L’infinito in Croatian Translations

Abstract

This contribution deals with five translations in Croatian of the famous poem by Giacomo Leopardi L’infinito. The translations studied are by Olinko Delorko, Vladimir Nazor, Ton Smerdel, Frano Čale and Juraj Gracin. The analysis focuses on the translators’ choices and strategies resulting from their personal experiences of immersion in the infinity of Leopardi’s poetics. Introductory notes on literary translation are followed by an overview of the reception of Leopardi’s poetry in Croatian literary criticism and translations of his poems in Croatian language and by a short presentation of translators whose work is analysed in the central part of the contribution. The main aim is not to indicate which of the five analysed translations is “prettier” or better, but to indicate equivalences and deviations revealed while comparing them with the original text on all linguistic levels. For this purpose, the text of the original and its translations has been divided in several parts, considering the poet’s main idea and the aesthetics of the poem. In the research synthesis particular attention has been paid to indicators revealing translation as a place of encounter of the identity of the poet and his world with the identities of the translators.