The Bilingual Text by Hokenson Jan. Munson Marcella

Author:Hokenson, Jan.,Munson, Marcella.
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781317640356
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

He added that others in Italy have made two additional translations:

they are not badly executed on the whole, but they do not resemble the original. I have myself endeavoured, for my own amusement, to translate some of the scenes, but I felt all the ungratefulness of the task, and the difficulty of success. There are certain phrases and modes of speaking which lose all their spirit in translation. (1926:417)

Goldoni did go on to complete his own translation within a few years. In these passages, his comments identify French language and literary culture as the points of “origin” from which the play’s tone, character types, and subject matter emerge. The “uniqueness” of this particular environment thus explains the “difficulty of success” that he as self-translator faced, and that temporarily defeated his translative project. When Goldoni finally does achieve his self-translation of Le Bourru, he describes it as being necessarily unique – as of course it is – since the roles of both author and translator are collapsed into a single person. The preface of Il Burbero, “L’Autore a chi legge’T The Author to the reader, signals this concept of the text quite clearly: although the two Italian translations already circulating in Italy are most probably ”buone“, still, in Goldoni’s estimation, ”Io ho avuto nel farla un avvantaggio sopra degli altri; un semplice traduttore non osa scostarsi, nelle difficolta, dal senso litterale; io padrone dell’opera mia, ho potuto di quando in quando cambiar le frasi, per meglio appropriarle al gusto, e all’uso della mia nazione“/I nevertheless had an advantage in this regard over others: a mere translator would not have dared, even in the face of difficulty, to sidestep the literal sense; but I, as the author of my own work, was able to change words, the better to conform to the taste and customs of my nation (Mémoires, Goldoni 2003:257).

The dedicatory epistle of Le Bourru stands in strong contrast to the preface of Il Burbero. In the former Goldoni places the (French) work immediately under French royal patronage – specifically Madame Marie Adelaide de France, sister of Louis XV – instead of addressing it to a broad and anonymous “a chi legge”. As Luciani notes, the generic address “ribadisce la fedeltà ai principi del suo teatro”/confirms his faithfulness to his theatrical principles (2003:249). The French preface further invokes France as a great nation, and Goldoni takes pains to inscribe himself in that space: “Aussi-tôt que j’ai vu la France, je l’ai admirée, je l’ai aimée, et je n’aurois pu la quitter, qu’avec le plus grand regret”/Upon seeing France, I esteemed her, I adored her, and I could only have left her with the greatest difficulty (Mémoires, Goldoni 2003:121). The French preface places the text under the aegis of the French royal house, at whose pleasure Goldoni served during his entire career in France, and emphasizes the personal ties that bound the author to the French monarchic state. Although the Italian preface also invokes the ties between Goldoni and Madame Marie Adelaide

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