Journal of Italian Translation

LE ARANCE D’ORO
by Luigi Capuana
Translated by Santi Buscemi
Santi Buscemi is a professor of English at Middlesex County
College in Edison, NJ, where he chaired the English Department
(1974-2003). He has also taught at Rutgers University. The former
president of the New Jersey College English Association and the
New Jersey Association for Developmental Education, he has presented
at several professional conferences in the US and was a keynote
speaker at the University of Natal (South Africa) conference
on language instruction in 2000. He is the author and co-author of
six college texts on writing published by McGraw-Hill.
The following selection is from Luigi Capuana’s C’era Una
Volta. Buscemi’s translation of Capuana’s “I tre anelli” appeared
in the summer 2004 issue of Forum Italicum. Prof. Buscemi is the
son of Sicilian immigrants from the province of Agrigento.
Luigi Capuana (1839-1915) was born in Mineo, Sicily. After
studying law at the University of Catania, he began to write plays
for a company of amateur actors and showed an intense interest in
popular poetry. In 1864, he moved to Florence, then capital of Italy,
and began his career as a literary critic by writing for La Nazione.
Florence also introduced him to the work of Balzac and of other
French novelists. By 1877, Capuana was in Milan writing for
Corriere della Sera. In 1902, he was appointed to the chair of aesthetics
and stylistics at the University of Catania.
As a literary critic, Capuana established a reputation for objectivity
and analytical acumen. He is also remembered for having
championed theories of romantic naturalism in works such as Studi
sulla letteratura contemporanea (1880-82). In addition, his ability to
expose the psychology of his characters won him lasting fame as a
novelist. Among his best works in this genre are Giacinta (1879),
Profumo (1891), Le Paesane (1894), and his masterpiece, Il Marchese
di Roccaverdina (1901). He also wrote several children’s books, including
a collection of fairy tales, C’era Una Volta… (1862)