Towards self-translational stylistics: Andrea Zanzotto’s self-translations and allograph translations

Abstract: For translation stylistics the style of a translation cannot be analysed as that of a non-translated text for the obvious reason that in it there are two writers involved, the author and the translator, and that the choices of the latter are inevitably constrained by the choices of the former (Malmkjaer 2004). But what happens when the translation of a text is carried out by its own author? Will there be the same restrictions on the author-translator as on an ordinary translator? This issue will be investigated by looking at Andrea Zanzotto (1921-2011), who practised self-translation quite extensively, translating into Italian many of his dialect poems, but also ninety short lyrics composed in English (Haiku for a Season). Interestingly, Zanzotto was also an accomplished translator, mainly from French, having translated, among others, Arthur Rimbaud, Henri Michaux and Paul Éluard. The stylistic choices Zanzotto made when he translated his own poems will be set against the ones he made in his allograph translations of poetry. The comparison will allow to understand whether the poet adopted similar strategies in both situations, and to what extent the shifts he made in his translations represented stylistic idiosyncrasies typical of his usus scribendi. The study of Zanzotto’s experiences in self-translations will thus help highlight features that selftranslation shares in common with standard translation, but it will also reveal certain aspects that might set it apart from the translation done by a translator other than the author, having a different mode of writing.