Nuovi Libri

[2-11-1997]

a) di Bilenchi

b) su Bruno

c) su Croazia/Italia

d) su Tabucchi

e) Zanzotto tradotto

dalla casa editrice CADMO

ROMANO BILENCHI

La ghisa delle Cure e altri scritti
A cura di Giorgio van Straten

Prezzo: 25.000
Pagine: 155
Collana: Bilenchiana, 2
Formato: cm. 12 X 21
Illustrazioni: 1, in copertina
Legatura: brossura
Anno Pubbl.: 1997
ISBN: 88 7923 168-5 Codice argomento: 02

L'AUTORE: Romano Bilenchi (1909-1989) è considerato uno dei maggiori narratori del Novecento. Fu collaboratore del «Selvaggio» di Mino Maccari e direttore, dal 1948 al 1956, del quotidiano «Il Nuovo Corriere». Si è imposto come scrittore con opere dallo stile limpido e rigoroso. Tra i suoi libri più famosi: Il capofabbrica (1935), Anna e Bruno, e altri racconti (1938), Conservatorio di Santa Teresa (1940), Il bottone di Stalingrado (1972). Nel 1982 ha ricevuto il Premio dei Lincei per la letteratura. In questa stessa collana è stato pubblicato il volume Le parole della memoria. Interviste 1951-1989.

L'OPERA: E' questa una prima raccolta dei numerosi scritti dispersi in miscellanee, quotidiani e riviste lungo oltre mezzo secolo di attività dello scrittore. Sono qui raccolte le prime prose giovanili e gli articoli degli anni '30 legati alle vicende del "Fascismo di sinistra", le inchieste sociali del dopoguerra, i ritratti dei compagni di strada e di sé, le letture, le polemiche, le denunce e le testimonianze di Romano Bilenchi «narratore puro» e insieme «uomo di passioni».

DESTINAZIONE: Gli amanti dello scrittore toscano, gli studiosi di letteratura italiana e coloro che sono interessati alle vicende politiche e culturali fra il 1930 e il 1990.

ARGOMENTI DI VENDITA: Un'occasione unica per approfondire la conoscenza di Romano Bilenchi attraverso gli scritti minori, molti dei quali erano ormai considerati dispersi o introvabili.

Per informazioni: bartolomeo@casalini.it

Karen de Leon-Jones

Giordano Bruno and the Kabbalah : Prophets, Magicians and Rabbis.

Yale University Press, 1997 (New Haven ; London)

pages : ix, 273

price : USA $37.50 ; UK £26

table of contents :

Acknowledgements

I. Nola, the Nolan, and the "Nolana Filosofia" 1

II. Bruno's Kabbalistic System 17

III. The Sefirot 29

IV. Hokhmah, Minerva, and Sofia-Sapienza 53

V. Ignoranza, Sofia, and Verità 63

VI. Metempsychosis 83

VII. The Ass, the Asino Cillenico, and the Cavallo Pegaseo 109

VIII. Rabbis, Hebrew Doctors, and the Symbol of the Ass 118

IX. The Prophet Balaam and the Prophetic Ass 128

X. The Prophet Moses 137

XI. The Prophet Solomon 146

XII. The Prophetic Allegory 157

XIII. Prophets, Magicians, and Rabbis 174

Appendix I. The Actaeon Emblems from Eroici Furori 185

Appendix II. The Sun Emblems from Eroici Furori 189

Appendix III. The Emblems of the Nine Lovers from Eroici Furori 195

Appendix IV. TheNine Orders of Blindness from Eroici Furori 200

Notes 203

Bibliography 255

Index 267

blurbs : "This book presents a radically new view of Giordano Bruno. De Leon-Jones's Thesis is new and even startling." -- Giuseppe Mazzotta, Yale University

"This book is the most comprehensive, balanced, and insightful treatment of a major aspect of Giordano Bruno's thought." -- Moshe Idel, author of Kabbalah: New Perspectives

