimasto tanto tempo a guardare il luccichio di quei 

battenti; anni seduto là dentro, mentre le porte girano sempre più 

lentamente e non entra nessuno. E comprensibile che a uno gli giri 

anche la testa e non ricordi nemmeno più bene chi è sparito fra un 

vetro e l’altro, di chi era quel sorriso. Per un attimo, per esempio, ho 

creduto, intravedendola sulla strada, che fosse Mangawana; che 

anche lei avesse attraversato il grande mare. Ero io che la chiamavo 

così, sotto i grandi eucalipti protesi sulle acque del Derwent, con 

quell’antico nome aborigeno, per canzonarla della sua pelle bruna 

come quella di mia madre. Era invece Maria – sì, era anche 

Mangawana, perché Maria era il mare in cui sfociano tutti i fiumi. 

Amare una donna non vuoi dire dimenticare tutte le altre, bensì 

amarle e desiderarle e averle tutte in lei. Quando facevamo all’amore 

sulla spiaggia solitaria della Levrera o in quella stanza a Miholaséica, 

c’era anche la foresta australe ai bordi dell’oceano, Terra Australis 

incognita. 

Invece a Fiume, quel giorno... Quando Maria, vedendo-mi 

incapace di partire, mi ha preso per mano, se l’è passata sul seno e 

mi ha guidato verso la porta, nell’odore dell’alba, aiutandomi ad 

andare – il viaggio è l’inizio del ritorno, mi ha sorriso, ma io sapevo, 

almeno credo, che non ci sarebbe stato ritorno, per decreto degli 

dèi che io, con un arbitrio distorto del cuore, avevo inalzato più 

grandi del mio cuore e di quel sorriso. 

Forse non l’ho mai amata come allora, quando mentivo il 

ritorno e m’imbarcavo alla ricerca del vello; mentre lei mi teneva 

ancora un istante le mani e insieme mi aiutava, dolce e indomabile, 

a staccare le mie, Issipile che saluta Giasone: «Parti, e gli dèi ti 

concedano di ritornare coi tuoi compagni / sani e salvi e portando 

al re il vello d’oro, / come tu vuoi e come ti è caro. Però quest’isola 

/e lo scettro che fu di mio padre saranno per te, se in futuro, / 

tornato in patria, vorrai venire qua ancora. / Ricordati, dunque, di 

Issipile anche lontano, anche quando / sarai ritornato e...» – «Be’,


with the glass panels, at the cafe Lloyd, in Fiume, where we would 

go sometimes in the evening. One time I saw her arriving; I was 

already inside waiting for her, she crossed the street, smiled at me 

from beyond the transparent door and entered it, turning the panels; 

as she passed between them her figure and her face were mirrored 

in those revolving plates of glass and shattered into changing 

reflections, a handful of luminous, fragmented splinters. And so, 

between one revolving door panel and another, she disappeared. 

I must have stayed there a long time watching those glittering 

door panes; years sitting inside there, as the door revolves more and 

more slowly and nobody enters. It’s understandable that your head 

would spin too and after a while you don’t even remember so well 

who it was that disappeared between one pane and the other, whose 

smile it was. For a moment, for instance, catching a glimpse of her in 

the street, I thought it was Mangawana; that she too had crossed the 

great sea. I was the one who called her that, under the huge eucalyptus 

trees leaning out over the waters of the Derwent: that ancient 

aboriginal name, to tease her about her dusky skin, dark like my 

mother’s. Instead it was Maria – yes, she was also Mangawana, because 

Maria was the sea into which all rivers flow. Loving a woman 

does not mean that you forget all the others, but rather that you love 

them and desire them and have them all in her. When we made love 

on the solitary beach of Levrera island or in that room in Miholascica, 

there was also the austral forest at the edge of the ocean, Terra Australis 

Incognita, the unknown land of the South. 

Instead in Fiume, that day… When Maria, seeing that I was 

incapable of leaving, took my hand, placed it on her breast, then 

led me toward the door, in the scented dawn, helping me to go – 

the journey is the beginning of the return, she smiled at me, but I 

knew, at least I think I did, that there would be no return, by decree 

of the gods whom I – by some distortion of my heart’s will – 

had set above my heart and that smile. 

Perhaps I never loved her as much as I did at that moment, 

when I lied about returning and embarked on the search for the 

fleece; while she held my hands a moment longer, and at the same 

time, gentle yet resolute, helped me disengage mine – Hypsipyle 

bidding farewell to Jason: “Go, and may the gods grant that you 

return with your companions safe and sound, bringing the king 

the golden fleece, as you wish and hold dear. But this island and 

the scepter that was my father’s will be yours, if in the future, hav- 

53


non sai andare avanti, come a scuola? Dai... Ecco, ripeti, “e lasciami 

una prole, ch’io possa seguire con tutto il mio cuore, / se gli dèi mi 

concedono di dare alla luce un tuo figlio.”» – Basta, non siamo a 

scuola, a suggerire durante le interrogazioni... Non vorremo mica 

declamare tutto il libro, adesso, no? E non chiedetemi, per favore, 

se gli dèi... che ne so, che ne posso sapere... Neanche Giasone la 

guarda negli occhi, quando risponde solenne: «Issipile, possa quello 

che hai detto compiersi per il volere divino.» Quando li ho alzati, i 

miei occhi, lei non c’era più, sparita – no, era là, come sempre, ma 

non sapevo chi era, polena bellissima senza nome che la furia della 

tempesta ha divelto dalla nave affondata e vaga fluttuante sulle 

onde, i grandi occhi rivolti in alto, a un vuoto ancora più grande di 

quello del mare. 

[Capitolo 39] 

Le piace? Guardi che viso - bellissimo e generico, dice la 

didascalia, come dev’essere la bellezza, depurata di ogni scoria 

accidentale e particolare, di ogni dolorosa espressività individuale. 

Potessi cancellarle anche dal mio viso, come le piallo e spiano via 

dal volto di questa polena, le rughe incise dal mio cuore, mie e solo 

maledettamente mie. Una buona idea, dottore, questa di farci 

lavorare, di non la-sciarci immalinconire, le mani in mano; a ognuno 

il suo compito, la sua specialità. Ergoterapia, Arbeit macht frei, 

conosco la cura. Non mi lamento, perché mi diverto a scolpire e a 

intagliare queste donne di legno. Non avrei neanche bisogno, a dire 

il vero, di quei bei cataloghi illustrati che mi date per copiare le 

figure. Non sono un novizio, mi guadagnavo due soldi anche 

fabbricando o aggiustando un paio di polene per qualche nave che 

arrivava a Hobart Town con la prua e la figura di prua scalcagnate. 

Anche per questo non mi dispiace avere fra le mani quei seni di 

legno, piallarli finché diventano lisci ed è un gusto accarezzarli, oh 

niente sconcezze, per carità, è che mi ricordano quei lavoretti di 

allora, ho tentato anche di modellare quelle lab-bra imbronciate di 

Norah, avide e imperiose fino all’ultimo, ma... 

Ho capito che il viso di queste donne che accompagnano gli 

uomini sul mare dev’essere levigato, sereno, imperturbabile; guai 

se mostrasse passione, personalità. Del resto, chi potrebbe 

azzardarsi a esibire una personalità? Solo un buffone, fatto di fasulla 

e interscambiabile carne anziché di buon legno che non truffa – se 

è quercia è quercia e se è cirmolo è cirmolo, non c’è trucco, mentre


ing returned to your country, you wish to come here again. Remember 

Hypsipyle, therefore, even from afar, even after you have 

returned and…” – “Well, don’t you know how the rest goes, like in 

school? Come on… Here, repeat after me, ‘and leave me your progeny, 

whom I may care for with all my heart, if the gods grant that 

I give birth to your child’.” – Enough, we’re not in school, prompting 

during an oral quiz… We don’t want to recite the whole book, 

now, do we? And don’t ask me, please, if the gods… what do I 

know, how can I know… Jason doesn’t meet her eyes either when 

he solemnly replies: “Hypsipyle, may what you have said come to 

pass by the divine will.” When I raised my eyes, she wasn’t there 

anymore, she had disappeared – no, she was there, like always, but 

I didn’t know who she was, a beautiful figurehead without a name 

that the fury of the storm tore from the sunken ship, that drifts 

along rising and falling with the waves, the large eyes turned upward, 

to a void even greater than that of the sea. 

[Chapter 39] 

Do you like it? Look at that face – beautiful and generic, the caption 

says, like beauty should be, purified of every incidental, particular 

dross, of any doleful individual expressivity. Would that I could 

erase from my own face as well – the way I plane and smooth them 

from the face of this figurehead – the lines carved by my heart, that 

are mine and accursedly mine alone. A good idea, doctor, this idea of 

making us work, of not letting us grow melancholy, twiddling our 

thumbs; to each his own task, his specialty. Ergotherapy, Arbeit macht 

frei, I’m familiar with the treatment. I can’t complain, since I enjoy 

sculpting and carving these women of wood. To tell the truth, I 

wouldn’t even need those beautiful illustrated catalogs you give me to 

copy the figures from. I’m not a novice, I even earned a few bucks by 

making or repairing a couple of figureheads for ships that reached 

Hobart Town with their prow and figureheads in bad shape. Also, I 

like having those wooden breasts beneath my hands, planing them 

until they become smooth and it’s a joy to caress them, oh nothing 

lewd, for heaven’s sake, it’s that they remind me of those odd jobs of 

those days, I’ve even tried to model those pouting lips of Norah’s, 

eager and impelling up until the end, but… 

I realized that the face of these women who accompany men 

at sea must be polished, serene, imperturbable; woe if it were to 

show passion, personality. Besides, who would dare display a personality? 

