Trascrivere il processo traduttivo (intorno a una poesia di Adam Mickiewicz)

Transcribing the process of translation (On a poem by Adam Mickiewicz). The article is an attempt to describe translation not as something accomplished, ready to be analyzed and evaluated, but as the final result of a complex process that takes into account various factors (formal, stylistic, semantic) and necessarily leads to the discarding of a large number of variants. The object of the translation operations is the "Lausanne lyric” Nad wodą wielką i czystą… (“On the vast and pure water”), a short poem characterised by a regular structure of octonaries variously rhymed. The meter and rhyme scheme, along with dominant stylistic features such as frequent figures of repetition, as well as the peculiar alternation of past and present tense, are recognized as central issues in these reflections on translation. The article is conceived as a sort of stream of translational consciousness, intended to provide useful methodological hints both for translators of poetry and critics of translation.