Carla Rossi
on translating Eugenio Montale
“Ancient, I am dazed by the voice” is the second of nine short poems making up the poem “Mediterraneo.” In these verses Montale describes his relationship with the sea, which is representative of his existential condition. He is almost hypnotized by the sound of the waves, which he compares to bells by virtue of their rhythm. The Italian word Montale uses in the first line, ubriacato, would literally translate to “drunk.” I chose to render it with “dazed.” Sometimes it is inevitable for some semantic nuances to get lost in translation; a translator, however, should keep in mind that their purpose is to convey to their readers the same feelings they get in the original. For this reason, I believe “dazed” clearly sums this up.
Despite being an adult when he wrote “Mediterraneo,” Montale could still experience his childhood feelings when admiring the sea. When addressing the Mediterranean Sea, he says “Come allora oggi la tua presenza impietro,” and I reckon this was one of the toughest lines to translate. Impietro is not a word I would normally use in Italian; when hearing it I envision a stone, but it is definitely obsolete. Although in English the word “petrified” does exist, it gives off fear vibes. I chose “stunned,” because I feel the writer refers to the concept of awe.
My favorite passage, so interesting yet so challenging to render in English, is the line where Montale explains “the law of the sea”: “esser vasto e diverso / e insieme fisso.” It is vast and diverse, and even though it modifies its shape, it stays unchanged. I decided to go for the word “still,” because not only does it evoke the idea of the physical movement of the waves, but it also sticks to the idea presented by the author. Being still and yet washing away useless debris is what the sea does — erasing everything to start over again.
about the author
Born in Genoa, in North Western Italy, Eugenio Montale (1896 –1981) is considered one of the greatest Italian poets of the 20th century.
He was called to arms during World War I, after which he devoted his entire life to literature. With the subsequent rise of fascism, he was among the signatories of the “Manifest of the Anti-Fascist Intellectuals.” He kept his literary career alive regardless of the newly established regime; some of his poems were published in Switzerland to avoid censorship. He was a journalist as well as a poet, and in 1975 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for “his distinctive poetry which, with great artistic sensitivity, has interpreted human values under the sign of an outlook on life with no illusions.
Montale is widely associated with what he calls male di vivere, which could translate to “the ill of living” or “the burden of living.” It refers to the sense of disorientation spreading in Europe between the two World Wars, which led to shared feelings of uncertainty and isolation. This theme is well represented in his most renowned collection of poems, Ossi di Seppia (Cuttlefish Bones), in which “Antico, sono ubriacato dalla voce” was published.
about the translator
Carla Rossi graduated with a degree in conference interpreting (English and Spanish) from the University of Bologna in 2017, after spending a semester at University of Pennsylvania as an exchange student. She is not new to DoubleSpeak, having already published translations of Italian poems by Ungaretti and Merini. Among her tasks as interpreter, she has also translated for Indian activist Vandana Shiva. She earned her CELTA in 2019, and has been teaching English as a foreign language ever since, in both private and public schools. She also worked as a university Spanish interpreting lecturer and as a teacher for students in special education. It is no wonder, then, that she has always loved foreign languages.
