© Guido Pagliarino
ABOUT POETRY TRANSLATION
Unfortunately, poems are not exactly translatable into another language.
Have two examples:
1) In Italian language, a poem of mine, “My Friend” - I thank the U.S. poet C Therese for her precious suggestions during the translation into american English - is hendecasyllabic, however it was impossible to me to keep this metre in English language and, at the same time, to obtain the exact, original meaning and a correct English syntax; therefore, in English this short poem is not hendecasyllabic.
2) As regards the English word “dawn”, we have two terms in Italian: “alba” (when darkness is surrendering to the light) and “aurora” (when the sun is on the way to rise and one can perceive the first, weak light). The title of one my poem, that you will find in English section, “First Easter's Dawn” – on the Resurrection – is different in Italian language, it’s “Alba ed aurora di Pasqua”, like “Easter Alba and Aurora”: very important title by reasons that one will be able to understand reading that poem.
I think the translating imitation is better than the real one for kind of poetries or some part of their verses. As a rule, my poems in English language published by this book are not real translations but just imitations of my Italian poems. "My Friend" is an exception, because on translating, I have preferred to keep the exact content as regards the best form
Guido Pagliarino