Archiloco tradotto da Quasimodo: la traduzione come liricizzazione (fr. 79a Diehl = 193 Tarditi = Hippon. *115 West)

Abstract

The paper analyzes in detail (on a phonic-rhythmic, lexical, and syntactic level) the translation of Archil. fr. 79a Diehl (this text is attributed by some scholars to Hipponax: see Hippon. fr. *115 West), published by Salvatore Quasimodo in his famous Lirici Greci. This analysis shows clearly that, with his lexical and philological choices, and even by modifying the internal structure, Quasimodo has, so to speak, lyricized the original text: e.g., he has intensified the pathos of some passages even at the cost of inserting elements absent in the original text and, conversely, obscured those lexical elements more closely linked to the concrete social reality of the Greek author (e.g., the oaths and the bond of hetaireia). This specific case confirms what critics have widely recognized in general terms: the translations proposed in the Lirici Greci are, substantially, «poesie di Quasimodo»