Only a fool, made of phony, interchangeable flesh rather 

55


la carne, specialmente quella umana, è sempre sofisticata. In ogni 

caso, gli uomini sospesi sugli abissi hanno già troppa furia nel cuore 

e chiedono serenità ossia impersonalità incolore come l’acqua. 

Bella questa illustrazione, una bianca polena ignota conservata, 

scrivono sotto, al Museo Marittimo di Anversa. Se la si guarda di 

fronte ha un’espressione dolorosa, ma quando stava in prua, il luogo 

per cui era stata fatta, non si mostra-va dì fronte, bensì dì profilo ai 

marinai e quel profilo è impassibile, generico, chiarità non offuscata 

da alcuna angoscia. «Solo la nobile semplicità e la serena grandezza 

posso-no sostenere la vista della Gorgone, reggere come una cariatide 

l’intollerabile peso del reale...» Ben detto nell’opuscolo, ma il 

fatto è che a noi invece casca addosso, ci schiaccia, ci spappola la 

testa. Guardi un po’ Lei, in quelle lastre nel Suo cassetto, che poltiglia 

è il mio cervello. 

Pensi un po’ se il viso nobile e inespressivo di questa polena di 

Anversa potrebbe mai ridursi così, neanche Dachau non gli farebbe 

né caldo né freddo. Per forza; dietro e dentro non c’è niente e nessuno 

può fargli nulla, a questo niente, nessun pugno può stringerlo e 

stritolarlo, ecco perché mi piacciono tanto, queste figure di prua. 

Mi piace anche scolpirle e costruirle. Potessi copiarle tutte, le figure 

di questo catalogo, ignare di passione, di dolore, di identità, così sì 

che varrebbe la pena dì essere immortali... Qui sta scritto che 

Thorvaldsen, maestro di scultura neoclassica, ha fatto il suo 

apprendistato nell’officina di suo padre, che intagliava polene per 

la flotta danese, come me, creatore di queste figure che nessuno 

potrà mandare ai lavori forzati. 

Guardi come vengono bene, il torso cresce da un vortice di 

vento che, alla base, sembra increspare le onde e prolungarsi nella 

veste fluttuante, linea ondulata che si disperderà nell’informe, ma 

intanto... E quegli occhi spalancati sull’oltre, su imminenti e 

inderogabili catastrofi. Gli occhi di Ma-ria... altro che i miei, ciechi... 

ecco, gli occhi li faccio così, scavando il legno, creando una cavità, 

soltanto il vuoto può reggere la vista del vuoto; guardi quanta 

segatura per terra, sono gli occhi delle mie polene triturati e fatti 

polvere, come faceva mio fratello Urban con gli zaffiri e gli smeraldi, 

occhi azzurri e verdi, freddi come il mare d’Islanda... 

[Capitolo 79] 

Vede come me la cavo bene, con queste donne di legno che mi 

date da modellare, così mi distraggo e non mi vengono brutte idee


than of good wood that doesn’t con you – if it’s oak it’s oak and if 

it’s pine it’s pine, there’s no ruse, while flesh, especially human flesh, 

is always deceptive. In any case, men suspended over the depths 

already have too much fury in their hearts and require serenity, 

namely, impersonality as colorless as water. 

Here’s a beautiful illustration, a plain, unknown figurehead 

preserved, it says below, at the Maritime Museum of Anversa. If 

you look at her from the front she has a doleful expression, but 

when she was at the prow, the place for which she was made, she 

wasn’t seen from the front; rather she displayed her profile to the 

sailors, and that profile is impassible, generic, a clarity unclouded 

by any anguish. “Only noble simplicity and serene greatness can 

sustain the sight of the Gorgon, bear like a caryatid the intolerable 

weight of reality…” Well said in the booklet, but the fact is that 

when it comes to us, on the other hand, it comes crashing down on 

us, it flattens us, it crushes our head to a pulp. Take a look at those 

X-rays in your drawer, at how mushy my brain is. 

Just imagine whether the noble, inexpressive face of this figurehead 

of Anversa could ever be reduced to this, even Dachau 

would leave her cold. How could it be otherwise; inside and out 

there is nothing, and nobody can do anything to this nothingness, 

no fist can squeeze it and crush it, that’s why I like them so much, 

these prow figures. I also like to carve and sculpt them. I wish I 

could copy all of them, all the figures in this catalog, unacquainted 

with passion, with sorrow, with identity – unaware like that, of 

course being immortal would be worth it… It says here that 

Thorvaldsen, a master of neoclassic sculpture, served his apprenticeship 

in the studio of his father, who carved figureheads for the 

Danish fleet – like me, creator of these figures that nobody will be 

able to send to forced labor camps. 

Look how well they turn out, the torso grows out of a whirlwind 

that, at the base, seems to ripple the waves and continue on 

to the fluttering garment, an undulating line that will dissolve into 

amorphousness, but meanwhile… And those eyes wide open on 

the beyond, on imminent, unavoidable catastrophes. Maria’s eyes… 

a far cry from mine, blind… there, this is how I do the eyes, carving 

out the wood, creating a cavity, only emptiness can sustain the 

sight of emptiness; look at how much sawdust there is on the floor, 

it’s the eyes of my figureheads, ground up and pulverized, as my 

brother Urban used to do with sapphires and emeralds, blue eyes 

and green eyes, as cold as the Iceland sea… 

57


per la testa? A proposito, so di uno che aveva tagliato la testa alla 

polena della sua nave; sarà stata una vendetta d’amore, ma io queste 

cose non le capisco _. se ci si lascia, vuoi dire che ci si doveva lasciare, 

no? Con le donne, gli uomini, le polene, le rivoluzioni, quando è 

finita, è finita. Anche con Maria – no, con Maria non finirà mai, è 

questo il disastro – Certo che con le polene, a leggere le sto-rie scritte 

in questo calendario – sì, lo so, catalogo, insomma un libro, gliel’ho 

gia detto che con quelle illustrazioni e fotografie di donne con le 

tette seminude mi ricorda i calendari dei barbieri di una volta – con 

quelle donne dì legno, dicevo, bisogna andarci cauti, guardi cosa 

scrive la didascalia di questa qui, Atalanta, si chiama, sta a La Spezia, 

e per lei si sono ammazzati ben due uomini, il custode che passava 

ore ad accarezzarla e a baciarla, e poi si è sfracellato buttandosi giù 

nel bacino di carenaggio, e un ufficiale tedesco, un certo Kurtz, che 

se l’è addirittura portata in camera prima di spararsi. Ma dico, 

hanno più sale in zucca i marinai che ne approfittano solo per 

sfogarsi un po’, è comprensibile, con tutti quei mesi per mare, il 

viaggio fin quaggiù è lungo, e allora si può capire, ma almeno niente 

tragedie, è già tanto... E invece queste maligne vorrebbero la tua 

perdizione, la tua tragedia... polene maledette, streghe, magari messe 

a bruciare insieme alla streghe vive, come quella donna fiamminga 

che serviva da modella, arse tutte e due sul rogo, mentre lo scultore 

se 1'è cavata con le due mani mozzate. 

A me non le taglierete, vero? Non si sa mai, ne ho viste tante, 

in posti più o meno come questo... Mi comporto be-ne, non faccio 

sciocchezze, sono rispettoso. E come si fa a non essere rispettosi, 

con queste figure bellissime? Guardi questa bocca incantevole, che 

sorriso indecifrabile, lo stesso con cui è sprofondata quel giorno con 

la sua nave, la Falk-land, presso le Scilly, dice il libro. Ecco, 

sprofondare negli a-bissi sorridendo così – Non che sia facile 

modellarlo, quel sorriso di legno... E quelle Euridici che rientrano 

nelle tenebre... 

[Capitolo 84] 

Questa è Galatea. È stata trovata su una spiaggia africana dopo 

il naufragio, ed è stata adorata dagli indigeni come una dea; altre 

sono finite a adornare locande e taverne, così i marinai si sentivano 

un po’ a casa anche quando scendevano a terra. 

Vede, le polene le hanno sfrattate dal mare e si barcamenano 

come possono, ne ho scoperta più d’una sotto l’acconciatura esposta


[Chapter 79] 

See how well I get by, with these women of wood that you give 

me to model so that I am distracted and don’t get any nasty ideas in 

my head? By the way, I heard of someone who cut the head off of his 

ship’s figurehead; it must have been a lover’s revenge, but I don’t understand 

these things – if two people leave each other, it means they 

were meant to leave each other, right? Whether it be women, men, 

figureheads, revolutions, when it’s over, it’s over. Even with Maria – 

no, with Maria it will never be over, that’s the tragedy. Of course with 

figureheads, judging from the tales written in this calendar – yes, catalog, 

I know, in a word a book, I already told you that those illustrations 

and photographs of women with half-naked breasts remind me 

of the calendars in the barbershops of one time – with those wooden 

women, as I was saying, you have to be careful, look at what the 

caption says about this one, Atalanta, she’s called, she’s in La Spezia, 

and at least two men killed themselves for her, a caretaker who spent 

hours caressing and kissing her, and then smashed himself by leaping 

into the dry dock, and a German official, a certain Kurtz, who actually 

brought her into his room before shooting himself. I’m telling you, 

the sailors who use them just to find a little release have more common 

sense, it’s understandable, all those months at sea, the voyage 

down here is long, so one can understand, but at least there are no 

tragic scenes, that’s something… Instead these malicious bitches want 

to bring about your ruin, your misfortune… accursed figureheads, 

sorceresses, even made to burn with living sorceresses, like that Flemish 

woman who served as a model, both of them burned at the stake, 

while the sculptor got away with both hands lopped off. 

