A Note on Translation and its Role in Diversity

All translations of these poems were conducted through my knowledge as a student of Italian language. Some creative liberty was used when a direct translation would not match what I think the creative description was from the original Italian author. However, this can lead to discrepancies in how other translations would otherwise be interpreted. In “Translation and Migration,” Dr. Loredana Polezzi speaks of the role of translators as political actors, and if translation is an isolated and controlled process by those who are elite, it may lead to a loss or erasure of what one is trying to say. Dr. Polezzi speaks of this in the context of migrant writing, but it is important to acknowledge here as well. What I translated is my perceived interpretation of the text given my background, and what I analyze from that translation is me playing the role of a political actor, as my audience will most likely take my translation as given and use that to make their own interpretations. The original audience of this text, Italian Americans in the 1930s, would have self-translated the text given their own background of the Italian language, whether it was passed down through their family, or learned in schools. Their interpretations of the text would have certainly been diverse from mine, and given that the schools of Italian language in that era were sponsored by Mussolini, it would be little surprise that the language used in the book catered to the curriculum of these Italian language schools.

Works cited and further reading:

Polezzi, Loredana. “Translation and Migration.” Translation Studies 5.3 (2012): 345–356. https://doi-org.libproxy.scu.edu/10.1080/14781700.2012.701943.

Page contributor:

Agustin Pace