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

Journal of Italian Translation
ers a pernicious translation method, namely, when a translator
“turns […] to the job, to ‘poetese,’ to trite themes of pseudo-lyrical
or pseudo-experimental satisfied fulfillment.” 34 Rather, Buffoni’s
self-described method of translation depends on finding the
“prevalent element” of the text, “that inalienable one,” and starting
from there. Here, indeed, is a similarity between the translation
theories of the important poet-translator Giovanni Giudici and
Buffoni, both of whom rely on the theoretical notion, propounded
by Yury Tynjanov, of the “constructive principle.” While Buffoni
doesn’t mention the Russian theorist, owing to his friend Giudici’s
“abundant […] use” 35 of him, Tynjanov nonetheless remains in
the theoretical framework. Buffoni prefers, in any case, to call on
Pound, with the American poet’s three-fold category of melopoeia,
logopoeia, and phanopoeia. Analyzing a poem for translation,
Buffoni selects either the first category (“the rhythmical-melodic
inlay”), the second (“the distinctly formulated thought”), or the
third (“the illumination…the epiphany, that flash, which by itself
constitutes the profound meaning of the text”). 36 Having decided
on a method, he then knows where he can “eventually carry out
a sacrifice,” or in other words, where to be loyal and where to be
unfaithful.
Buffoni’s five interpretative categories of translations—
rhythm, avant-text, intertextuality, movement of language through
time, and poetics—also serve as his own guide for translating. We
will treat them in order.
To begin with, as the poet quotes the innovative theorist and
Bible translator Henri Meschonnic, the rhythm of a text is its fundamental
element (l’elemento fondamentale). 37 For Buffoni, a poet must
first find a rhythm: once he has found a rhythm, he has found the
subject. If the poet doesn’t find the right rhythm, “you can have
the most beautiful things in the world to say but what you write
can be at best a newspaper article.” Rhythm, which can be heard
in both the “the rhythm of the heart of our mother” and “our internal
breath,” “preceeds the appearance of the human species.” In
the last analysis, rhythm and diction come from the same source:
“poetry is born when these two elements are so fused that the difference
is no longer seen: as when a ballerina dances so whirling
about that the ballerina cannot be distinguished from the dance,
because it has become a single thing. Poetic writing, when it is
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