[per ulteriori informazioni scrivere all'autrice: Karen@univ-savoie.fr o visitare il seguente sito: http://www.yale.edu/yup/F97/deleonjonesF97.html ]

da Natka Badurina

Il libro "Croazia/Italia. I rapporti nei secoli: storia, letteratura, arti figurative" (526 pagine) prende in esame i contatti avvenuti tra l'Italia e la Croazia dal medioevo ad oggi, nel campo della storia, della letteratura e delle arti visive. Il libro e' bilingue (croato e italiano) e corredato da illustrazioni e dalle bibliografie - ognuna di circa 100 voci - riguardanti i tre settori in cui e' divisa l'opera. Il capitolo sulla storia, opera della studiosa zagabrese Lovorka Coralic, narra l'intreccio dei contatti tra i due paesi vicini puntando lo sguardo non solo sui grandi avvenimenti (per esempio, le guerre croato-venete in Adriatico nell'alto medioevo; il dominio veneto dal XV al XVIII secolo; gli echi del Risorgimento italiano in Croazia; dall'autonomismo all'irredentismo nell'800; la prima guerra mondiale e i trattati di pace; la seconda guerra mondiale, fino ai giorni nostri), ma anche sul lento fluire della vita quotidiana sulle due coste, dove i temi preferiti sono stati: i pellegrinaggi medievali, i santi e i beati croati in Italia, e la vita ricca e movimentata delle comunita' e fraternite croate in Italia. La parte riguardante la letteratura, scritta dall'italianista di Zagabria Natka Badurina, ripercorre la storia della letteratura croata analizzando i contatti che questa ha avuto con la letteratura italiana. Lo studio riassume le ricerche che sono gia' state fatte in questo campo da studiosi come Cronia, Deanovic o Zoric, ma aggiunge anche temi e metodologie nuove, soprattutto in riguardo al XIX secolo. Anche il capitolo sulla letteratura ha un'organizzazione cronologica: parte dalle traduzioni e dagli scritti medievali, prosegue attraverso il Rinascimento in Dalmazia, il Barocco e gli influssi del Tasso nella letteratura croata, per concludere con la presenza degli italiani nella letteratura croata e quella dei croati nella letteratura italiana del ventesimo secolo. La terza parte del libro, compilata dalla studiosa Ivana Prijatelj Pavicic di Spalato, presenta la problematica degli influssi reciproci nelle arti figurative; gli artisti croati che divennero famosi in Italia (Giorgio Schiavone, Iohannes Dalmata, Francesco e Luciano Laurana), e quelli italiani che con la loro presenza, o la presenza delle loro opere e scuole, contribuirono alla diffusione dell'arte italiana in Croazia (Lorenzo Lotto, Tiziano ecc.). L'editore del libro e' MOST / THE BRIDGE, Drustvo hrvatskih knjizevnika, Trg bana Jelacica 7, 10000 Zagreb, Croazia, (fax: +385 1 434 790) In Italia il libro si puo' trovare a Trieste, nella libreria Svevo, o nelle biblioteche degli istituti slavistici a Roma, Firenze, Milano, Padova ecc.

A special number of Spunti e Ricerche, entitled "Antonio Tabucchi: A Collection of Critical Essays" and edited by Bruno Ferraro and Nicole Prunster, has recently been published. Consisting of fifteen essays in English and a critical bibliography, this volume is an indispensable tool for those studying Tabucchi's works or working in the field of comparative literature. Those wishing to purchase it should send a cheque for A$50 (this includes airmale postage), made out to Spunti e Ricerche, to the following address: The Editors Spunti e Ricerche Italian Studies La Trobe University Bundoora, Vic. 3083 Australia I may be contacted by e-mail (N.Prunster@latrobe.edu.au) should more information be required.

