Leopardi's fame came from being the greatest lyric poet of
the 19th century. His use of language was sublime. His intensity
of feelings such as despair and compassion, self-obsession, and
self-persecution
were at the same time excessive and perfectly balanced in the structure of
the ode.
The ode "Il sabato del villaggio" speaks of a young peasant girl coming back
from the fields and dreaming
of the imminent Sunday night feast.
It is another occasion for Leopardi to contrast the purity and naivety
of though in this young woman, still full of hopes for the future and yet
totally unaware of what Nature
will reserve for her. But, how can I explain Leopardi's worth...in a few
words...
..I feel so embarrassed because of the lack of decent translations
available in English. If only I could help someone to make some good
versions!
Of course, I only translate poetry from English (Welsh, Irish) into Italian,
never never the other way round.
But I could provide someone with, let's say , a servile translation. As a
kind of basic ground for the take off....
To be able to render in English the great lyric power of Leopardi (his
tongue and frightening mind, comparable
to those of Kierkegaard), ideally one would need an English poet of the same
power.
But then, would this great poet necessarily want to translate Leopardi, or
share his sensibility and diction?
Dear me , dear me, we will never overcome this problem.
(The only serious real solution, I imagine , would be is to learn the
language of the beloved poet and enjoy the original.
But again, we would require huge skulls to contain all these information.
And huge skulls are at night encumbering.
These never-ending debates about translating poetry! (One good thing about
them is that you every now and then can join conferences and have a good
time in some nice place, meeting after which one is none the wiser).
I am going tomorrow to find a good version of Il Sabato del Villaggio for
Mark Weiss.
Erminia
----- Original Message -----
From: Mark Weiss <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, August 23, 2000 9:05 PM
Subject: Re: Artists In Extremis--Ya gotta suffer?
> Leopardi in Italian is beutiful. Very hard to bring across in English.
> Maybe Erminia knows a good translation of Il Sabato del Villagio?
>
> At 07:29 PM 8/23/2000 +0100, you wrote:
> >I bought the Carcanet translation of the Canti a few months ago
> >and wasnt impressed very much. It left me wondering where Leopardi
> >got his reputation from. (Leopardi is a poet who ought to appeal
> >to me very much for obvious reasons.) Then a few weeks ago I
> >bought Edwin Morgan's `Translations' and he had a little Leopardi
> >in there. That was much more to my taste and I feel the Carcanet
> >translator to be inadequate. I think Leopardi is my sort of poet.
> >To be young and in love is marvellous and the rest of life quite
> >dreadful. I am pleased that I felt the love in me so long into
> >my fifties.
> >
> >
>
>
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