Hover a line for its translation; hover a word for its meaning. Tap 🔊 to hear it.
Generate a brand-new dialog on any topic, using this lesson's 0 vocab words — plus any words you add below.
Sign in to generate dialogues. It needs a pass — the first ten lessons of every course are free either way.
The translator's note
Many translated novels open or close with a short note from the translator, explaining choices the reader might wonder about: a word left untranslated, a dialect, names, historical background that the original's readers would know. Publishers usually keep these notes short — often a page or two — and editors tend to cut anything that sounds like an essay, a lecture or a defense of the translator's own work. A good translator's note, as Giorgio suggests, says what was done, why, and who decided, and then gets out of the way. Historical context for sensitive subjects is often the one part that earns its length, provided it is neutral, cites its sources, and leaves judgment to the reader. Acknowledgments are, by convention, the one place where a translator may be personal. Written Italian relies heavily on connectives that are rarer in speech: pertanto, tuttavia, ciononostante, ossia, vale a dire, inoltre, peraltro, poiché. Using them well — and not too often — is one of the marks of a C1 writer.