Resumen de Italian authors meet Australian authors:: the responsibility of writers as translators
More comes into play in literary translation than just natural languages and cultural systems of reference. There are also the personal imaginary worlds of the author and of the translator. The issue gets more complicated when the translator is also a published writer. Translator writers have the great responsibility not to superimpose their own narrative language and imagery on the translated author’s, in order not to assimilate the Other, or project on the Other their own idiosyncrasies, making their own writing dominant and the Other’s subaltern. The gesture of the translator author should be authoritative, not authoritarian. Examples from the Italian translations of Christina Stead’s Seven Poor Men of Sydney (1934) and Patrick White’s Voss (1957) by writers Aldo Busi (Garzanti, 1988) and Piero Jahier (Einaudi, 1965) will be provided to explore attitudes of responsible and authoritative hospitality.