You won’t cut mine off, will you? You never know, I’ve seen a lot 

things in places like this more or less… I behave well, I don’t do anything 

foolish, I’m respectful. How could you not be respectful, with 

these beautiful figures? Look at this enchanting mouth, the unreadable 

smile, the same smile she wore when she sank that day with her 

ship, the Falkland, near the Scilly Isles, the book says. Just think, to 

sink into the depths smiling like that – Not that it’s easy to model that 

wooden smile… And those Eurydices who return to the shadows… 

[Chapter 84] 

This is Galatea. She was found on an African beach following 

a shipwreck, and was worshipped like a goddess by the aborigines; 

other figures ended up adorning inns and taverns, so that the sail- 

59


in vetrina da un parrucchiere o sotto il vestito in un negozio 

d’abbigliamento — ben mascherata, un manichino come si deve, 

ma a me non è sfuggita. Però ho fatto finta di niente, ognuno si 

arrangia come può. Una, legga qui, quella della Rebecca, una baleniera 

di New Bedford, l’abbiamo sepolta fra i sassi in riva al mare. Sotto 

le ossa dell’onda, si dice in Islanda, abbiamo bevuto la birra in suo 

onore, la sua birra funebre; pure le donne devono averla, è giusto, 

ci siamo ubriacati e abbiamo cantato sulla sua tomba di rena e di 

sassi l’ufficio dei defunti. Anche sconcezze, come è giusto; la morte 

è sconcia e il dolore è sconcio. Vorrei pisciare sulla mia tomba, su 

una tomba bisogna annaffiare i fiori, no? Lo faccio anche, quando 

nessuno mi vede, là nel parco di Saint David. 

Su quella di Rebecca abbiamo solo rovesciato della birra, ma 

non l’abbiamo fatto apposta, è che eravamo un po’ ubriachi; del 

resto le onde l’hanno lavata via subito, quell’odore rancido è svanito 

nella salsedine e adesso non c’è più niente, neanche la tomba, la 

marea l’ha grattata e risucchiata via, forse ora lei fluttua in alto 

mare, corrosa dall’acqua, legno che non si distingue più da qualsiasi 

altro relitto d’un naufragio. Anche un viso di carne si guasta presto, 

i pesci lo divorano ed è subito irriconoscibile, un’irriconoscibile 

immondizia del mare. Maria l’ho spinta io, in alto mare e sotto il 

mare; l’ho buttata in pasto agli squali e così hanno risparmiato me. 

Feroci zanne l’hanno strappata dal-le mie braccia – no, sono io che 

l’ho lasciata andare, che l’ho ficcata fra quelle zanne, ancora più 

avide, perché il suo cuore sanguinava e le bestie al sapore del sangue 

si eccitano ancora di più, gli aguzzini frustano con più allegria 

quando vedono il rosso colare dalle schiene. 

Così è sparita in quel mare scuro, in quell’ombra. Ma ho letto 

che qualche volta le polene naufragate ritornano. Ma-ria è sparita 

nel mare aperto, la nave è dileguata all’orizzonte e quando ho sentito 

dire che stava ritornando in por-to ho anche sentito dire che tornava 

senza di lei – lei non c’era più, l’avranno buttata fuori bordo a 

tradimento, certo come potevo pensare che una piccola spinta... 

Ho letto, nel catalogo, di uno scultore che aveva scelto la sua 

bellissima donna quale modello per la figura di prua della nave su 

cui lei partiva per un lungo viaggio – per lei, poco dopo, il più lungo 

di tutti, è morta. Lui ogni giorno guardava sconsolato il mare, non 

poteva credere che fosse morta e quando la nave è rientrata in porto 

ha visto, ritta in prua, la polena, identica a lei – si è gettato in acqua 

per an-darle incontro, smanioso di abbracciarla, ma è andato sot-


ors might feel a little more at home even when they were on land. 

You see, the figureheads were evicted from the sea and so they 

manage as best they can, I’ve discovered more than one of them 

displaying a coiffure in a beauty salon window or modeling a dress 

in an apparel store – well disguised of course, a proper mannequin, 

but she did not escape my notice. Still, I pretended not to notice 

anything, everyone gets by any way they can. We buried one of 

them – read what it says here – the one from the Rebecca, a whaling 

ship from New Bedford, among the rocks by the sea. Under the 

bones of the waves, as they say in Iceland, we drank beer in her 

honor, her funeral beer; women should have one too, it’s only fair, 

we got drunk and sang the office for the dead on her grave of sand 

and stones. Lewdness too, as is fitting; death is lewd and sorrow is 

lewd. I’d like to piss on my grave, the flowers on a grave have to be 

watered, don’t they? I even do it, when nobody can see me, there 

in the park of Saint David. 

On the figurehead from the Rebecca all we did was pour some 

beer, but we didn’t do it on purpose, it’s just that we were a little 

drunk; besides the waves quickly washed it away, that rank odor vanished 

in the salt sea air and now there is nothing anymore, not even 

the grave, the tide scraped and sucked it away, maybe now she rises 

and falls on the open sea, corroded by the water, wood that is no 

longer distinguishable from any other remains of a shipwreck. Even a 

face composed of flesh soon deteriorates, the fish devour it and it 

quickly becomes unrecognizable, an unrecognizable piece of refuse 

from the sea. It was I who pushed Maria, on the open sea and under 

the sea; I threw her to the sharks as food and so I was spared by them. 

Savage teeth tore her from my arms – no, it was I who let her go, who 

shoved her into those jaws, all the more voracious because her heart 

was bleeding and the brutes get even more excited at the taste of blood, 

the slave drivers lash out more enthusiastically when they see red trickling 

down their captives’ backs. 

And so she disappeared in that dark sea, in that obscurity. But 

I read that sometimes shipwrecked figureheads return. Maria disappeared 

in the open sea, the ship vanished on the horizon and 

when I heard that it was returning to port I also heard that it was 

returning without her – she was no longer there, they must have 

treacherously thrown her overboard, of course, how could I think 

that one small push… 

I read, in the catalog, of one sculptor who had chosen his beau- 

61


to. Gonfio, stordito, acqua nel naso nella bocca nelle orecchie, 

impossibile veder passare la nave, se lei c’era o non c’era. Non c’era, 

Euridice sparisce; guardi che bella, questa Euridice che si asciuga le 

lacrime con un lembo del mantello che l’avvolge. Sta anche lei a La 

Spezia, scrivono sotto; vediamo se mi riesce di rifarla bene, quel 

mantello è l’acqua buia, la notte, il fondo del mare, me lo tirerò 

sulla testa e staremo là sotto, vicini, abbracciati... 

Note 

1.See Anne Milano Appel, “Plowing Magris’ Sea: Blindly, With Eyes Wide 

Open”, Forum Italicum, v. 40, no. 2, Fall 2006.


tiful girlfriend as the model for the figurehead of a ship on which 

she was leaving on a long voyage – for her, soon afterwards, the 

longest voyage of all: she died. Every day he watched the sea disconsolately, 

he could not believe she was dead and when the ship 

re-entered the port he saw the figurehead, standing upright on the 

prow, identical to her – he leaped into the water to go to her, longing 

to embrace her, but he went under. Waterlogged and dazed, 

water in his nose in his mouth in his ears, it was impossible to see 

the ship as it passed by, to see whether she was there or not. She 

wasn’t there, Eurydice vanishes; look how beautiful she is, this 

Eurydice wiping her tears with the edge of the mantle that envelops 

her. She too is in La Spezia, the caption says; we’ll see if I am 

able to successfully recreate her, that mantle is the dark water, the 

night, the bottom of the sea, I will pull it over my head and we will 

stay under there, close together, clinging to one another… 

63

LE ARANCE D’ORO 

by Luigi Capuana 

Translated by Santi Buscemi 

Santi Buscemi is a professor of English at Middlesex County 

College in Edison, NJ, where he chaired the English Department 

(1974-2003). He has also taught at Rutgers University. The former 

president of the New Jersey College English Association and the 

New Jersey Association for Developmental Education, he has presented 

at several professional conferences in the US and was a keynote 

speaker at the University of Natal (South Africa) conference 

on language instruction in 2000. He is the author and co-author of 

six college texts on writing published by McGraw-Hill. 

The following selection is from Luigi Capuana’s C’era Una 

Volta. Buscemi’s translation of Capuana’s “I tre anelli” appeared 

in the summer 2004 issue of Forum Italicum. Prof. Buscemi is the 

son of Sicilian immigrants from the province of Agrigento. 

Luigi Capuana (1839-1915) was born in Mineo, Sicily. After 

studying law at the University of Catania, he began to write plays 

for a company of amateur actors and showed an intense interest in 

popular poetry. In 1864, he moved to Florence, then capital of Italy, 

and began his career as a literary critic by writing for La Nazione. 

