Translating Literary History from Italian into Slovene: A Case Study

Translating Literary History
from Italian into Slovene: A Case Study
Martina Ožbot
0. Introduction
Storia della letteratura italiana (1959) is a widely known historical survey of
Italian literature, and its author, Attilio Momigliano, an equally well-known
scholar in this field and the writer of numerous studies and textbooks. The
Slovene translation (Zgodovina italijanske književnosti; 1967) was produced by
Bogomil Fatur, a minor Slovene poet and a “hyperprolific” translator.1 My
study of his translation forms part of a larger descriptive project that will try (1)
to find out which principles underly translations from Italian into Slovene of
texts about literary history and (2) to define potentially problematic areas in
this field.
The reason why I decided to give particular attention to the translation
of Momigliano’s text was of a rather practical nature: without aspiring to
prescriptivism I wanted to help Slovene students of Italian (who include some
future translators) in studying the qualities of existing translations. Being
communicatively inappropriate and thus failing to fulfil the acceptability
requirement, Fatur’s translation offers — albeit per negationem — ample
material for an illustration of what requirements must be satisfied if the
translator is to produce a functional translation.
Could this be no more than a small and unimportant aspect of the
translation problem? Perhaps, but handbooks such as Momigliano’s can be
seen as a barometer of the interaction between different traditions in literary
education and, much more, as a mirror of the integration of imported literary
concepts. Hence the Momigliano translation is examined here as much more
than just another translation: from the point of view of the Slovenian system, it
is a tool for the observation and the study of literature.
I will now first briefly present the source text (ST) and the target text
(TT) as well as the position of the TT within the target polysystem (section 1);
next, the global result of my research (i.e. the TT’s communicative
inappropriateness) will be linked to factors which are likely to have contributed
1
His translations include texts like Jakob Burckhardt’s Die Kultur der Renaissance in
Italien, Henri Pirenne’s Les villes du moyen-âge and Paul Hazard’s La crise de la
conscience européenne.
Literary History Translated
significantly to its malfunctioning (section 2); finally, a typology of deviations2
will serve as evidence for my claims (section 3). All the examples are taken
from the chapters which deal with the period from Italian literature’s
beginnings to Dante.
1. Corpus: source and target text
It does not happen very frequently that works representing the text type in
question (i.e. historical surveys of a national literature) are translated into
Slovene. Instead of works which aim to be a complex historical presentation of
the development, characteristics, canonical texts and authors, literary
movements or other elements of a national literature and of a larger cultural
and sociohistorical context, Slovenes would rather translate texts which deal
with single segments of various literatures, individual authors or issues in the
field of literary studies. Even more frequent is the use of the original works:
textbooks, monographs, articles, prefaces to translations, etc. Therefore,
typologically speaking, the Slovene translation of Momigliano’s work
definitely represents a rarity in the Slovene polysystem. Rarities of this kind,
however, are particularly important because they offer the Slovene reader a
global presentation of a foreign literature and, being relatively comprehensive,
they are felt to serve as a reliable reference work to be consulted as often as
necessary. The ST is indeed a relatively thorough, exhaustive and, in terms of
textual strategies, well-designed history of Italian literature, characterized by
the classical elegance of language, sometimes slightly archaic, which is likely
to cause problems to the translator.
The functions of Momigliano’s work and its Slovene translation are
very similar in the Italian and in the Slovene polysystems. In their respective
cultures, the two texts serve as reference books in the form of companions or
textbooks, or both at the same time, although it is obvious that the needs of the
Italian reader differ perceptibly from those of the Slovene reader. From the
point of view of a typical Italian reader, Momigliano’s work deals with the
history of the native literature, which represents an essential part of the
domestic culture, whereas this is obviously not the case from a Slovene
viewpoint.
2
I am well aware of the fact that in descriptive translation studies the term
“deviation” is usually not suitable, for many generally known reasons. In the case of
Fatur’s translation, however, the proposed solutions can in no way serve their
purpose and therefore I believe it is often justified to consider them deviations
proper.
