Le note dell'editor — The Editor's Notes

Being edited, and the gli trap

An editor's notes on a translation are usually a mix of the trivial (punctuation, repetitions) and the substantial (tone, character, the occasional outright misreading). Experienced editors often begin, as Giorgio does, with an overall judgment, so that hundreds of small comments are read in proportion. Translators, in turn, learn not to argue every point: the convention is to accept what is clearly right, query what is unclear, and discuss the few real disagreements. Many notes concern tone — a translator who softens a harsh character, or explains where the original leaves a silence. Others catch genuine errors. Giorgio's second note is a classic: in spoken and informal Italian, the pronoun gli is widely used for «a loro» (to them) as well as «a lui» (to him), and the standard grammar's loro is often heard only in formal speech or writing. A translator who reads gli as always singular can turn a crowd into one man. Editorial suggestions in Italian are almost always phrased indirectly — ti suggerirei, sarebbe il caso di, non sarebbe meglio, si potrebbe, forse converrebbe — and they are no less firm for being polite.