Translating Calvino: reflections about the translation process based on the writer’s letters

Abstract

This article aims our translation of Italo Calvino's letter Qualsiasi cosa cerchi di scrivere that we translated from Italian to Brazilian Portuguese with the title “Qualquer coisa que eu tente escrever” (Anything I try to write), published by Teia magazine of the Letters Faculty (Federal University of Minas Gerais), in August 2011. This letter is a tribute to Che Guevara and was written by Calvin in October 1967 and published the following year at the Cuban Casa de las Americas magazine. The full original text in Italian was published in Italy only 30 years later, by Quaderni della Fondazione Ernesto Che Guevara magazine. We propose, in this work, to re-examine the translation process, establishing a dialogue between our translating task and Calvino's reflections on translation through texts of the writer. In his letter Sul Tradure (1963), Calvino talks about translation issues, emphasizing the importance of the translator’s good knowledge of both languages, the first language and the foreign language. For Calvino the translation allows readings and discoveries of senses, sometimes overlooked in the original text. Our aim is to make considerations of Italo Calvino’s reflections in relation to the translation process and demonstrate, from our perspective as translators, how the discursive strategies and translation choices can contribute to bring the reader together with the translated text.