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Simpatico 287language into which they are translating, in most cases the languagethey learned first, their mother tongue, but now also their own.Transparency occurs only when the translation reads fluently, whenthere are no awkward phrasings, unidiomatic constructions orconfused meanings, when clear syntactical connections and consistentpronouns create intelligibility for the reader. When the translation is apoem in free verse, varied rhythms that avoid jogtrot meters areneeded to give the language a conversational quality, to make it soundnatural. Line-breaks should not distort the syntax so much as to hinderthe reader’s search for comprehension; they should rather support thesyntactical continuity that gets him or her to read for meaning over thelines, pursuing the development of a coherent speaking voice, tracingits psychological contours. These formal techniques reveal thattransparency is an illusionistic effect: it depends on the translator’swork with language, but it hides this work, even the very presence oflanguage, by suggesting that the author can be seen in the translation,that in it the author speaks in his or her own voice. If the illusion oftransparency is strong enough, it may well produce a truth-effect,wherein the authorial voice becomes authoritative, heard as speakingwhat is true, right, obvious. Translating De Angelis’s poemsdemystified this illusionism for me because they so obviously resistfluency, cultivating instead an aesthetic of discontinuity.Consider a poem from Somiglianze, a programmatic text which gaveits title to De Angelis’s anthology selection:L’idea centraleE venuta in mente (ma per caso, per I’odoredi alcool e le bende)questo darsi da fare premurosononostante.E ancora, davanti a tutti, si sceglievatra le azioni e il loro senso.Ma per caso.Esseri dispotici regalavano il centrodistrattamente, con una radiografia,e in sogno padroni minacciosisibilanti:“se ti togliamo ciò che non è tuonon ti rimane niente.”(De Angelis 1976:97)