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Martina Ožbot
2. Results: communicative inappropriateness
In view of the specific needs of the Slovene reader, the translator’s task was to
reflect on what to do with the quotations (which he mostly left in the form in
which they appear in the ST), literary and cultural allusions, and on when to
insert explanatory notes on extralinguistic items which might be unclear to the
target reader; in short, on how to increase the functionality of the translation by
making it more useful (more target-oriented). In actual fact, the translator did
not take into account the specific needs of the target readership and ignored
explanatory procedures, thus making some TT clusters too dense. In other
cases, he omitted elements, thus creating semantically empty fragments which
seriously distort the message intended by Momigliano and make it
nontransparent.
Lack of transparency and other characteristics of inappropriateness are
very frequent in the Slovene translation and the reasons for this unfortunate
state of affairs seem to be numerous. The Slovene translator is neither bilingual
nor bicultural (Snell-Hornby 1988: 42), does not master well enough either
source language (SL) or target language (TL) and does not fully grasp source
and target culture. Moreover, he cannot be said to master “translation
strategies” (see Hönig and Kußmaul 1982; Hönig 1991: 85-88) and is not
sufficiently acquainted with the textual world of the ST, which would require
familiarity with Italian literary history and the canon of Italian literature, as
well as knowledge of related histories and canons, of literary studies in general,
of related cultural fields and particularly of Italian history and civilization.
Moreover, the translator does not seem to have carried out a translationrelevant text analysis and did not choose any consistently followed translation
strategy: he seems to have decided to “just translate” (Hermans 1991: 165).
The translator did not seem to be aware of the multitude and variety of
problems posed by the process of translating a metaliterary Italian text into
Slovene and was thus unable to react adequately to them (see Hönig 1991: 8385). Other problems were simply ignored due to a lack of professional
responsibility and honesty.
In Fatur’s translation, inappropriate renditions appear systematically and
are equally distributed at all language levels, which implies that the probability
of inappropriate renditions does not change in proportion to the structural
complexity of the text.
3. Evidence: typology of deviations
I have attempted to construct a typology of deviations which consists of three
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groups of examples, classified on the basis of relevant features. The first group
(3.1.) is the largest one: it contains examples of primarily semantic deviations,
mostly at the level of denotation. Very often the deviation is due to linguistic
problems that the translator encountered when decoding the original message
or encoding the TT, or both. Among the most frequent problems are those
concerning calques, false friends, polysemy, word-class conversion,
association-based translation, pseudoetymology-based translation, etc. The
second group (3.2.) contains examples of a “principle of extension”, which
characterizes deviations of a chiefly rhetorical nature, i.e. those instances where
inappropriate renditions or modifications are generated by structural
expansions.3 The third group (3.3.) is represented by examples in which one
can observe a “principle of variation” in the sense that the translator does away
with repetitions of single elements, although they do have a function in the ST
(see Toury 1991: 188), and prefers to introduce elements which are formally
(and to some extent semantically) different.
In all three classes, which are far from being strictly separated, the
intensification of rhetoric is constant (emphasis, hyperbolization, etc.) and we
see a tendency to make the text bombastic and over-emotional. This is to some
extent in contradiction with another frequent strategy that plays down or
neglects rhetorical elements which fitted perfectly in the ST’s structure. The
rhetorical tendency is particularly noticeable in 3.2. and 3.3., where it actually
constitutes an integral part of the two basic principles, extension and variation,
which themselves have rhetorical aims.
3.1. Deviations of a semantic nature
Difficulties generally connected with the translator’s inappropriate reactions to
linguistic and communicative problems posed by the ST are various, and the
consequences can be numerous; the degree to which they endanger the ST
message varies.
3.1.1. Mild deviations
At best, the message is not really made obscure but the translational shifts are,
stylistically speaking, hardly acceptable or utterly unacceptable for target
readers. Example (1) is a calque translation, i.e. a literal translation from Italian
3
I have in mind those instances of extension which are linguistically avoidable (see
Milojevic Sheppard 1993). In other words, the extension is not generated by some
structural necessity of the target language.
