“Une tradition interrompue”. La traduzione poetica dei classici latini

Abstract

The poetic translation of ancient classics has occupied an entirely marginal position in the literary scene in Italy (and beyond) for several decades. The essay addresses the question of the transition from ‘poetic’ to ‘philological’ translation of the classics, referring to Antoine Berman’s theorisation and the observations of Italian critics, and examines two important Italian translations of Latin classics published in recent years, both by recognised poet-translators: Catullus’ poems translated by Alessandro Fo (Einaudi, 2018) and Lucretius’ De rerum natura translated by Milo De Angelis (Mondadori, 2022). These translations express different ways of relating to classical texts, and the analysis of their linguistic, stylistic and metrical characteristics allows for a reflection on the possibilities that today’s Italian poet-translators have for producing a ‘poetic’ translation of ancient works.