Table of Contents

FOREWORD v

ABBREVIATIONS OF TITLES vi

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY: Antonio Tabucchi's Actors, Characters and Ghosts by Bruno Ferraro 3

PART I: Narrative and Society

Notes for a Reconnaissance of Tabucchi's Works by Giorgio Bertone 29

The Geometry of Equality: Antonio Tabucchi and the Civil Dimension by Remo Bodei 44

PART II: Time, Memories and Dreams

Tabucchi's Waiting Rooms by Inge Lanslots 51

The Role of Memory in Antonio Tabucchi's "Piccoli equivoci senza importanza" by Laura Lepschy 61

Towards a Study of Dream in Antonio Tabucchi by Nives Trentini 71

PART III: Images and Scenery

From "Notturno indiano" to "Il filo dell'orizzonte": "landscape of absence" and "landscape of disappearance" by Tiziana Arvigo 99

The Art of Fixing Shadows and Writing with Light: Tabucchi and Photography by Remo Ceserani 109

Antonio Tabucchi's Iconic Temptations by Giovanni Palmieri 125

PART IV: The Journey and the Quest

Antonio Tabucchi's "Requiem": Mourning Modernism by Anna Botta 143

The Constant Search for Oneself by Luigi Surdich 158

PART V: History and Literature: "Sostiene Pereira"

Paths to Testimony in "Sostiene Pereira" by Manuela Bertone 175

"Sostiene Pereira": The Crisis of the Intellectual between History and Literature. by Flavia Brizio-Skov 186

What about Pereira? Can He Be Trusted? A Testimony of 'true fiction' in "Sostiene Pereira" by Monica Jansen 202

A Note on the Phrase "sostiene Pereira" by André Sempoux 215

Bibliography of Antonio Tabucchi's Works Quoted in English 217

Critical Bibliography 218

Notes on Contributors 221

In italiano:

E' uscito il numero speciale di Spunti e Ricerche dedicato agli studi critici delle opere di Antonio Tabucchi, curato da Nicole Prunster e Bruno Ferraro.

Questo volume, che costituisce la prima raccolta in lingua inglese di saggi critici sulle maggiori opere narrative di Tabucchi e sulle loro principali tematiche, contiene contributi di studiosi di vari paesi:

Bruno Ferraro,Tiziana Arvigo, Giorgio Bertone, Manuela Bertone, Remo Bodei, Anna Botta, Flavia Brizio-Skov, Remo Ceserani, Monica Jansen, Inge Lanslots, Laura Lepschy, Giovanni Palmieri, Andre Sempoux, Luigi Surdich, Nives Trentini.

Il volume e' diviso in cinque sezioni che trattano dei seguenti temi: Narrative and Society; Time, Memories and Dreams; Images and Scenery; The Journey and the Quest; History and Literature: Sostiene Pereira; and a bibliography of Tabucchi followed by a critical bibliography.

Il costo del volume è A$40, $10 per spese postali; lo si puo' richiedere a:

The Editors Spunti e Ricerche Dept. of Italian Studies La Trobe University Bundoora, Vic. 3083 Australia

PEASANTS WAKE REVISITED

The much abused epithet traduttore/traditore (translator/traitor) absolutely does not apply, even minimally, to the translations of Andrea Zanzotto's Italian dialect poems into the American idiom masterfully carried out by Professor John P. Welle, of Notre Dame University, and Ruth Feldman, arguably the best existing translator of Italian poetry. For a variety of stylistic, textual and structural reasons, probably no other Italian poet is as difficult to bring across into another language as is the work of Andrea Zanzotto. Hence these two translators' obvious success should be not only admired but diligently studied by any serious practitioner of this subtle art of "transvasing" from one linguistic/ cultural context into another. I use the image of "travasare", of pouring out the essence contained in one "vase" (language, culture, tradition, etc.) into another receptacle that ought to contain all the properties of the original, to illustrate the translation process when properly done.

As it is possible, albeit difficult, to "transvase" all the bouquet, the aroma, the "spirit" from a large vessel of wine (barrel, keg, a "damigiana", etc.) into a smaller container, a similarly successful operation out to be carried out, ideally, by the translator. Thus the good wine will be transferred from one bottle (original language) into another bottle (language of translator) without causing a major "fiasco", without turning the wine into vinegar. Yes, the isomorphism between these two processes might seem superficial and simplistic. Yet it is not only what is lost, as Robert Frost maintained, that does get rebottled in a new context by the expert translator. Call it "transvasing", transformation, transubstantiation, transliterization, the artistic process of "bringing across" from one language into another is as subtle and precise as choosing the right metaphor to illumine the original poem. It is as simple and as difficult as that. Both Feldman and Welle are true masters of this extremely demanding art.