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Martina Ožbot
into Slovene, which makes the TT non-idiomatic:4
(1)
(a) nei sette gironi del vero e proprio purgatorio
(b) v šestih krogih pravih in resničnih vic (37/41)
(c) in the six circles of the true and real purgatory
(d) in the six circles of the purgatory proper
Example (2), which refers to Dante’s imaginary journey through the other
world, also contains a calque translation; it differs from the previous one in that
the TT message diverges more radically from that of the ST:
(2)
(a) Il viaggio che egli fa [...] parte da una condizione soggettiva
- il suo traviamento - e conserva, qua e là attraverso le tre
cantiche [...] i segni di un’ascensione e d’un autobiografia
ideale;
(b) Potovanje, ki ga opravi [...], se začne s subjektivnim
pogojem - njegova zabloditev - in ohranja tu in tam skoz vse
tri dele [...] znamenja idealnega razvoja in avtobiografije;
(35/39)5
(c) The journey he makes starts with a subjective supposition his going astray - and preserves, here and there, throughout
the three parts [...] signs of an ascension and of an ideal
autobiography
(d) The journey he makes starts from subjective conditions - his
going astray - and preserves, here and there, throughout the
three parts [...] signs of an ascension and of an ideal
autobiography
A discrepancy between the ST and the TT messages appears because the Italian
lexeme “condizione” is polysemic and because the translator did not choose the
contextually appropriate meaning, i.e. the one intended in the ST (conditions,
circumstances). He decided in favour of “condition”, “supposition”, thus
4
5
The order of versions is the following: a. ST version, b. TT version, c. English
rendition of the TT version (communicatively inappropriate), d. English rendition of
a suggested communicatively appropriate TT version. The first of the two numbers
in brackets refers to the page of the ST, and the second to that of the TT.
My presentation concentrates only on the deviation in question, without offering
comments on other possible deviations in the same fragment that are not directly
relevant to the problem discussed.
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Literary History Translated
making the TT message rather opaque.
In a third example, difficulties of stylistic markedness are added to
problems of polysemy:
(3)
(a) Egli fu presso parecchi signori in una condizione simile a
quella di un’ibrida classe del tempo, gli uomini di corte, fra
cui si trovavano saggi [...] e buffoni
(b) Živel je na dvoru nekaj gospodov v pogojih, ki so bili
podobni pogojem bastardnega družbenega razreda tistega
časa, to so bili dvorjani, med katerimi so bili tudi pravi
učenjaki [...] in pavlihe (34/38)
(c) He stayed with many a lord in conditions similar to those of
an impure social class of the time, namely courtiers, among
whom there were sages [...] and buffoons
(d) He stayed with many a lord in conditions similar to those of a
heterogeneous class of the time, courtiers, among whom
there were sages [...] and buffoons
The ST is stylistically neutral and the adjective “ibrido” stands for “hybrid”,
“heterogeneous”, “variegated”, etc., whereas the translator’s choice
(“bastarden”) has pejorative connotations (impure, mixed), which are
incompatible with the message of the ST.
In (4), terminology related to painting is applied to literature. As in (2),
the TT may turn out to be semantically nontransparent and therefore
communicatively inappropriate. However, the lack of idiomaticity of the
Slovene text has not necessarily been generated as much by the translator’s
failure to understand the ST as by the problems he might have in expressing
himself in the TL (or even by his unwillingness to keep looking for a
contextually adequate TL expression):
(4)
(a) poesia fine di disegno, fresca di colore, che ci presenta il
Cavalcanti sotto un altro aspetto.
(b) fina obrisna poezija, sveža v barvah, katera nam predstavlja
Cavalcantija pod čisto drugačnim vidikom. (23/28)
(c) fine outline poetry, of fresh colours, which presents
Cavalcanti from a different standpoint.
(d) poetry of fine design, which presents Cavalcanti from a
different standpoint.
Other deviations have relatively far-reaching consequences, as can be inferred
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from the considerable semantic distance between the ST and TT message in the
next sequences:
(5)
(a) incitandolo a lasciare il volgare e a cantare in latino qualche
grande avvenimento
(b) ga je nagovarjal, naj opusti ljudski jezik in opeva v latinščini
katerikoli velik dogodek (34/38)
(c) urging him to abandon the vernacular and celebrate
whichever great event in Latin
(d) urging him to abandon the vernacular and celebrate some
great event in Latin
In (5) the choice of a compound relative pronoun “katerikoli” (whichever)
instead of the indefinite pronoun “kakšen” (some) brings about a change of
message which is unacceptable in any rendition that pretends to be faithful.
