Retranslation Dino Buzzati's poema a Fumetti: A post-ideological rewritting?

Abstract

In 1969, Dino Buzzati published his Poema a fumetti, a sui generis book, whose nature lies mid-way between the illustrated poems and comic strips genres, and in which the artist provides us with a updated myth of Orpheus that has been altered by the sixties (1960s)’ contemporaneousness. Two French language translations of Poema a fumetti will consecutively be written: the first one was performed by Max Gallo and Antoine Ottavi and was published a year only after the publication of the original Italian language book at Laffont. It was entitled Poème-bulles (1970). Another translation was thereafter done by Charlotte Lataillade and published by Actes Sud, and was entitled Orfi aux enfers (2007). The analysis of the retranslation highlights the translator’s will to elucidate and/or update the original publication, thus leading to fading away Buzzati’s set of references pertaining to a precise ideological context, that of the sixties, which were characterized by contestation, disobedience, the start of sexual liberation, and secularization that then hit hard Italian society.