Il blocco — Translator's Block

Translator's block, and the art of taking out

Writer's block has its translators' version: not a blank page but a full one that refuses to become right. It strikes, as here, as often on simple passages as on difficult ones, because a plain sentence offers nowhere to hide; every choice shows. Many translators describe the cure in similar terms to Nadia's — step away, hear the original again, and resist the urge to explain. A common temptation, especially for a first literary translation, is to over-translate: to make explicit in the target language what the original only implies, by lengthening an answer, adding an adverb, or smoothing a silence. Editors often cut such additions. In dialogue especially, the original's understatement — Vera's «Un po'» — usually needs an equally understated equivalent, not an explanation. The pronominal verbs Nadia uses (smettila, piantala, finiscila, non prendertela) are among the most frequent in spoken Italian and among the most expressive. Their pronouns are frozen, and their meaning is idiomatic rather than literal: there is nothing to 'take' in prendersela, and nothing to 'plant' in piantarla.