Abstract
[full article, abstract in English; abstract in Lithuanian]
 This paper deals with the history of translation in the 18th and 19th centuries. It investigates the reasons behind six unsuccessful attempts to translate John Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667) into the Italian language. We hypothesise that the problem was the rendering of unusually marked lexical, thematic, stylistic and rhythmical analogies with Dante’s Comedy and, mainly, with its sources. Adopting Antonio Bellati’s Italian translation (1856) as an indicator, our study focuses on problematic aspects intrinsic to the English poem. Specifically, we suggest that the challenge was the transposition of Paradise Lost’s peculiar mixture of style and meter: the blank verse of a Christian epic poem. This uniqueness rendered it too similar to Dante’s Comedy. Likewise, the setting and the subject matter of the English poem were too adherent to that of both Dante and Virgil’s Aeneid (one of Dante’s main sources). Finally, it might have been difficult to translate Milton into Italian because the English poet openly imitates the Italian epic style, its rhythmical and lexical choices. We conclude that it might have been arduous to avoid even more marked Dantesque influences in an Italian translation. In other words, this study depicts an unusual traductive instance of “excess of equivalence” for lexical and culturally specific items.
Highlights
Moreno BondaThis paper deals with the history of translation in the 18th and 19th centuries. It investigates the reasons behind six unsuccessful attempts to translate John Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667) into the Italian language
Dealing with the history of translation, a methodological premise is required, firstly, to define the concept of the “history of translation” itself
The relevance of the second chronological limit set above for the history of the translation in Italy is supported by a number of studies focusing on the debate about the rendering of epic poems in Italian just before the unification of the country in 1861 (Mari 1994)
Summary
This paper deals with the history of translation in the 18th and 19th centuries. It investigates the reasons behind six unsuccessful attempts to translate John Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667) into the Italian language. An unexpected contribute to the definition of the specific nature of the problems related to the translation into Italian emerged from a coeval debate caused by Voltaire’s comments on Milton’s Paradise Lost (Voltaire 2014, 225) In his Essai sur la poésie épique (1734, but it was first published in English the year before), the French philosopher criticized Milton’s failed attempt to reproduce the classical and Italian epic style (Allodoli 1907, 1–11). According to Allodoli, ‘it was the Italian nature to strike Milton’s imagination,’ since the English poet spent years in Italy All these “Italian influences” are perceived by the Italian literary critic despite Milton writing It might have been difficult to translate Milton into Italian because the English poet openly imitates the Italian epic style, its rhythmical and lexical choices; it might have been arduous to avoid even more marked Dantesque influences in an Italian translation
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