Florence also introduced him to the work of Balzac and of other 

French novelists. By 1877, Capuana was in Milan writing for 

Corriere della Sera. In 1902, he was appointed to the chair of aesthetics 

and stylistics at the University of Catania. 

As a literary critic, Capuana established a reputation for objectivity 

and analytical acumen. He is also remembered for having 

championed theories of romantic naturalism in works such as Studi 

sulla letteratura contemporanea (1880-82). In addition, his ability to 

expose the psychology of his characters won him lasting fame as a 

novelist. Among his best works in this genre are Giacinta (1879), 

Profumo (1891), Le Paesane (1894), and his masterpiece, Il Marchese 

di Roccaverdina (1901). He also wrote several children’s books, including 

a collection of fairy tales, C’era Una Volta… (1862)

A Note on Translation 

I have tried to retain as much of the sinewy and sometimes 

startling character of Capuana’s prose as much as possible. In cases 

where literal translation was impossible or inappropriate, I tried to 

capture the author’s intent and the energy of his language in way 

that would appeal to readers familiar with fairy tales popular in 

the English-speaking world. In a few cases, I relied on contemporary 

figures of speech to capture what appeared to be the author’s 

clear intent. I am indebted to my good friend Nino Russo for his 

help in translating a number of particularly difficult idiomatic expressions 

and for all of his encouragement.

66 


LE ARANCE D’ORO 

di Luigi Capuana 

Si racconta che c’era una volta un Re, il quale avea dietro il 

palazzo reale un magnifico giardino. Non vi mancava albero di 

sorta; ma il più raro e il più pregiato, era quello che produceva le 

arance d’oro. 

Quando arrivava la stagione delle arance, il Re vi metteva a 

guardia una sentinella notte e giorno; e tutte le mattine scendeva 

lui stesso a osservare coi suoi occhi se mai mancasse una foglia. 

Una mattina va in giardino, e trova la sentinella addormentata. 

Guarda l’albero... Le arance d’oro non c’eran più!- 

Sentinella sciagurata, pagherai colla tua testa. 

- Maestà, non ci ho colpa. È venuto un cardellino, si è posato 

sopra un ramo e si è messo a cantare. Canta, canta, canta, mi si 

aggravavano gli occhi. Lo scacciai da quel ramo, ma andò a posarsi 

sopra un altro. Canta, canta, canta, non mi reggevo dal sonno. Lo 

scacciai anche di lì, e appena cessava di cantare, il mio sonno svaniva. 

Ma si posò in cima all’albero, e canta, canta, canta..., ho dormito 

finora! 

Il Re non gli fece nulla. 

Alla nuova stagione, incaricò della guardia il Reuccio in 

persona. 

Una mattina va in giardino e trova il Reuccio addormentato. 

Guarda l’albero...; le arance d’oro non c’eran più! 

Figuriamoci la sua collera! 

- Come? Ti sei addormentato anche tu? 

- Maestà, non ci ho colpa. È venuto un cardellino, si è posato 

sopra un ramo e si è messo a cantare. Canta, canta, canta, mi 

s’aggravavano gli occhi. Gli dissi: cardellino traditore, col Reuccio 

non ti giova! Ed esso a canzonarmi: il Reuccio dorme! il Reuccio 

dorme! Cardellino traditore, col Reuccio non ti giova! Ed esso a 

canzonarmi: il Reuccio fa la nanna! il Reuccio fa la nanna! E canta, 

canta, canta..., ho dormito finora! 

Il Re volle provarsi lui stesso; e arrivata la stagione si mise a far

Santi Buscemi / Luigi Capuana 67 

THE GOLDEN ORANGES 

by Luigi Capuana 

It is said that there was once a king, who had a magnificent 

garden behind his royal palace. Every type of tree could be found 

in the garden, but the rarest and most valued was the one that 

produced golden oranges. 

When the season for the oranges arrived, the king ordered a 

sentry to guard it night and day. And every morning he came down 

himself to inspect the oranges with his own eyes to make sure that 

not even one leaf was missing. 

One morning, he went into the garden and found the sentry 

asleep. He looked at the tree…The golden oranges were gone! 

“Oh, wretched sentry, you will pay with your head.” 

“Majesty, it is not my fault.” A goldfinch landed on a branch 

and began to sing. He sang, and sang, and sang so much that my 

eyes became heavy. I drove him from that branch, but he then flew 

to another. He sang, and sang, and sang so much that I could not 

fight off my sleepiness. I drove him from that branch too, and as 

soon as he stopped singing, my sleepiness disappeared. However, 

he then perched on the top of the tree and he sang, and sang, and 

sang. I have been sleeping until this very moment!” 

The king did not hurt the man. 

The next season, he placed the prince himself in charge of 

guarding the tree. 

One morning he went into the garden and found the prince 

asleep. He looked at the tree…the golden oranges were gone! 

Imagine his anger! 

“What? Even you fell asleep?” 

“Majesty, it is not my fault,” said the prince. A goldfinch 

landed on a branch and began to sing. He sang, and sang, and 

sang so much that my eyes became heavy. I told him, “Traitorous 

goldfinch, don’t fool with the prince!” But he simply mocked me: 

“The prince is falling asleep! The prince is falling asleep.” “Traitorous 

goldfinch,’ I said, ‘don’t fool with the prince!” But he simply 

mocked me: ‘The prince is falling asleep! The prince is falling asleep!’ 

And he sang, and sang, and sang…I have been sleeping until this 

very moment!”

68 


la guardia. Quando le arance furon mature, ecco il cardellino che si 

posa sopra un ramo, e comincia a cantare. Il Re avrebbe voluto 

tirargli, ma faceva buio come in una gola. Intanto aveva una gran 

voglia di dormire! 

- Cardellino traditore, questa volta non ti giova! - Ma durava 

fatica a tener aperti gli occhi. 

Il cardellino cominciò a canzonarlo: 

- Pss! Pss! Il Re dorme! Pss! Pss! Il Re dorme! 

E canta, canta, canta, il Re s’addormentava peggio d’un ghiro 

anche lui. 

La mattina apriva gli occhi: le arance d’oro non ci eran più! 

Allora fece un bando per tutti i suoi Stati: 

- Chi gli portasse, vivo o morto, quel cardellino, riceverebbe 

per mancia una mula carica d’oro. 

Passarono sei mesi, e non si vide nessuno. 

Finalmente un giorno si presenta un contadinotto molto male 

in arnese: 

- Maestà, lo volete davvero quel cardellino? Promettetemi la 

mano della Reginotta, e in men di tre giorni l’avrete. 

Il Re lo prese per le spalle, e lo messe fuor dell’uscio. 

Il giorno appresso quegli tornò: 

- Maestà, lo volete davvero quel cardellino? Promettetemi la 

mano della Reginotta, e in men di tre giorni l’avrete. 

Il Re lo prese per le spalle, gli diè una pedata e lo messe fuor 

dell’uscio. 

Ma il giorno appresso, quello, cocciuto, ritornava: 

- Maestà, lo volete davvero il cardellino? Promettetemi la mano 

della Reginotta, e in men di tre giorni l’avrete. 

Il Re, stizzito, chiamò una guardia e lo fece condurre in 

prigione. 

Intanto ordinava si facesse attorno all’albero una rete di ferro; 

con quelle sbarre grosse, non c’era più bisogno di sentinella. Ma 

quando le arance furon mature, una mattina va in giardino...; 

l’arance d’oro non c’eran più. 

Figuriamoci la sua collera! Dovette, per forza, mettersi 

d’accordo con quel contadinotto.- 

Portami vivo il cardellino e la Reginotta sarà tua.


The king wanted to try guarding the tree himself. And when 

the oranges ripened, the goldfinch perched on a branch and began 

to sing. The king wanted to pull him down, but the garden was 

covered in darkness and the king felt very sleepy. 

“Traitorous goldfinch, this time you will not succeed,” but he 

had a hard time keeping his eyes open. 

The goldfinch began to make fun of him: 

“Hush! Hush! The king is sleeping! Hush! Hush! The king is 

sleeping!” 

And as he sang, and sang, and sang, the king himself fell into 

a deep sleep. 

In the morning, he opened his eyes; the golden oranges were 

gone! 

Therefore, he proclaimed throughout his realm: 

”Whoever brings me this goldfinch, dead or alive, will receive 

a mule loaded with gold as a reward.” 

However, six months later, no one had come forward. 

Finally, one day there appeared a crusty old peasant, who was 

shabbily dressed: 

“Majesty, do you truly want that goldfinch? Promise me the 

hand of the princess, and in less than three days you shall have 

him.” 

The king grabbed him by the shoulders and threw him out the 

door. 

The next day, he returned. 



him.” 

The king grabbed him by the shoulders, gave him a strong 

kick, and put him out the door. 

However, the peasant was stubborn, and the next day he returned. 



him.” 

Annoyed, the king called for a guard and had the peasant 

thrown into prison. 

Meanwhile, he ordered that an iron net be built around the 

tree; such a barrier eliminated the need for a guard. When the oranges 

had ripened, the king went into the garden one

70 


- Maestà, fra tre giorni. 

E prima che i tre giorni passassero era già di ritorno. 

- Maestà, eccolo qui. La Reginotta ora è mia. 