A message distortion may also be caused by word-class conversion, as
in (6), where the idea of “usualness” is transferred from an adverbial adjunct to
an attribute, thus generating changes at the communicative level. In this
example (and in many others), the translator seems to be mainly interested in
preserving semantic characteristics of single lexemes, between which he likes
to establish his private links:
(6)
(a) La critica di solito ha accostato l’Angiolieri al modestissimo
gruppo dei poeti comici
(b) Običajna kritika je uvrščala Angiolierija v skromno družbo
komičnih pesnikov (24/29)
(c) The usual criticism has considered Angiolieri close to the
very modest group of the comic poets
(d) Criticism usually has considered Angiolieri close to the very
modest group of comic poets
3.1.2. Radical deviations
The translator’s choices frequently imply even more radical modifications of
the ST message. They are often based on his private pseudoetymological
assumptions and on various associations prompted by single lexical elements
or their units. The associations may be made because of a formal similarity
between lexemes or phrases and only secondarily (or not at all) by semantic
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connections. At other moments, the translator’s choice seems conditioned by
some Slovene lexeme or phrase which cannot be considered appropriate with
respect to the message intended by the ST author. Also, if a syntagm is
idiomatic in Slovene, the translator is likely to choose it regardless of its
appropriateness in the context which is to be recreated in the TT — see (7).
The relations between the ST message and the TT message range from
approximation (example 7) to antonymy (example 15).
Example (7) illustrates a communicatively inappropriate choice in the
TT, which was probably made on the basis of the idiomaticity of the Slovene
collocation “odražati se” (be reflected/reflect itself) in contexts similar to this
one. In Slovene, an “experience” can, among other things, “be reflected in
something” but can also “explain something”:
(7)
(a) Non solo, dunque, l’esperienza politica e umana spiega la
maggiore complessità della Commedia in confronto con la
Vita Nuova: bisogna aggiungere a questo elemento quello
della dottrina.
(b) Ni torej edinole politicna in cloveška izkušnja, ki se odraža v
večji kompleksnosti Komedije v primerjavi z Novim
Življenjem; treba je dodati temu elementu še element
doktrine. (35/40)
(c) It is not only the political and human experience which is
reflected in the greater complexity of the Comedy in
comparison to the Vita Nuova: one must add to this element
also that of the doctrine.
(d) It is not only the political and human experience which
explains the greater complexity of the Comedy in comparison
to the Vita Nuova: one must add to this element also that of
the doctrine.
A similar explanation can be given for (8), although here the distortion of
message is considerably greater than in previous examples:
(8)
(a) Dante, in un’ultima ecloga, rifiutò per il timore dei Neri
dominanti in Bologna.
(b) Dante je potem v zadnji eklogi te korispondence odklonil z
izgovorom, da se boji črnih, ki so vladali v Bologni. (34/38)
(c) Dante, in the last eclogue of this correspondence, refused
under the pretext of being afraid of the Neri, who
dominated Bologna.
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Martina Ožbot
(d) In one of his last eclogues, Dante refused for fear of the
Neri, who dominated Bologna.
In (9), (10) and (11), the translator was probably misled by a formal similarity
between a ST lexeme and another SL lexeme. They are, however, semantically
rather different and the latter is incompatible with the ST message. In (14) the
inappropriate lexeme is probably “scacciare” (to drive out), in (15) “invitare”
(to invite) and in (16) “rimpiangere” (to grieve for):
(9)
(a) Ma i Guelfi, capeggiati da Firenze, si unirono contro Arrigo
(b) Toda gvelfi, izgnani iz Florence, so se zbrali zoper Henrika
(33/37)
(c) But the Guelfs, who had been driven out of Florence, united
against Henry
(d) But the Guelfs, led by Florence, united against Henry
(10)
(a) Bonifacio VIII inviò a Firenze Carlo di Valois con l’incarico
palese [...] e con il mandato segreto
