Il nodo della storia. Appunti sul tradurre poesia The Knot of History: Notes on Translating Poetry

Abstract

After a few reflections on translating, I make a distinction between translating prose and poetry and consider the problem of rhyme. I then present some examples of my work as a translator of German lyric poetry with translations from Nietzsche, Benn and two contemporary poets a generation apart, Enzensberger and Grünbein. Finally, I go back two centuries to consider a play by Kleist, which sounds very dated and raises the problem of how to translate verse drama for today’s audience.