The Poems of A. Pushkin in the Antologia della Poesia Russa Edited by S. Garzonio e G. Carpi (2004): The Choice of Textes, the Choice of Translators

The goal is translation strategies used in authoritative translations of A.S. Pushkin’s works into Italian. Using three translations of Pushkin’s works - the poems The Prophet , I Loved you ..., and an excerpt from The Bronze Horseman - included in the bilingual Anthology of Russian Poetry (Antologia della Poesia Russa) edited by S. Garzonio and G. Carpi (2004), three translation strategies are analyzed. It is argued that while Pushkin’s contemporary and his first Italian translator M. Ricci strives for precision and stylistic fidelity to the original, his younger contemporary A. Canini significantly reworks the text, bringing it closer to the song tradition and, in fact, creating a variation on the theme; M. Colucci’s translation reflects an approach based on a philological study of the text and illustrates the principles adhered to by most modern Italian translators from Slavic languages. The article touches upon the problems of conveying poetic form, language and style, the appropriateness of archaization and its methods, taking into account the potential readership and the need to provide the text with commentary. A comparison of the three translations allows us to conclude that this anthology is a valuable source of information not only about the history of Russian poetry, but also about the history of its translation in Italy, about the practice of poetic translation in general and about the most talented translators; it can be used within the framework of a course in the history and theory of literary translation.