(b) Bonifacij VIII. [...] je [...] povabil v Florenco Karla
Valoiškega z javnim naročilom [...] in s tajno nalogo (33/37)
(c) Boniface VIII invited Charles of Valois to Florence with a
manifest task [...] and with a secret mandate
(d) Boniface VIII sent Carlo of Valois to Florence with a
manifest task [...] and with a secret mandate
(11)
(a) un sonetto di Guido Cavalcanti che rimprovera l’amico
(b) sonet Guida Cavalcantija, ki obžaluje prijatelja
(c) a sonnet by Guido Cavalcanti, who grieves for his friend
(d) a sonnet by Guido Cavalcanti, who reproaches his friend
Fragments (12) to (14) illustrate the translator’s deduction of the meanings of
Italian lexemes from the meanings of other lexemes in which the same root or
the same wordbase can be recognized. For example, “rifugio spirituale
dall’esilio” in (12) is “spiritual refuge from exile” and not “flight”, although it
is true that the Italian lexeme “rifugio” (refuge, shelter) is related to the verb
“fuggire” (to flee):
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Literary History Translated
(12)
(a) La Divina Commedia ha l’aria di un rifugio spirituale
dall’esilio
(b) Božanska komedija dela vtis spiritualenga bega iz izgnanstva
(39/44)
(c) The Divine Comedy creates an impression of a spiritual flight
from exile
(d) The Divine Comedy has the air of a spiritual refuge from
exile
A comparable mechanism is observed in the next case, where the translator is
misled by a formal similarity between the nouns “canzonatura” (jocularity) and
“canzone” (song, canzone):
(13)
(a) ma egli è per lo più lontano da quella canzonatura gioconda
(b) v resnici pa je neizmerno oddaljen od tistega veselega
pisanja kancon (24/29)
(c) but in actual fact he is infinitely distant from that cheerful
song writing
(d) but in actual fact he is infinitely distant from that cheerful
jocularity
Another shift based on a form-dependent decision occurs in (14):
(14)
(a) La notte sta per declinare
(b) Noč pada z neba (37/41)
(c) The night is falling from the sky
(d) The night is about to come to an end
In some contexts, the verb “declinare” can certainly mean “to decline”, but the
Slovene “padati” (to fall) happens to be extremely non-idiomatic, opaque and
unavoidably prevents the reader from grasping the message intended in the ST.
As already mentioned, the translator’s solution can even be antonymous
with respect to the ST message:
(15)
(a) e pure in quell’atmosfera velata che attenua i contorni delle
figure, si scorge nettamente la figura dell’Amore
(b) in prav v tem tragičnem vzdušju, ki izostruje obrise figur,
vstaja v vsej jasnosti lik Amorja (22/28)
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Martina Ožbot
(c) and precisely in this tragic atmosphere which sharpens the
outlines of figures, one can clearly discern the figure of Cupid
(d) and even in this veiled atmosphere which blurs the outlines
of figures, one can clearly discern the figure of Cupid
Shifts may also be caused by the lexical problem of “false friendship”. For
example, the Slovene word “primitiven” and the Italian “primitivo” do not
mean the same at all, the former having pejorative connotations (rude, uncouth,
etc.), which do not apply to the latter:
(16)
(a) Vi manca dunque, come accade nelle età primitive, il senso
della diversità topografica e storica.
(b) Popolnoma torej manjka - tako se dogaja v vseh primitivnih
dobah umetnosti - smisel za topografsko in zgodovinsko
različnost. (25/30)
(c) There is then - this happens in all unsophisticated periods of
art history - complete absence of the sense of the
topographical and historical diversity.
(d) There is then, as happens in primitive periods, a complete
absence of the sense of the topographical and historical
diversity.
The following pair of false friends is interesting because it shows the potential
dangers of a translator’s insufficient knowledge of the cultural and historical
context. Fatur did not seem to be aware of the fact that in Dante’s times a guild
of “doctors and chemists” existed, of which Dante was a member — and not of
“doctors and specialists”. The translator preferred to rely on his own
associations and to make his choices on the basis of formal similarities between
the Slovene lexeme “specialist” (specialist) and the Italian “speziale” (chemist).