Before touching on specific examples of the translators' virtuosity, a brief overview of Zanzotto's "spinta", the force that propelled him to compose these poems in dialect should be clarified. Federico Fellini, the well-known Italian film director, asked Andrea Zanzotto to help him out of an impasse: "And now I have to dub it, this film (Casanova) which I have shot recklessly in English, and among the many problems there is also that of the Veneto dialect." In the Introduction to Peasants Wake for Fellini's Casanova and Other Poems, Professor Welle continues, "the challenge of >inventing poetic texts in Venetian dialect to accompany Fellini's visual evocations of two female figures-- the woman's head rising from the lagoon in the first scene of the film, and, in a later scene, the giantess from the Veneto who sings a plaintive lullaby -- stimulated Zanzotto to enter into a whole new phase of poetic experimentation of his own.......Peasants Wake constitutes the first in a series of explorations by Zanzotto in the vanishing mother tongue(s) of his native region." (p. vii)

It remains a mystery how artists collaborate to produce synergistic artifacts whose whole is greater than the sum of the parts; also mysterious how this collaboration stimulates each participant's subconscious so that new vistas, farther horizons open up. It is possible that Fellini's "two female figures" might have triggered something in Zanzotto's miasmic subconscious so as to necessitate a return, a rediscovery and, simultaneously, a re-inventing of that maternal Veneto dialect the poet had absorbed by listening to his mother, his aunts and other female presences while growing up. Zanzotto himself has referred to his dialect poetry as the "mother tongue", as a probably unconscious regression in utero. This feminine presence combines with the oral attributes of all dialect languages to create a poetry of vivid emotions, feelings, a poetry that draws deeply its metaphors from the topography of the senses, rather than from the labyrinths of the mind. It is a memorial celebration far more than an intellectual "cerebration". This is one of the major distinctions that separates Zanzotto's creations in the "maternal" Veneto vernacular from the poetry where he uses the official Italian "father" tongue. Oral culture versus literary canon. This becomes the poet's principal innovation and contribution as he readapts a primarily spoken language and sets it in his own idiosyncratic and very original written forms.

The tough challenges faced by these two translators of Zanzotto's poetry are compounded not only by the linguistically complex experimentations the poet deploys and always pushes toward new limits, but also by the varieties of dialects he uses. In the first two sections comprising the "Filò" >("Peasants Wake")part and translated as "Venetian Recitative" and "London Lullaby", Zanzotto virtually recreates a pseudo-Venetian dialect as it was supposedly spoken in that city in the 18th century. Using the image of "transvasing", here the poet first invents the "wine", then pours it into the dialect container and, finally, rebottles that vintage into the standard Italian receptacle. How do the translators faithfully carry across another successful rebottling? They do so not by employing an American "dialect", a patois that reflects no valid correlative isomorphism to the original creation. "Comforted by the presence of the originals in this multilingual volume," they utilize a contemporary American English "that is simple and colloquial, yet dignified. Although it isn't possible to reproduce exactly the tone of the dialect, [they] have tried to capture some of the singsong cadences and lilt. [They] have also used rhyme and alliteration to echo the music of the dialect." (p. xvi) In this they succeed admirably. For the reader who can read the poems in all three languages, a careful reading of any of these poems and the respective transations will make this immediately palpable and obvious. And the book's original format, which presents the dialect, the Italian and the English texts side by side, is an admirable editorial innovation that makes both the reading and the linguistic comparisons extremely rewarding. The readers who only comprehend the English translations have to trust the translators' virtuosity and fidelity to the originals. Read aloud, the English renditions reverberate with the charm, musicality and unique qualities embodied in Zanzotto's original diction.

