Tradurre la extrañeza da vicino. Riflessioni sulla traduzione di un poeta vivente

Translating a poetic text may often require taking into consideration contextual and circumstantial factors which, in different manners and degrees, have an impact on the final outcome of the translation. My reflection takes into considerations some of the factors that have affected my recent translation of the Spanish poet José María Micó’s latest collection Caleidoscopio (Passigli, «Poesia», 2018), including the personal acquaintance with the translated poet, who lives between Spain and Italy (more specifically between Barcellona and Florence), his literary-philological education, and his exceptional competence as a translator of Italian poetic masterpieces. This last factor will allow me to reflect on the peculiarity of the translation of poems written in a language close to the target language. My theoretical reflection, fundamentally based on the principles of Meschonnic’s rhythmology, will be accompanied by the analysis of a specific poem, aimed at making the translational process explicit in relation to a work which, as its title suggests, subsumes an extraordinary variety of perspectives from which the poet experiences the contemporary world by means of language.