Tradurre i trovatori: un esempio poundiano. Arnaut Daniel," Chansson doil mot son plan e prim"

Abstract

This article focuses on Ezra Pound’s translations of Arnaut Daniel and aims to show the transformations in method and style which occur between the first prose exercises prepared for The Spirit of Romance (1910) and the most mature verse translations of the whole corpus of Arnaut Daniel, only partially published in The New Age literary magazine (1911-1912) and in the collection of essays Instigations (1920). Analyzing the various stages of Pound’s poetic technique, it is possible to throw new light on his ‘philological’ attitude toward the Provençal texts and the current critical editions (e.g. Canello 1883, and Lavaud 1910). Arnaut’s Chansson doil mot son plan et prim (BdT 29.6) is taken as a representative example of this creative re-elaboration, also because it undergoes an additional experimental translation, included in Hesternae Rosae (1913), the anthology of troubadour songs with piano accompaniment by Walter Morse Rummel.

Keywords

• Old Occitan
• Troubadour Lyric
• Ezra Pound
• Translation