Il Re si fece scuro. Doveva dare la Reginotta a quello zoticone?- 

Vuoi delle gioie? Vuoi dell’oro? Ne avrai finché vorrai. Ma quanto 

alla Reginotta, nettati la bocca. 

- Maestà, il patto fu questo. 

- Vuoi delle gioie? Vuoi dell’oro? 

- Tenetevi ogni cosa. Sarà quel che sarà!E andò via. 

Il Re disse al cardellino:- Ora che ti ho tra le mani, ti vo’ 

martoriare. 

Il cardellino strillava, sentendosi strappare le penne ad una ad 

una. 

-Dove son riposte le arance d’oro?- 

Se non mi farete più nulla, Maestà, ve lo dirò. 

- Non ti farò più nulla. 

- Le arance d’oro sono riposte dentro la Grotta delle sette porte. 

Ma c’è il mercante, col berrettino rosso, che fa la guardia. Bisogna 

sapere il motto; e lo sanno due soli: il mercante e quel contadino 

che mi ha preso. 

Il Re mandò a chiamare il contadino. 

- Facciamo un altro patto. Vorrei entrare nella Grotta delle 

sette porte, e non so il motto. Se me lo sveli, la Reginotta sarà tua.- 

Parola di Re?- 

Parola di Re! 

- Maestà, il motto è questo: 

”Secca risecca!Apriti, Cecca.” 

- Va bene. 

Il Re andò, disse il motto, e la Grotta s’aperse. Il contadino 

rimase fuori ad attenderlo. In quella grotta i diamanti, a mucchi 

per terra, abbagliavano. Vistosi solo, sua Maestà si chinava e se ne 

riempiva le tasche. Ma nella stanza appresso, i diamanti, sempre a 

mucchi, eran più grossi e più belli. Il Re si vuotava le tasche, e tornava 

a riempirsele di questi. Così fino all’ultima stanza, dove, in un angolo, 

si vedevano ammonticchiate le arance d’oro del giardino reale. 

C’era lì una bisaccia, e il Re la colmò. Or che sapeva il motto, 

vi sarebbe ritornato più volte.Uscito fuor della Grotta, colla bisaccia


morning…and the golden oranges were gone. Imagine his anger! 

Now he was obliged to come to terms with the crusty old peasant. 

”Bring me the goldfinch alive, and the princess is yours.” 

”Majesty, within three days.” 

And before three days had passed, he returned. 

”Majesty, here he is. Now the princess is mine.” 

A dark look came over the king’s face. “Must I give the princess 

to this lout?” he thought. ”Do you want jewels? Do you want 

gold? You can have as much as you want. But as for the princess, 

say no more.” 

”But, Majesty, that was our agreement,” said the peasant. 

”Do you want jewels? Do you want gold?” 

“Keep all you have,” answered the peasant. “Whatever happens, 

happens!”And he went on his way. 

The king turned to the goldfinch. ”Now that I have you in my 

hands, I am going to torture you.” 

The goldfinch shrieked as he felt his feathers being pulled out 

one by one. 

”Where are the golden oranges hidden?” 

”I will tell you, Majesty, if you stop torturing me.” 

“I will stop,” said the king. 

”The golden oranges are hidden in the grotto of the seven doors. 

However, guarding them is a merchant wearing a red cap. You 

need to know the magic words, and only two people know them: 

the merchant and the peasant who captured me.” 

The king called for the peasant. 

”Let’s make another agreement. I want to enter the grotto of 

the seven doors, but I don’t know the secret words. If you tell me 

them, the princess is yours. 

”Your word as king?” 

”My word as king!” 

”Majesty, the magic words are these: 

”Dry, dry, very dry!“Open up, open up, say I.” 

”Very well.” 

When the king uttered the magic words, the entrance to the 

grotto opened. The peasant waited outside and waited for him. 

Within the grotto on the ground was a pile of diamonds, shining 

brilliantly. Seeing that he was alone, the king stooped down and 

filled his pockets. But in the next room, the diamonds, also in a pile, 

were bigger and more beautiful. The king emptied his pockets, and

72 


in collo, trovò il contadino che lo attendeva. 

- Maestà, la Reginotta ora è mia.Il Re si fece scuro. Dovea dare 

la Reginotta a quello zoticone?- 

Domanda qualunque grazia e ti verrà concessa. Ma per la 

Reginotta nettati la bocca. 

- Maestà, e la vostra parola?- 

Le parole se le porta il vento.- 

Quando sarete al palazzo ve ne accorgerete. 

Arrivato al palazzo, il Re mette giù la bisaccia e fa di vuotarla. 

Ma invece di arance d’oro, trova arance marce. 

Si mette le mani nelle tasche, i diamanti son diventati tanti 

gusci di lumache!Ah! quel pezzo di contadinaccio gliel’avea fatta!- 

Ma il cardellino la pagava. 

E tornò a martoriarlo. 

- Dove sono le mie arance d’oro?- 

Se non mi farete più nulla, Maestà, ve lo dirò. 

- Non ti farò più nulla. 

- Son lì dove le avete viste; ma per riaverle bisogna conoscere 

un altro motto, e lo sanno due soli: il mercante e quel contadino che 

mi ha preso. 

Il Re lo mandò a chiamare: 

- Facciamo un altro patto. Dimmi il motto per riprendere le 

arance e la Reginotta sarà tua. 

- Parola di Re?- 

Parola di Re! 

- Maestà il motto è questo: 

”Ti sto addosso: Dammi l’osso.” 

- Va bene. 

Il Re andava e ritornava più volte colla bisaccia colma, e 

riportava a palazzo tutte le arance d’oro. 

Allora si presentò il contadino:- 

Maestà, la Reginotta ora è mia. 

Il Re si fece scuro. Dovea dare la Reginotta a quello zoticone? 

- Quello è il tesoro reale: prendi quello che ti piace. Quanto 

alla Reginotta, nettati la bocca. 

- Non se ne parli più. 

E andò via.


he refilled them with these. Thus it was until he came to the last 

room, where he saw the golden oranges of the royal palace piled 

up in a corner. Nearby, there happened to be a knapsack, and the 

king filled it. Now that he knew the magic words, he would return 

over and over again. As he left the grotto with the knapsack on his 

back, he found the peasant waiting for him. 

”Majesty, now the princess is mine.” 

A dark look came over the king’s face. 

“Must I give the princess to this lout?” he thought. 

”Ask for whatever reward you want and I will grant it to you.,” 

said the king. “But as for the princess, say no more.” 

”But you gave your word, Majesty.” 

”My word is gone with the wind.” 

”When you return to the palace, you will realize what you 

have done.” 

Back at the palace, the king put down the knapsack and emptied 

it. But instead of golden oranges, he found rotten oranges. He 

put his hands in his pockets, and he found that the diamonds had 

turned to snail shells. This is the work of that crusty old peasant!- 

But the goldfinch would pay for it. And he decided to torture the 

bird. 

”Where are my golden oranges?” 

”I will tell you, Majesty, if you stop torturing me.” 

”I will stop,” said the king. 

”They are where you saw them; however, to get them back, 

you will need to know other magic words, and only two people 

know them: the merchant and the peasant who captured me. 

” The king sent for the peasant.” 

Let’s make another agreement. Tell me the magic words to get 

back the oranges and the princess will be yours.” 

”Your word as king?” 

”My word as king!” 

”Majesty, here are the magic words:” 

“I am coming after you; Give me your bones.” 

”Very well.” 

The king came and went many times with a full knapsack, 

and returned all of the golden oranges to the royal palace. 

Therefore, the peasant returned: 

“Majesty, now the princess is mine.” 

A dark look came over the king’s face.

74 


Da che il cardellino era in gabbia, le arance d’oro restavano attaccate 

all’albero da un anno all’altro. 

Un giorno la Reginotta disse al Re: 

- Maestà, quel cardellino vorrei tenerlo nella mia camera. 

- Figliuola mia, prendilo pure; ma bada che non ti scappi. 

Il cardellino nella camera della Reginotta non cantava più. 

- Cardellino, perché non canti più? 

- Ho il mio padrone che piange. 

- E perché piange? 

- Perché non ha quel che vorrebbe. 

- Che cosa vorrebbe? 

- Vorrebbe la Reginotta. Dice: 

“Ho lavorato tanto, e le fatiche mie son sparse al vento.” 

- Chi è il tuo padrone? Quello zotico? 

- Quello zotico, Reginotta, è più Re di Sua Maestà. 

- Se fosse vero, lo sposerei. Va’ a dirglielo, e torna subito. 

- Lo giurate? 

- Lo giuro. 

E gli aperse la gabbia. Ma il cardellino non tornò. 

Una volta il Re domandò alla Reginotta: 

- O il cardellino non canta più? È un bel pezzo che non lo sento. 

- Maestà, è un po’ malato. 

E il Re s’acchetò. 

Intanto la povera Reginotta viveva in ambascia: 

- Cardellino traditore, te e il tuo padrone! 

E come s’avvicinava la stagione delle arance, pel timore del babbo, il 

cuore le diventava piccino piccino. 

Intanto venne un ambasciatore del Re di Francia che la chiedeva per 

moglie. Il padre ne fu lieto oltremodo, e rispose subito di sì. Ma la 

Reginotta: 

- Maestà, non voglio: vo’ rimanere ragazza. 