The result is that the ST message and the TT message are rather distant from
each other:
(17)
(a) Si iscrisse all’arte dei medici e degli speziali, poiché questo
gli apriva l’adito ai pubblici uffici
(b) Vpisal se je v stan zdravnikov in specialistov, kajti ta poklic
bi mu odpiral dostop do javnih služb (32/36)
(c) He enrolled in the guild of doctors and specialists, because
that gave him access to the Civil Service
(d) He enrolled in the guild of doctors and chemists, because that
gave him access to the Civil Service
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Literary History Translated
A different false-friend relationship is illustrated in (18), where the translator
chooses “avreola” (aureole, halo), which is to some extent formally similar to
the Italian “aura” (aura, atmosphere), although it is semantically so different
from it that the translator’s decision brings about a complete lack of
transparency in the TT:
(18)
(a) quest’aura di ammirazione per un passato
(b) ta avreola občudovanja preteklosti (44/49)
(c) this halo of admiration of a past
(d) this aura of admiration of a past
The next distortion is interesting because the representation of the textual world
created in the TT is incompatible with Dante and his relationship to Beatrice as
presented in his works. Beatrice is not spoken of in terms to which the Slovene
“slast” (delight) could correspond:
(19)
(a) Il movente primo di questo viaggio è Beatrice che, come fu in
terra il conforto di Dante, così ne è in cielo la salvezza
(b) Prvi vzgib tega potovanja je Beatrice, ki je bila na zemlji
Danteju slast, v nebesih pa mu bo rešitev; (36/40)
(c) The first stimulus to this journey is Beatrice, who was on
earth Dante’s delight, whereas in heaven she will be his
salvation;
(d) The first stimulus of this journey is Beatrice, who was on
earth Dante’s comfort, whereas in heaven she will be his
salvation
Indirectly, this is probably also a case of “false friendship”. It seems that the
translator again made a form-based inappropriate choice: he decided in favour
of the Slovene “comfort” (comfort, convenience, etc.) and consequently for
some of its synonyms like “udobje” (pleasure caused by comfort) or “ugodje”
(pleasure, delight, etc.), from which associations could easily lead him to an
even stronger lexeme like “slast” (delight).
Apart from a greater language mastery, the translator might well have
profited from studying chapters of literary history, literary theory and related
fields relevant to the textual world presented by the ST as well as from
investigating relatable texts in Slovene and in Italian. They might not only have
offered him idiomatic solutions already established in the TL, but would also
have made him understand the textual world more thoroughly. A last example
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shows how the translator applied the same principles of approximative and
associative translation to larger text segments. In (20), the verb “abbondare” (to
abound) is the troublemaker:
(20)
(a) Abbondano gli eroi della Tavola Rotonda, i ricordi di
Federico II e di Firenze
(b) Glavni junaki, ki jih je največ po številu, so heroji okrogle
mize, vrstijo se spomini na Friderika II in Florenco (25/30)
(c) The principal heroes, who are the most numerous, are those
of the Round Table, then there come memories of Frederick
II and of Florence
(d) Very numerous are the heroes of the Round Table, memories
of Frederick II and of Florence
3.2. Deviations of a rhetorical nature: extension
Examples in this group are characterized by an unjustified expansion of
structure, which, however, usually also brings about a communicational
distortion — although in a milder way than in the examples under 3.1. The
passages are essentially characterized by an increase in emotionality, which
makes a neutral ST expression stylistically marked in the TT, as in the
following two examples:
(21)
(a) Queste anime sono oramai cittadine d’un altro regno.
(b) Te duše so poslej prebivalke drugačnega sveta, in vendar v
njih še živi topel spomin na zemljo. (48/53)
(c) These souls are now citizens of another kingdom,
nonetheless there is still a warm memory of the earth
living in them.
(d) These souls are now citizens of another kingdom.
If the ST already contains some emotional charge, the translator usually makes
it even more intense, as in (22), where an interjection is added:
(22)
(a) Nell’Inferno quanti di quei sospiri nostalgici
(b) O, koliko je v Peklu tistih nostalgičnih vzdihov (47/51)
(c) Oh, how many nostalgic sighs there are in Hell
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Literary History Translated
(d) In Hell, how many of those nostalgic sighs
Repetition is also among the rhetorical procedures connected with structural,
semantic and stylistic extensions of the text. Sequence (23) illustrates a double
extension: besides the repetition of the adjective “izgubljen” (lost), the attribute
“neizmerni” (endless, measureless, fathomless) is added to the lexeme “ocean”
(ocean). Unlike many other extensions, this one does not generate a particularly
striking discrepancy between the ST and the TT message:
(23)
(a) ai margini di un’isola perduta in mezzo all’oceano
(b) na rob izgubljenega otoka, izgubljenega sredi neizmernega
oceana (37/41)
(c) to the margins of a lost island, lost in the middle of the
measureless ocean
(d) to the margins of an island lost in the middle of the ocean
Additions of attributes may, however, be more problematic when they
introduce a lexical element which is not at all implied in the ST:
(24)
(a) dovevano aver […] l’impressione di leggere una cronaca dei
loro tempi.
