18. “Lost In Translation”
Chapter Outline
1. Discussion of La Donna è MobiLe (second verse) to illustrate some of the problems involved in translating from Italian to English. Examples of good and bad translations. 2. A short pAssAge (La CaLunnia è un ventiCeLLo) from il BarBiere di SivigLia. 3. surtitles
1. prOBlems in translating
So far in this book we have not discussed in detail the question of translations and the problems which they involve because our goal has been to think in Italian as much as possible. Nevertheless I have included this brief chapter because you might find it interesting to consider some of the basic questions which arise in translating. Because of the many inherent differences between English and Italian, a perfect translation is impossible. It’s the nature of languages. So many words in Italian have nuances, connotations, literary echoes, etc. which their closest equivalent words in English do not have. I have had occasion to comment on this several times e.g. in Chapter Six. To one expert (Palazzi) “vezzoso” means “che ha grazia e bellezza” (‘having grace and beauty’). According to another (Zingarelli), “vezzoso” means “grazioso, leggiadro, bello e amabile” (‘having grace, elegant, beautiful and loveable’). “La piccina è ognor’ vezzosa.” The petite woman is always charming. (Leporello in Don Giovanni)
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How do you translate “vezzosa” accurately in the passage above? I don’t think it can be done. It seems to me that the best one can come up with is something like ‘charming’. Is it possible to translate the Duke’s following remark in Rigoletto without resorting to something awkward and which does not do justice to the elegance of the original Italian: “Ogni sagezza chiudesi All wisdom is ‘contained’ nel gaudio e nell’amore.” in pleasure and love.
The phrasing in Italian is extremely concise. How do you translate “chiudesi” accurately? And what about “gaudio”? According to Zingarelli “gaudio” means “piacere spirituale” so the word has connotations which can not be conveyed by the word “pleasure”. Mr. William Weaver, a precise and inspired translator, makes a good stab at it: “All wisdom concludes In pleasure and in love.” but “concludes” is still not faithful to the original Italian, "chiudesi". Apart from the individual words themselves, there are many other things which make translations difficult. A close look at a stanza from Rigoletto will show you what I mean.
2. prOBlems in translating a passage:
La Donna è MobiLe
It is interesting to look at a passage in the original Italian and compare it with a translation. Let’s take the second verse of La Donna è Mobile as an example. (See Ex. 11 for the musical notes; it’s at the end of Chapter three.) I have chosen an aria from Rigoletto, but one could apply this kind of analysis, with similar results, to any operatic passage. Here are the original verses. They are terse, forceful, almost epigrammatic. They are also openly sensual (e.g., “seno”, breast) and contain
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no euphemisms. I have translated the passage as accurately as I can. "Pur’ mai non sentesi Yet never does he feel Felice appieno Happy complete(ly) Chi su quel seno He who on that breast Non liba amore." Does not drink love. Here is Mr. Weaver’s translation of the preceding passage: 1. 2. 3. 4. Pur mai non sentesi Felice appieno Chi su quel seno Non liba amore. And yet one who never Drinks love on that breast Never feels Entirely happy.
Mr. Weaver’s translation is both terse and accurate, yet it is certainly not perfect: its syllables do not fit the music; “happy” lacks the nobility of “felice”; the word “never” is repeated, which seems repetitive. A close look at the original Italian (above) reveals a number of features which belong to it alone and elude the translator’s efforts. 1. The original contains an effective rhyme (“appieno” with “seno”), and the whole passage flows. Mr. Weaver’s passage flows well but it has no rhyme. 2. “Pur’ mai non sentesi” has great cogency and strength. 3. Placed at the beginning of the sentence, “mai” has much greater impact than “never”, which doesn’t come at the beginning of the corresponding English version. 4. “seno” (breast) conveys the sensuality and eroticism of the scene better than “arms” . “Arms” is far removed from “seno” and seems
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bowdlerized in comparison. The original is risqué but it really does sound like something the Duke might say. 5. By being placed at the end of the verse, “amore” is more forceful than “love”, which is not placed at the end of the verse in most English versions. 6. “Liba” (from ‘libare’, to drink, to drink a toast to) has aristocratic, pagan (a “libation to the Gods” , etc.) connotations which are pretty well impossible to translate effectively. I have taken over a hundred words to analyze what is lost in the translation of thirteen little words. ("Pur mai non sentesi...Non liba amore.") The mind boggles at what might be lost when you translate a whole opera! Judging from the passage above it seems impossible to find English words which are identical equivalents to those of the original Italian, nor is it possible to preserve the rhyme and meter of the original when going into English. My interlinear translation (one page back) is about as accurate as I can make it and yet it is not even written in normal English prose; were I to attempt to put it into normal prose (let alone verse) I am sure I would fall into one of the inevitable traps: inaccuracy, awkwardness, paraphrase, circumlocution, loss of rhyme, failure of the syllables to fit the musical phrase, etc. All translators are faced with these problems and this is why most of them take some liberties in their translations. “Traduttore, traditore.” (Translator, traitor.”) as the Italian proverb says. Unfortunately, some translators take too many liberties, and a glance at the libretti of many L.P.'s and C.D.s will confirm this. Below is the kind of translation I mean–it is inaccurate, watered-down, and prudish. Such translations harm opera’s reputation by giving people the impression that opera is somewhat “goody two shoes" as well as being unnatural and unreal. This is far from the truth although opera does have moments of irrationality. The following translation is from the libretto which accompanied a 1960s recording of Rigoletto. It is typical of what I mean.
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Yet the man never knows Complete happiness Who does not taste Love in her arms. Let’s take another passage, this time from Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and see how it eludes the translator’s best efforts. In this aria the furbissimo Don Basilio tells Dr. Bartolo how to use malicious rumors to destroy your enemy; once you have finished the job, Basilio says, there won’t be much left of him: “E il meschino calunniato, And the little wretch, slandered, Avvilito, calpestato, Reviled, stomped on, Sotto il pubblico flagello, Under the public scourge (whip), Per gran’ sorte va a crepar’.” ‘if he’s lucky!’ goes off (somewhere) to croak. – calunniato (from calunniare, to slander): – avvilito (from avvilire, to revile, i.e. ‘drag in the mud’, degrade, humiliate). “reso vile, abbietto, spregevole.” (Zingarelli) – calpestato (from calpestare, to stomp on). “schiacciare” (to crush) coi piedi per disprezzo (scorn) o per rabbia (anger)”. Zingarelli. This passage of Basilio is an inspired piece of writing. It is terse and the language is suitably violent (“avvilito”, “calpestato”, “flagello”). The words are rich in meaning (as you can see from Zingarelli’s definitions) and seem to be made for the music. My translation is fairly accurate but in order to achieve accuracy I have had to rely on interpretive comment and paraphrasing (“And the little wretch”, “If he’s lucky”), which makes my version awkward-sounding. Scruples about accuracy have not bothered the authors of the following
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