While in "Venetian Recitative" the poet virtually creates a new language (see pp. 36-9), in "London Lullaby" he taps deeply into the well of youthful memories, where maternal singsongs, nursery rhymes, terms of endearment are fused with nonsense words (like those spoken by a pre-verbal child) to inform an original "nenia"/lullaby. In the translators' own words, this poem "truly challenges the limits of translation." But their results are superb. In the final segment of his dialect poems, Zanzotto brings into written life the oral dialect of Pieve di Soligo, the town nestled in the Prealps of the Treviso province, where the poet has spent most of his life. Prof. Welle and Ruth Feldman comment: "all the dialect poems that follow are written in a rural dialect which Zanzotto employs, in part to create a deliberately archaic tone. For this reason, we have opted at times for a slightly archaic diction." (p.xvi)

Often, for many valid motives, readers fluent in both the original and the translated languages are skeptical when confronted with yet another bilingual (and, in this case, trilingual) volume of poems. Poetry is arguably the most difficult art form to bring across. So let's examine some examples of these two translators' skills. Let us visualize how the poetic "spirits" concretely flow, unaltered, from one language (from the vas efferens) into the other language (the vas inferens):

I. from "Venetian Recitative" ( first section of Filò)

(dialect) O come ti cressi, o luna dei busi fondi,
o come ti nassi, cavegi blu e biondi,
nu par ti, ti par nu,
la gran marina no te sèra più,
le gran barene de ti se inlaga,
vien su, dragona de arzento, maga!

(Italian) O come cresci, o luna dei baratri fondi,
o come nasci, capelli blu e biondi,
noi per te, tu per noi,
il grande mare più non ti rinserra,
le grandi barene di te si allargano,
sali, dragona d'argento, maga!

(English) Oh how you're growing, oh moon of deep chasms,
oh how you're rising, hair blonde and blue,
you for us, we for you,
the great sea no longer holds you back,
you make a lake from marsh and grass,
rise, silvery dragon, sorceress!

(pp. 18-9)

II. from "London Lullaby"

(dialect)
Pin penin
valentin
o mio ben,
te serco inte 'l fogo inte 'l giasso

(Italian)
Piè-piedino
valentino
o mio bene,
ti cerco nel fuoco nel ghiaccio

Pin penin
valentin
oh, my dear,
I search for you in ice and fire (English, pp. 46-7)

III. from "Peasants Wake" (the latter section of Filò)

(dialect)
Vecio parlar che tu à inte 'l tò saòr
un s'cip del lat de la Eva,
vecio parlar che no so pi
.........
parlar porèt, da poreti, ma s'cèt
ma fis, ma tòch cofà na branca
de fien 'pena segà dal faldin (parchè no bastetu?)--
noni e pupà i è 'ndati, quei che te cognossèa,
none e mame le è 'ndade, quele che te inventèa,
novo petèl par ogni fiòl in fasse,

(Italian)
Vecchio dialetto che hai nel tuo sapore
un gocciolo del latte di Eva,
vecchio dialetto che non so più,
.........
parlare povero, da poveri, ma schietto
ma fitto, ma denso come una manciata
di fieno appena tagliato dalla falce (perchè non basti?)--
nonni e babbi sono andati, loro che ti conoscevano,
nonne e mamme sono andate, loro che ti inventavano
nuovo petèl per ogni figlio in fasce

(English)
Ancient dialect, your flavor still has
a drop of Eve's milk,
ancient dialect that I've forgotten,
.........
poor speech, of poor folks, but you're pure,
thick and dense as a handful
of hay freshly cut with the scythe (why aren't you enough?)--
granpas and dads have died, they're the ones who used to know you,
grandmas and mamas have died, they who made up for you
new baby-talk for every baby in diapers,... (pp. 78-9)

Even from this limited and arbitrary selection one will readily ascertain John Welle's and Ruth Feldman's almost magical diachronic, multivalent synergy as they "transvase" Zanzotto's Veneto pluridialects into American English. Superlative praise in this case is not enough. It is far better to read these translations over again and again, to fully appreciate the range and uniqueness of their accomplishments. As much as humanly possible, their renditions approach perfection.

Adeodato Piazza Nicolai (28 October 1997)