(b) so morali imeti [...] mogočen vtis, da bero kroniko svojega
časa. (43/48)
(c) they must have had [...] a majestic impression of reading a
chronicle of their times.
(d) they must have had [...] an impression of reading a chronicle
of their times.
Further, Fatur quite often adds adverbial particles (25), especially those which
have, semantically speaking, radical implications. Such “totalizers” (26) are
most frequently represented by universal and negative pronouns:
(25)
(a) Nella ghiaccia dei traditori sta infitto Lucifero
(b) V ledu izdajalcev je v resnici vkovan tudi Lucifer (37/41)
(c) In the ice of traitors, Lucifer is in actual fact also embedded
(d) In the ice of traitors, Lucifer is embedded
436
Martina Ožbot
(26)
(a) e forse più che in altri
(b) in morda bolj kot v vseh drugih (27/33)
(c) and maybe more than in all the others
(d) and maybe more than in others
3.3. Deviations of a rhetorical nature: variation
This section presents rhetorical deviations characterized by a “variation
principle”, according to which the translator, without any reason, eliminates the
repetitions, parallelisms and similar procedures which are carefully distributed
in the ST. The translator creates new devices of the same kind, but he does not
manage to integrate them into the TT. The Slovene text in (27) is characterized
by a suppressed repetition of the pronoun, which in the ST plays an important
role on a sentence level. In (28) the rhetorical elegance created in the ST is also
noticeably reduced:
(27)
(a) A lui Dante dedicò la Vita Nuova, [...]; a lui indirizzò [...]; lui
fece motivo [...]; lui, infine, ritrasse il Boccaccio.
(b) Njemu je Dante posvetil Novo življenje, [...]; njemu je
naslovil [...]; služi mu za motiv [...]; izredno pojavo Guida
Cavalcantija je orisal tudi Boccaccio
(c) To him Dante dedicated Vita Nuova, [...]; to him he
addressed [...] and took him as the motive [...]; the
extraordinary figure of Guido Cavalcanti was also
presented by Boccaccio
(d) He it was to which Dante’s Vita Nuova was dedicated, [...];
he was addressed [...]; he served him as the motive; finally,
he was portrayed by Boccaccio.
(28)
(a) Quasi tutto quello che sappiamo di più sicuro intorno alla sua
vita, lo apprendiamo dalla Commedia; tutto quello che
sappiamo del suo carattere, lo impariamo dal modo [...]
(b) Skoraj vse, kar vemo zanesljivejšega o njegovem življenju,
zvemo iz Komedije; vse, kar lahko ugotovimo o njegovem
značaju, se nam razodeva v načinu [...] (38/42)
(c) Almost all we know as relatively certain about his life, we
learn from the Comedy; all we can find out about his
437
Literary History Translated
character, we get from the way [...]
(d) Almost all we know as relatively certain about his life, we
learn from the Comedy; all we know about his character, we
get from the way [...]
4. Conclusion
Some communicatively inappropriate renditions in the Slovene translation of
Momigliano’s History of Italian Literature have been discussed and placed
within a typological framework. The discussion was limited to a presentation
of consequences brought about by communicatively inappropriate translating at
the level of the TT message itself. What would probably be equally worth
exploring is how such inappropriate translations can contribute to the shaping
of general language awareness and to the level of production of oral and
written texts of target readers who have been exposed to such deficient texts.6
Equally problematic is the laxity of language and thought to which contact with
such texts potentially leads, as well as distortions of the textual world generated
by such translations. Needless to say, the consequences can be extremely
serious if such texts are used as textbooks at school. That is why I would in the
future be interested in examining the Slovene translation of Momigliano’s text
not only with regard to its position within the Slovene educational polysystem
but also with regard to the question of linguistic and mental consequences that
such “non-texts” as translations have in the target culture.
However, the main question is whether such translations are exception
or rule — whether handbooks for the study of literature are indebted at all to
imported and translated handbooks. Where do Slovenians get their discourse
from when dealing with literature?
References
1. Texts
Momigliano, Attilio
1959
Storia della letteratura italiana, Milano / Messina: Giuseppe
Principato.
1967
Zgodovina italijanske književnosti, translated by Bogomil Fatur,
6
I was made aware of this problem, as well as of many others relevant to the analysis
of the translation in question, by Tjaša Miklic, my postgraduate studies supervisor.
438
Martina Ožbot
Ljubljana: Državna založba.
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