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42
Journal of Italian Translation
“Una rosa rossa” by Stefano Benni
Translated by Blossom S. Kirschenbaum
Blossom S. Kirschenbaum’s doctorate is from Brown University;
she wrote her dissertation on the Rome Prize in Literature (1976).
She taught at MIT, RISD, U.Mass. (both Boston and North
Dartmouth), URI-Providence, and Clark, then settled at Brown’s
Department of Comparative Literature. Now she collaborates with
Italian Studies. A member of PEN’s New York Center, the Modern
Language Association, and the American Italian Historical Association,
Dr. Kirschenbaum has translated novels, stories, and a volume
of verse from the romanesco of Trilussa. Her essay on Ginevra
Bompiani appeared as Afterword to Sergio Parussa’s translation of
L’orso maggiore (The Great Bear, Italica, 2000). She has entries in such
sourcebooks as Encyclopedia of Continental Women Writers and The
Italian American Experience: An Encyclopedia. Essays have appeared
in Voices in Italian Americana, Italian Americana, MELUS, and other
journals; two published articles about Fernanda Pivano were followed
by a translation of Pivano’s “Once There Was Beirut” in Journal
of Italian Translation (Fall 2006). She came to her “autore numero
uno” when Stefano Pesce, visiting from Bologna with parents and
sisters, sat on her couch reading Bar Sport (1976). Since he would
not part with the book, she bought her own copy—and kept buying
and reading as new work followed. Her version of Benni’s
“Sigismondo e Vittorina,” from Bar Sport Duemila, appeared in
Chelsea 66 ( (1999). She has read aloud to an Italian friend the
Feltrinelli edition of Benni’s Margherita Dolcevita and, to two young
girls, Anthony Shugaar’s English version for Europa Editions. She
looks forward to welcoming Benni to Brown University.
Stefano Benni’s satirical fiction has been translated into over
thirty national and regional languages including the Scandinavian,
Germanic, Romance, Slavic, and Arabic; also Finnish, Turkish, Greek,
Japanese—this even though his work abounds in verbal pyrotechnics,
neologisms, topical jokes, puns, and slang, for he is a poet,
blending fantasy, pop culture, literary borrowings, and tomorrow’s
headlines. Born 12 August 1947, he grew up in the countryside
around Bologna, the city with which he is most closely associated
despite sometime hints of disenchantment. He began his career as
a journalist and still contributes to newspapers. Volumes of poetry