Reaching out Towards the Interstitial: Linguistic Preferences and Cultural Implications in Italian Translations of Contemporary Irish Poetry

Abstract

This article engages primarily with a volume of translations from Pearse Hutchinson published by Trauben in 1999, L’anima che baciò il corpo. While on the one hand the textual analysis of single poems reveals distinctive traits and peculiarities of each translation, on the other it highlights translation norms which are typically used in relation to poetry as a genre. Precisely, the translation strategy assessed in this article is one that articulates a manifest “mediation” of the source text. In this sense poetry translation, in neat contrast to what happens within the domain of fiction, endorses the paradoxical premise that accepting difference is a necessary step to create a condition of equality between two cultures, thus allowing difference and sameness to exist simultaneously.