Quello montò sulle furie: 

-Come? Diceva di no, ora che avea impegnato la sua parola e non 

potea più ritirarla? 

- Maestà, le parole se le porta il vento. 

Il Re non lo potevan trattenere: schizzava fuoco dagli occhi. Ma 

quella, ostinata: 

- Non lo voglio! Non lo voglio! Vo’ rimanere ragazza. 

Il peggio fu quando il Re di Francia mandò a dire che fra otto giorni 

arrivava.


“Must I give the princess to this lout?” he thought. 

“Here is the royal treasure: take what you like. But as for the 

princess, say on more.” 

“There is nothing more to say,” responded the peasant, and he went 

away. 

Because the goldfinch was in a cage, the golden oranges stayed on 

the tree from one year to the next. 

One day, the princess said to the king: 

“Majesty, I want to keep the goldfinch in my room.” 

“My child, please take him; but be careful not to let him escape.” 

Once in the princess’s room, the goldfinch no longer sang. 

“Goldfinch, why don’t you sing anymore,” asked the princess. 

“Because my master is crying.” 

“And why is he crying?” 

“Because he lacks what he desires.” 

“What does he want?” 

”He wants the princess. He says: 

“I have worked so hard, but all of my efforts have been scattered by 

the wind.’” 

“Who your master? That lout?” 

“Yes, that lout, princess, but he is more of a king than his Majesty.” 

“If this is true, I will marry him. Go tell him that and return right 

away.” 

“Do you swear it? “ 

“I swear it.” 

And, so, she opened the cage. But the goldfinch did not return. 

One day, the king asked the princess: 

“Why doesn’t the goldfinch sing anymore? I have not heard him for 

quite a while.” 

“Majesty, he is a little ill.” 

And the king accepted this excuse. 

Meanwhile, the poor princess lived in anguish. 

“Traitorous goldfinch, you and your master!” 

And as the season of the oranges got near, the princess got more 

and more depressed in fear of what her father might say. 

Meanwhile, there arrived an ambassador from the king of France, 

who wanted to marry the princess. Her father was extremely happy, and 

he quickly gave his consent. However, the princess refused: 

“Majesty, I don’t want to marry. I want to remain a maid.” 

The king became furious.

76 


Come rimediare con quella figliolaccia caparbia? 

Dallo sdegno, le legò le mani e i piedi e la calò in un pozzo: 

- Di’ di sì, o ti faccio affogare! 

E la Reginotta zitta. Il Re la calò fino a metà. 


E la Reginotta zitta. Il Re la calava più giù, dentro l’acqua; le restava 

fuori soltanto la testa: 


E la Reginotta zitta. 

- Dovea affogarla davvero? 

E la tirò su; ma la rinchiuse in una stanza, a pane ed acqua. La 

Reginotta piangeva: 

- Cardellino traditore, te e il tuo padrone! Per mantenere la parola ora 

patisco tanti guai! 

Il Re di Francia arrivò con un gran seguito, e prese alloggio nel 

palazzo reale. 

- E la Reginotta? Non vuol farsi vedere? 

- Maestà, è un po’ indisposta. 

Il Re non sapeva che rispondere, imbarazzato. 

- Portatele questo regalo. 

Era uno scatolino tutto d’oro e di brillanti. Ma la Reginotta lo posò lì, 

senza neppur curarsi d’aprirlo. E piangeva. 

- Cardellino traditore, te e il tuo padrone! 

- Non siamo traditori, né io, né il mio padrone. 

Sentendosi rispondere dallo scatolino, la Reginotta lo aperse. 

- Ah, cardellino mio! Quante lagrime ho sparse. 

- La tua sorte volea così. Ora il destino è compito. 

Sua Maestà, conosciuto chi era quel contadino, le diè in dote l’albero 

che produceva le arance d’oro, e il giorno appresso la Reginotta sposò 

il Re di Francia. 

E noi restiamo a grattarci la pancia.


“What? Are you saying ‘no’ now that I have given my word and can 

no longer take it back?” 

“Majesty, words are blown away by the wind.” 

The king was beside himself; fire was coming out of his eyes. But 

she was obstinate: 

“I don’t want him. I don’t want him. I want to remain a maid.” 

It got even worse when the King of France sent word that he 

would arrive within eight days.How was the king to deal with his stubborn 

daughter? He became so angry that he tied her hands and feet, and he 

lowered her into a well: 

“Say, yes, or I will let you drown!” 

But the princess remained silent. The king then lowered her half 

way down. 

“Say yes, or I will let you drown!” 

But the princess remained silent. The king then lowered her even 

further into the water with only her head above it. 

“Say yes, or I will let you drown!” 

But the princess remained silent. 

“Must I truly drown her? “ asked the king. 

And he pulled her up, but he locked her up in a room, giving her 

only bread and water. The princess cried: 

“Traitorous goldfinch, you and your master! I must suffer so 

much just so I can keep my word.” 

The king of France arrived with a great retinue, and he took 

lodgings in the royal palace. 

“And the princess? Won’t you let me see her?” 

“Majesty, she is a little ill.” 

The king did not know what to respond, for he was embarrassed. 

“Take this gift to her,” said the king of France.It was a small box 

made of gold and diamonds. However, the princess put it aside without 

desiring to open it. And she cried. 

“Traitorous goldfinch, you and your master!” 

“We are not traitors, neither I nor my master.” 

Hearing this response from within the box, the princess opened it. 

“Oh, my goldfinch! I have shed so many tears.” 

“That was your fate, princess. But now your destiny is fulfilled.” 

His majesty, realizing who the peasant was, gave him as a dowry 

the tree that produced the golden oranges. The next day, the King of 

France and the princess were wed. 

And about these two, that’s all that can be said.

78 


Justice, china ink, 70x50 cm.

Three Poems by Alfredo De Palchi 

Translated by Barbara Carle 

Barbara Carle is poet, translator, and critic. She is author of Altre 

contingenze/Other Contingencies, a translation of Rodolfo Di Biasio’s 

poetic anthology accompanied by a critical essay, and most recently, 

New Life, Gradiva, 2006, and Don’t Waste My Beauty/Non guastare la 

mia bellezza, Caramanica, 2006. This book won the foreign section of 

the National Frascati award in 2000 and was rendered into Italian by 

Antonella Anedda and Carle. 

Alfredo De Palchi was born in 1926 near Verona. He grew up 

with his mother and grandfather and as a teenager was tortured by 

the Fascists and the Partisans. He was then imprisoned for six years. 

(His prison experiences are recounted in The Scorpion’s Dark Dance, 

Xenos Books, 1993) He lived in Paris before coming to the United 

States in the late sixties. De Palchi has authored eight books of poetry, 

from Sessioni con il mio analista, Mondadori, 1967, to Paradigma, 

Hebenon/Mimesis, 2006. (Paradigma contains all of De Palchi’s poetry 

from 1947 through 2005) Four of his books were published in 

the United States in bilingual editions. De Palchi has resided in New 

York City for over thirty years, yet maintains strong ties to his native 

Italy. He is editor of the prestigious New York literary journal, Chelsea 

and directs Chelsea Editions. 

Alfredo De Palchi’s poetic style is unique. It consists of writing 

no American poet would undertake. Although his poetic line is drawn 

out, his poems do not tell stories. They are always based on a precise 

physical or concrete experience, which is then arrested and transformed. 

We can say that his style is devoid of sentimentality. De 

Palchi is not afraid to confront sex and eroticism with shattering 

metaphoric visions. The three poems here translated (all from 

Paradigma, Mimesis Hebenon, 2006) are typical of his work from a 

thematic and stylistic standpoint, the erotic amorous vein, the transgressive 

spirituality, and the ever-present memory of wartime traumas 

all merge into distinctly charged poetic entities.

80 


Serrarti nel cuore 

prensile di filamenti urticanti a medusa 

quanto il suolo rattiene d’inverno i tuberi 

spingendoli a crescere alle albe 

di esplosioni esuberanti della tua figura 

arata di zolle luccicanti dei solchi 

che ti instradano per la luce 

che si fulmina nell’arcata immensa e fulmina 

la temporale ubbidienza a crollare 

alle spalle la violenza 

i timbrici metallici che timbrano i timpani 

il primordiale frastuono che a onde echeggia nell’aria 

e nell’orecchie che dal suolo percepisce 

i frantumi dell’universo che si restringe 

e si espande come tu fai 

il rollio del ventre in rollio 

in cui si placa il mio cuore di medusa. 

(26 aprile 2004)

Barbara Carle / Alfredo De Palchi 

I clasp you 

in my prehensile heart whose filaments sting like jellyfish 

just as the ground keeps bulbs in winter 

pushing them to grow in the dawns 

of your figure’s exuberant explosions 

ploughed by glittering clods of furrows 

transporting you through the light 

that thunders in the immense arch and thunders 

the temporal obedience to collapsing violence from the rear 

the timbrous metals that timbre our tympanums 

the primordial din echoing on waves through the air 

and in my ears, which, from the ground capt 

the shivers of universe that contract 

and expand as you do 

the roll of your tummy in the rolling 

appeasement of my jellyfish heart. 

81

82 


Mi lascio al terrore 

per scontrarmi con la raffica 

addosso una vetrina di tessuti che mi riflette 

livido di torture 

e di collera che m’induce 

a sgozzare con lame di crocifissi 

i becchini che si sparlano 

dal 1945 recitando alle sedie 

e in pile di libri bugiardi—dico 

mi lascio, 

però ancora qui 

preciso che li confronto vili 

fissando il parabellum che mi buca le gambe 

lestamente come allora ventisette aprile 

1945. 

