FREDERICK DOUGLASS

NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF FREDERICK

DOUGLASS, AN AMERICAN SLAVE

WRITTEN BY HIMSELF

Anti-Slavery Office, 1845, pages 28-29; 31

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by
Himself is a literary work halfway between an autobiography and a treatise on
abolition, written and published in 1845 by Frederick Douglass, an African-
American orator and former slave. It is generally considered to be one of the
most famous narratives written by ex-slaves during the same period, as well as
one of the most influential literary texts on the abolitionist movement of the
early 19th century in the United States.

The protagonist is Frederick Douglass himself, who narrates events of his life as
a slave, expressing his own point of view writing in the first person and his
desire to free himself, mentally and physically, from slavery.

In the 6th chapter, precisely (which is the object of this translation attempt), he
makes us understand that ignorance was used as a tool of slavery by the Whites,
and that, conversely, education is the path that conducts us to freedom. He
realised that the enslaved were prevented from understanding that they had
power to respond to and avoid such brutality, as the only way to truly abolish
slavery is for him to educate others.

His tone is generally direct, dry, realistic, critical and sometimes dramatic. He
also occasionally used an ironic tone, or a tone of someone who is emotionally
overwhelmed. His style of narration makes it easy for the readers to identify
with the feelings and sufferings of the slaves.

Douglass, also, uses narrative strategies like anecdotes and plot twists, to bring
the reader’s attention. The most important is story telling: He uses little stories,
or stories-within-a-story, to make the reader pay attention.

By clearly establishing his credibility and connecting with the audience,

Douglass uses numerous rhetorical devices to show the atrocity slaves
experienced and to get support for his fight against slavery on the part of the
audience: ethos, pathos, imagery, parallelism, irony and tone, some examples of
which will be shown during the translation.

In a translation process, there are two possible ways to interpret a source text: 1)
literal translation – translator uses what are called “formal equivalences”, so
translating word-for-word what is written in the original text; 2) dynamic
translation, the translator, in this case, has to find in the target language the
expressions that have a very similar meaning. So, at this point the translator will
use what are called “functional equivalences” which tend to employ a more
natural rendering, but with less literal accuracy.

In this attempt to translate Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an

American Slave, Written by Himself, I will try to balance the use of these two
translation methods, to give the target reader a version as comprehensible as
possible, trying to respect the author’s will at the same time.

