How important is fluency in Italian (or romanesco) to successful translation of Belli?
Fluency is not very important. A deep comprehension of every poem to be translated is. Comprehension is not the same thing as fluency. My reading Italian is fair and my understanding of printed romanesco is much the same. I can only get to a certain level of comprehension unaided. Fortunately I have a brilliant romanesco expert in my corner, my editor Alessandro Gallenzi. Before I write a translation we work together until I comprehend every line, word, nuance, ambiguity, tone. And then comes the hard bit: English meter is more rigorous than Italian meter, and English rhymes are less plentiful than Italian rhymes so within tougher formal constraints than Belli faced, I have to create versions that use wholly natural sounding language (as Belli said, meter and rhyme must be produced as if by accident) while remaining faithful to the poets original content. As I say, thats the hard bit If Belli were alive today, who would be his ideal subjects? Or targets? I think we should say subjects.