(27 aprile 2004)


I give in to the terror 

so that I can clash with the burst 

against a fabric store window that reflects me 

livid from torture 

and rage inducing me 

to slaughter with crucifix blades 

gravediggers who’ve been slighting each other 

since 1945 acting in chairs 

and in piles of lying books—I say 

give in, 

but still here 

I mean that I’m confronting those vile men 

as I eye the parabellum searing my legs 

nimbly as it did then on the 27 th of April 

1945. 

(27 April 2004) 

83

84 


Muori di morte 

che t’insegue con l’abbecedario della conversione 

per debellare dalla mente pazza di luce 

il satana che ti preme 

a consolarti nelle preghiere 

che nemmeno il signore ascolta— 

ti offri l’immolazione della storia 

inutile d’ogni parabola 

e spreco delle scritture che narrano 

della vergogna fisica, 

dell’ardore per l’immagine trafitta di spini 

e di chiodi, 

di una lancia che gli spacca il costato 

e dell’imitare l’invenzione parziale della vicenda 

con un lancio di spugna imbevuta di aceto 

al falegname che si tramuta da illusionista 

a figlio di dio. 

(28 aprile 2004)


You die of the death 

that pursues you with the conversion primer 

to wipe out of your mind mad with light 

the satan who presses you 

to console yourself with prayers 

that not even the lord hears— 

You offer yourself the immolation of history 

useless for any parable 

and I waste writings that tell 

of physical shame, 

of passion for the image pierced by spines 

and nails, 

by a spear that breaks his ribs, 

and of imitating the partial invention of the affair 

by throwing a vinegar soaked sponge 

to the carpenter who transmutes himself from magician 

to the son of god. 

(28 April, 2004) 

85

Once There Was Beirut 

by Fernanda Pivano 

translated by Blossom S. Kirschenbaum 

Blossom S. Kirschenbaum received her doctorate from Brown 

University, where she worked until a few years ago in the Department 

of Comparative Literature, after teaching literature and composition 

courses at MIT, RISD, U.Mass-Boston and Dartmouth, URI- 

Providence, and Clark. A member of PEN’s New York Center, she 

translated Giuliana Morandini’s prize-winning novel I cristalli di 

Vienna (as Bloodstains, New Rivers Press, 1987) and Paola Drigo’s 

Maria Zef (same title, Nebraska UP, 1989); stories by Marina Mizzau 

for the Italica Press anthology New Italian Women and for Wise 

Women’s Web edited by poet Daniela Gioseffi; a story by Stefano 

Benni in Chelsea 66; and Fables from Trastevere, a volume of verse 

translations from the romanesco of Trilussa. Her essay on Ginevra 

Bompiani appeared as Afterword to Sergio Parussa’s translation of 

L’orso maggiore (The Great Bear, Italica, 2000). 

Now approaching age ninety, a celebrity in Italy, her autobiography 

already in print, Fernanda Pivano known in the U.S. not 

for her two novels but as journalist, critic, and translator of American 

literature; biographer of Ernest Hemingway; and friend of Beat 

Generation stars and, recently, of younger writers like Jay 

McInerney. She writes for Corriere della Sera, where she published 

a tribute to Arthur Miller in February 2005. Benetton has given a 

palazzo for repository of her papers, and a petition is circulating to 

have her named Senator for Life. 

“Once There Was Beirut” is set in that capital at a time when 

it was splendid, “its shoreline studded with fabulous hotels, those 

that the criminal madness of munitions makers would have destroyed 

some twenty years later.” This city, dating back to the ancient 

Phoenicians, is rightly cherished in the story; astonishing innovations 

were attributed to its ancient civilization, including in-

vention of an alphabet using symbols for sounds; the cedars of Lebanon 

have been famous for centuries. The modern Levantine state 

crafted by the French had always been precarious, however; civil 

war starting in 1975 bled Lebanon so severely that the 22-nation 

Arab League called a summit meeting in Casablanca to mediate 

reform. American marines were deployed in Lebanon between 1982 

and 1984. In July 1989 newspaper headlines trumpeted “Lebanon: 

Artillery pounds Beirut, kills 6,” “Thousands Escaping From Beirut 

After Two Days of Fierce Fighting,” and so forth. That fury too 

subsided, and the Lebanese capital rebuilt. Now, alas, as The New 

York Times reports (“Ruined Towns Look to Beirut, Mostly in Vain” 

by Michael Slackman, 1 October 2006), the south of Lebanon is 

once again rutted and bombed-out, “a landscape of twisted metal 

and crumbled concrete”—a battleground for external conflicts. 

Ruined villages await adoption by foreign donors.; “when it comes 

to homes, the government is slow to respond.” And further: “The 

animosity has only grown between Hezbollah and the coalition that 

controls the government—named for March 14, the day in 2005 

that huge numbers of people demonstrated to call for an end to 

Syria’s military presence.” While suffering spreads and wrangling 

ensues, the story shows Beirut as “the Paris of the Middle East” 

that it has been and may yet become again. The story expresses 

grief without relinquishing hope.

88 


C’era una volta Beirut 

di Fernanda Pivano 

(da Cos’è più la virtù, il capitolo quattro, le pagine 29-32) 

Una quindicina di anni dopo la fine della guerra andammo a 

Beirut, che era allora una splendida città con il lungomare costellato 

di alberghi favolosi, quelli che la furia criminale dei fabbricanti di 

armi avrebbe distrutto una ventina d’anni dopo falciando tante vite 

umane col pretesto di questa o quella ideologia. 

In uno di questi alberghi, il Phoenicia, col nome inglese pronto 

per ituristi americani, ci diedero una bellissima camera con la 

terrazza sul mareaccogliendoci con un enorme cesto di frutta. 

“Coi complimenti del direttore” diceva il biglietto posato sulla 

frutta,secondo un costume ormai scomparso o in via di 

scomparizione. 

Il bar all’aperto era sistemato più in basso della piscina, e stando 

lì seduti si vedevano i nuotatori dal basso invece che dall’alto. Non 

so se le bellissime ragazze che si alternavano a nuotare a rana erano 

stipendiate dalla direzione a far spettacolo un po’ porno per i 

privilegiati clienti o se cercavano clienti in proprio; ma l’idea 

funzionava comunque benissimo. 

A parte la piscina l’albergo era così piacevole che ci fermammo 

lì qualche giorno senza far niente, riposandoci da un viaggio 

faticosissimo in Medio Oriente. Poi ci mettemmo alla ricerca della 

solita guida disposta a trasportare le macchine fotografiche. 

Non ricordo come si chiamava l’uomo orribile che ingaggiammo 

faute di mieux. Era basso, grasso, puzzolente, sporco: le aveva tutte 

ed era così sgradevole che invece di fissarlo per l’indomani gli 

demmo appuntamento dopo tre giorni, nella speranza di trovare 

qualcun altro. 

Affittammo una macchina e da soli girammo per la città, per 

le colline lì attorno cosparse di cedri profumati e attraverso quartieri 

“veri” non destinati ai turisti. Visitammo uno dei musei più belli 

mai visti, comprammo qualche pezzo per la mia collezione 

etnografica, Lino fece decine di rulli di fotografie. 

L’indomani Lino disse: 

“Perché non andiamo a Damasco?” 

“A Damasco?” dissi. “Senza guida?”

Blossom S. Kirschenbaum /Fernanda Pivano 

Once There Was Beirut 

by Fernanda Pivano 

Translated by Blossom S. Kirschenbaum 

Some fifteen years after the end of the war [World War II] we 

went to Beirut, which was then a splendid city, its shoreline studded 

with fabulous hotels, those that the criminal madness of munitions 

makers would have destroyed some twenty years later, mowing 

down so many human lives on the pretext of this or that ideology. 

In one of these hotels, the Phoenicia, its English name ready 

for American tourists, we were given a very lovely room with balcony 

overlooking the sea, a room that welcomed us with an enormous 

basket of fruit. 

“With the compliments of the manager,” said the card placed 

on the fruit, according to a custom now vanished or in the process 

of vanishing. 

The open-air bar was set up at a lower level than the swimming 

pool, and once we were seated there the swimmers could be 

seen from low down instead of from above. I don’t know if the 

gorgeous girls who took turns swimming the breaststroke were paid 

by the management to display themselves in that tantalizing way 

for the privileged clientele or if they were looking for clients themselves; 

but nonetheless the concept worked marvelously well. 

Even apart from the pool the hotel was so pleasant that we 

stayed there for several days just doing nothing, resting after a very 

exhausting trip in the Middle East. Then we set about looking for 

the usual guide willing to carry around photographic equipment. 

I don’t recall the name of the horrible man whom we hired 

faute de mieux. He was short, fat, foul-smelling, dirty: he had everything 

wrong with him, and he was so disagreeable that instead 

of hiring him for the next day we made an appointment with him 

for three days later, hoping to find someone else. 

We rented a car and on our own went touring around the 

city, through the hills around there covered with aromatic cedars 

and through “true” neighborhoods not meant for tourists. We visited 

one of the most beautiful museums ever seen, we bought some 

item for my ethnographic collection, Lino took tens of rolls of photographs. 

