Journal of Italian Translation - Brooklyn College - Academic Home ...

Book Reviews
265
possessing excellent readability in English, this polished translation
has recently been re-issued, with the addition of an introduction
written by Susan Sontag, whose insightful piece — entitled “A
Double Destiny” – was originally printed in the London Review of
Books on September, 25, 2003. That Sontag was drawn to Banti’s
text through her reading of D’Ardia Caracciolo’s work speaks volumes
about the value of this translation, and while she does not
discuss the translation per se, Sontag’s observation of the book as a
“conversation that the author is having with Artemisia” (ix) testifies
that, indeed, this ambitious translation skillfully renders the
intimacy and immediacy of Banti’s writing to an English-speaking
audience. On the whole, D’Ardia Caracciolo succeeds in creating a
forceful and even poetic reading, and excels, above all, in translating
Banti’s beautiful character descriptions, such as that of
Artemisia’s husband, who, at one point, is tenderly presented as
follows:
“In the bright light of the bay, the image of Antonio fades away
amidst the rustling of his rosary beads, as light as acacia leaves on a
slope whose summit is the sky.” (98)
Other fine translations include portrayals of Artemisia’s father,
Orazio, on his deathbed (201). D’Ardia Caracciolo also deftly brings
the narrator’s voice to life in English by adopting a less literal approach
when translating her words. On page 22, for example, she
translates the narrator’s admission: “Dipende da me il silenzio che
segue questo racconto rotto, incalzato da una fretta convulsa” by
taking the liberty to transform faithfully the Italian rhythm into
English with: “I am responsible for the silence that follows her agitated
account of this episode, told with feverish haste and urgency.”
(22)
Linguistically, Banti’s formidable work combines high cultural
tradition with a rich dialectal variety. In fact, in the Foreword to
her novel, she declares that Artemisia’s language represented “il
tentativo d’immettere nella palude bastarda dell’italiano letterario
in corso vecchie e potabilissime fonti dell’uso popolare nostrano.”
As translator, D’Ardia Caracciolo thus faced the very real dilemma
of how to render Italian vernacular into English while still maintaining
an elegant prose. Every translation involves choices, and in
her work on Artemisia, D’Ardia Caracciolo chooses to focus on overall
meaning and readability in English while de-emphasizing the dialectal
nuances in Italian. Although this decision gives the English