Digitized “Very Short Fiction” in Translation: An Opportunity for the Reader

In his famous essay The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction Walter Benjamin argues that in this age what withers is the “aura” of the work of art. Furthermore he claims that the technique of reproduction by making many reproductions it substitutes a plurality of copies for a unique essence. And in permitting the reproduction to meet the “recipient” in his own particular situation it updates the object. These considerations in connection to the endless possibility of varying a text in real-time by writing with the computer, about ten years ago led me to suggest a change in the current terminology in many languages for the old journey-metaphor of a text from the “source” to its “target”. Since a competent reader [recipient] theoretically can manipulate immediately on the screen almost every digitized target text and in this way according to Benjamin update, reactivate the reproduced object [the translation] in his own particular situation [reading on the screen] I introduced the concept of “testo di scalo” [as possible English translations were suggested: interim text, intermediate-stage text, floating target text, temporary target text, target text in transit, stop over text] (See: Nadiani 1999, “Testo a Fronte” 20, 1: 75-80. Milano: Marcos y Marcos; Nadiani 2000 www.intralinea.it ). But my idea wasn’t just a theoretical or terminological proposal. I applied it to a multimedia hypertext on contemporary German short prose translated into Italian. Surfing within my hypertext the Italian competent reader can, among other things: a) read a suggested translation b) modify it in real-time c) write a completely new translation d) compare his own translation with the suggested one. In future this first prototype may be expanded with other functions and may also find some applications on the field of translation teaching.