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“Che bisogno c’è della guida?” fu la risposta. 

Così partimmo in macchina da soli per Damasco. La strada 

presto cominciò a snodarsi nel deserto e sui due lati vedevamo ogni 

tanto beduini a gruppetti di quattro o cinque per volta: avremmo 

voluto fermarci e parlare con loro, ma senza interprete non c’era 

neanche da pensarci. Non ricordo quanto durò quel viaggio felice: 

ci fermammo solo quando ci bloccò la polizia di frontiera. 

Non c’era ancora la guerra, o forse c’erano le prime avvisaglie, 

ma a quel posto di confine ci fecero stare sei ore. Nessuno era capace 

di leggere l’alfabeto occidentale e i poliziotti continuavano a passarsi 

l’un l’altro i nostri passaporti e a rigirarli fra le mani con aria 

sospettosa. Era una situazione senza speranza. 

“Vedrai che non ce la faremo a tornare a Beirut in serata” 

dissi. Pensai: 

“Chissà dove mi toccherà dormire.” 

Finalmente arrivò un soldato che sapeva l’inglese. In pochi 

minuti ci lasciarono passare, tutti improvvisamente sorridenti e 

amichevoli; ma quando arrivammo a Damasco era pomeriggio tardi, 

il museo era chiuso e ci mettemmo a girare alla cieca in cerca di un 

albergo. 

E inutile descrivere quello che trovammo. Invece trovammo, 

al bazaar ancora aperto, un rosario di legno e qualche collana 

d’argento che ho portato per anni e porto ancora adesso; e 

passammo la sera a camminare per le strade buie di terriccio, con 

gli odori medio-orientali a base di montone, le finestre chiuse e la 

totale mancanza di allettamenti per i turisti. 

L’indomani mattina eravamo sulla porta del museo prima che 

aprissero, e quando ci lasciarono entrare ricevemmo il nostro premio: 

c’erano decine di statue e statuine sumere, quelle famose che si 

vedono sulle copertine di tutti i libri sui Sumeri. Le didascalie erano 

perfette: uno che non sapesse niente sulla storia di quei luoghi usciva 

che sapeva tutto. 

Ripartimmo convinti che quello di Damasco, con quello di 

Beirut, era uno dei musei meglio sistemati del mondo e ci avviammo 

verso l’autostrada. Passando davanti a uno spaccio di scarpe 

occidentalizzate riconoscemmo o credemmo di riconoscere da una 

sua strana acconciatura uno dei beduini visti il giorno prima lungo 

la strada: era accoccolato per terra e stava rigirando tra le mani 

con aria pensosa e diffidente un paio di scarpe da donna, di quelle 

da terzo mondo, passate di moda da dieci anni.


The next day Lino said: 

“Why don’t we go to Damascus?” 

“To Damascus?” I said. “Without a guide?” 

“What do we need a guide for?” was the reply. 

Thus we left by car on our own for Damascus. The road soon 

began to stretch out through the desert and on both sides we saw 

every so often Bedouins in little groups of four or five at a time. 

We’d have liked to stop and speak with them, but without an interpreter 

there was no use thinking further about it. I don’t recall 

how long this happy journey lasted: we stopped only when the 

police barred the way at the frontier. 

The war hadn’t started yet, or maybe there were the first skirmishes, 

but at this border post we were detained for six hours. No 

one was capable of reading the western alphabet and the border 

police kept on passing our documents from one to the other and 

turning them between their hands a though finding them suspect. 

It was a hopeless situation. 

“You’ll see that we won’t make it back to Beirut this evening,” 

I said. I thought: 

“Who knows where I’ll end up sleeping.” 

At last a soldier arrived who knew how to speak English. In a 

few minutes they let us go through, all of a sudden smiling and 

friendly; but when we reached Damascus it was late afternoon, 

the museum was closed and we set out blindly wandering in search 

of a hotel. 

There’s no point describing what we found. Instead we found, 

at the still open bazaar, a rosary of wooden beads and some silver 

necklace that I’ve worn for years and still wear now; and we spent 

the evening walking through the darkened unpaved streets, their 

middle-eastern odors overlaid on the smell of cooked goat-meat, 

the windows shut and a total absence of accommodations for tourists. 

Next morning we were at the door of the museum before it 

opened, and when they let us in we received our reward: there 

were tens of Sumerian statues and figurines, those famous ones 

seen on the dust-jackets of all the books about the Sumerians. The 

identifying note-cards were perfect: someone who had never heard 

anything about the history of those places departed knowing all. 

We left again convinced that the one in Damascus, along with 

the one in Beirut, was one of the better arranged museums in the 

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Pensai: 

“Va proprio tutto in merda.” Dissi: 

“Speriamo che non le comperi.” 

“Che cosa?” chiese Lino che stava fotografando il beduino. 

“Niente” dissi. “Niente.” 

Quando arrivammo alla frontiera stavo ancora pensando al 

mio beduino e lo dimenticai soltanto per le difficoltà di uscita anche 

più farraginose di quelle di entrata. 

Arrivammo in albergo a sera avanzata e trovammo quella 

guida orribile ad aspettarci. Finse che avevamo sbagliato giorno, 

che ci aveva aspettato fin dal mattino, pretese di essere pagato. 

Che noia. Ma non c’erano altre guide disponibili, e lo fissammo per 

l’indomani. 

“Bisogna andare al Castello” disse perentorio. 

La sera leggemmo sulla Guide Bleu che cos’era il Castello e 

l’indomani ci trovammo sull’antica spiaggia fenicia. I ragazzini 

stavano nell’acqua fino al ginocchio: avevano già rastrellato la 

sabbia e ora guardavano sott’acqua in cerca dei chicchi romani 

verdastri che loro vendono ai turisti come fenici e che io disciplinata 

comprai insieme a una bella stella in rilievo su una moneta rotonda 

fascinosamente ossidata. Avevo in mente che Lino se ne facesse un 

anello ma Lino non se lo fece mai. 

La visita al Castello dei Crociati la ricordo male. Lino, come 

sempre, fotografava tutto senza occuparsi di me e mentre giravo 

per i corridoi al buio tra mura alte, nere e viscide, venni 

inaspettatamente aggredita dalla cosiddetta guida che mi saltò 

addosso. 

“Make love, make love” mi alitava addosso mentre mi dibattevo 

urlando. Lino attraverso lo spessore dei muri non sentiva e quando 

riuscii a divincolarmi cominciai a correre come in un sogno 

angoscioso, proprio come in quei labirinti di cui si parla tanto adesso 

nei convegni letterari, inseguita dalla guida che rideva alla Lovecraft. 

Più correvo più mi perdevo e precipitai in un’angoscia da raccontare 

in analisi. 

Per puro caso finii, guidata da un filo di luce, a una specie di 

finestradove Lino si appoggiava per fotografare l’esterno e mi misi 

a urlare: 

“Lino! Lino!” 

Senza voltarsi a guardarmi gridò: 

“Stai ferma!” 

Finì quello che stava facendo, poi chiese: 

“Cosa c’è?” 

Ormai mi ero calmata. 

“Niente” dissi per evitare una cazzottatura. Forse.


world and we headed out toward the highway. Passing in front of 

a westernized shoe shop we recognized or thought we recognized 

from his strange attire one of the Bedouins seen the day before along 

the street. He was squatting on the ground and in a pensive and 

diffident way he kept turning between his hands a pair of women’s 

shoes, the kind from the Third World, ten years out of date. 

I thought: 

“Everything’s turning to shit.” I said: 

“Let’s hope he doesn’t buy them.” 

“What’s that?” asked Lino, who was busy photographing the 

Bedouin. 

“Nothing,” I said. “Nothing.” 

When we arrived at the frontier I was still thinking about my 

Bedouin and I forgot him only on account of the difficulties of crossing 

back again, even more muddled than those of entering. 

We arrived at the hotel in the late evening and found that 

horrible guide waiting for us. He pretended that we had forgotten 

which day it was, that he had waited for us since morning; he 

made out that he expected to be paid. What a nuisance. But there 

were no other guides available, and we came to an agreement with 

him for the next day. 

“We must go to the Castle,” he said peremptorily. 

That evening we read in the Blue Guide about what the Castle 

was and the next day there we were on the ancient Phoenician 

beach. Young boys were in the water up to their knees. They had 

already raked through the sand and now they were looking around 

underwater for greenish Roman shards of glass that they sell to 

tourists as Phoenician and that I complying with the rule bought 

along with a lovely star in relief on a round coin fascinatingly oxidized. 

I had in mind that Lino should make a ring out of it but Lino 

never made it. 

The visit to the Crusaders’ Castle I recall poorly. Lino, as always, 

photographed everything without paying attention to me 

and while I wandered through the corridors in the darkness between 

high walls, dank and black, I was unexpectedly attacked by 

the so-called guide, who leapt upon me from behind. 

“Make love, make love,” he panted in English behind me while 

I tried to decide whether to scream. Lino on the other side of the 

thickness of the walls did not hear and when I managed to break 

loose I began to run as in an anxiety nightmare, through those very 

labyrinths about which so much is said these days at literary conferences, 

closely pursued by the guide who was laughing like a 

maniac out of the stories of H. P. Lovecraft. The more I ran the 

worse I got lost, and I threw myself into a state of anguish fit to tell 

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Death, China ink, 70x50 cm.

Journal of Italian Translation

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