Ocula (Jul 2018)
Tradurre il tempo. Umberto Eco traduttore del cronotopo in Sylvie di Nerval
Abstract
To the question "what does translation mean?", Eco responds translating. In Dire quasi la stessa cosa (Saying Almost the Same Thing) he resorts above all to his own "experiences in translation," as recites the subtitle of his book. Of his experiences particularly important is his translation of Nerval's Sylvie. The central problem is what the translating text must render. In Sylvie Eco contends with "rendering" its specific chronotope. The story begins in the imperfect recounting an irreparable loss which is only communicated to the reader at the end. Translation must experiment with this special temporal organization of the story. This is presented in first person and by naming the "narrating voice" Je-rard Eco ingeniously distinguishes it from the author Gérard Nerval. "Almost" in the title announces Eco's position formulated towards the end of his book: fidelity in translation consists in recognizing that it is never final. In fact, the translated text is always the same, but other: the same other.