My new mistress proved to be all she La mia nuova padrona si dimostrò

appeared when I first met her at the essere esattamente come era apparsa
door, - a woman of the kindest heart quando la vidi per la prima volta sulla
and finest feelings. porta - una donna dal cuore più buono
e dai sentimenti più raffinati.
 In this first sentence, I follow a quite literal translation, even though
with a little orthonimic adaptation to the target language, so as to make
the sentence more natural to the reader’s eye.
She had never had a slave under her Prima di me non aveva mai avuto uno
control previously to myself, and schiavo sotto il suo controllo, e prima
prior to her marriage she had been di sposarsi si guadagnava da vivere
dependent upon her own industry for con la sua attività. Di mestiere faceva
a living. She was by trade a weaver; la tessitrice, e la costante applicazione
and by constant application to her al suo lavoro l’aveva in buona parte
business, she had been in a good preservata dagli effetti degradanti e
degree preserved from the blighting disumani della schiavitù.
and dehumanizing effects of slavery.
 Even here the translation wants to be faithful to the source text, with
little change in the target text: firstly, I have changed the order of the
first part of the sentence, anticipating “previously to myself”, in order to
space out the repetition of the adverb prima.
 Then, I have decided to render the expression to be dependent upon
his/her own industry for a living with the equivalent Italian expression
guadagnarsi da vivere con la propria attività.
I was utterly astonished at her Ero assolutamente stupito dalla sua
goodness. I scarcely knew how to bontà, tant’è che a malapena sapevo
behave towards her. come comportarmi con lei.
 Since the style employed by Douglass is quite simple, even here I had
the opportunity to translate literally. The only consideration to make is
that I have chosen to add the Italian expression tant’è che to validate
what has been said previously.
She was entirely unlike any other Era totalmente diversa da qualsiasi
white woman I had ever seen. I could altra donna bianca che avessi mai
not approach her as I was accustomed visto. Non potevo avvicinarmi a lei
to approach other white ladies. My come ero solito fare con altre donne
early instruction was all out of place. bianche. La mia istruzione precedente
era completamente fuori luogo.
 The translation is quite word-for-word, trying to maintain the same
number of words.
The crouching servility, usually so L’accucciato servilismo, solitamente
acceptable a quality in a slave, did not ben accetto in uno schiavo, non
answer when manifested toward her. riceveva risposta quando manifestato
Her favor was not gained by it; she nei suoi confronti. Il suo favore non si
seemed to be disturbed by it. She did guadagnava così; anzi, sembrava
not deem it impudent or unmannerly esserne infastidita. Non considerava
for a slave to look her in the face. impudente né scortese che uno
schiavo la guardasse in faccia.
 The adjective “crounching” accompanying the noun “servility” has
been rendered in the target text as accucciato, since, according to my
impression, it displays the target reader a better idea of the humiliating
attitude that the slave was required to have during slavery, as a sign of
submission and absolute obedience, than the usual corresponding
Italian term accovacciato.
 In the second line I have preferred not to transfer the word “quality” in
the target text as, always from my point of view, it can be avoided
making the speech more fluid.
 In the fifth line, I have added the conjunction anzi - which has a
contrasting value and is always placed after a negative sentence in the
target language -, in order to join the two main clauses through a logical
opposition, instead of leaving them separated by the semicolon.
The meanest slave was put fully at (Persino) lo schiavo più meschino
ease in her presence, and none left veniva messo completamente a
without feeling better for having seen proprio agio in sua presenza, e
her. Her face was made of heavenly nessuno se ne andava senza sentirsi
smiles, and her voice of tranquil meglio dopo averla vista. Il suo viso
music. era fatto di celestiali sorrisi e la sua
voce di musica rilassante.
  In the first line, we could add the Italian adverb persino to give the
sentence a reinforcing value.
 The adjective “meanest” has been translated as meschino, in order to
maintain a sort of alliteration also in the target text.
 The adjective “tranquil” has been rendered as rilassante rather than
tranquilla to convey the idea that the mistress’s voice calms her
interlocutors, thus linking to the concept of “heavenly smiles”
previously expressed and to the fact that the protagonist stated that
everyone felt better after seeing her. Furthermore, here we can note an
example of hypotyposis1, since the author wants the readers to visually
imagine his mistress.

But, alas! this kind heart had but a Ma, ahimè, questo cuore gentile non
short time to remain such. ebbe che poco tempo per rimanere
tale.
 Here, I only report a change in punctuation after “alas!”, as in the target
text the interjection is normally followed by a comma.
The fatal poison of irresponsible Quel fatale veleno di irresponsabile
power was already in her hands, and potere era già nelle sue mani, e presto
soon commenced its infernal work. cominciò il suo infernale lavoro.
That cheerful eye, under the influence Quell’occhio allegro, sotto l’influenza
of slavery, soon became red with della schiavitù, presto diventò rosso
rage; that voice, made all of sweet di rabbia; quella voce, fatta tutta di
accord, changed to one of harsh and dolci accordi, cambiò in una dura e
horrid discord; and that angelic face orrida discordia; e quell’angelico
gave place to that of a demon. volto lasciò posto a quello di un
1 According to the rhetorical tradition, this figure is “a technique of verbal representation of the
visible”, a description of reality in such a vivid and detailed way to make the reader or listener have
an almost visual representation of it; in some ways it can also be considered an attempt to stimulate
the imagination of the recipient of the message.
 demonio.
 The translation is literal. The only clarification to make is that I have
preferred to render “sweet accord” as dolci accordi in the target text,
because I think the plural form is more orthonimic, making the reading
more natural or spontaneous in the target language.
 I have translated “horrid” as orrida in order to maintain a certain
musicality of the words, a sort of alliteration among dura, orrida and
discordia.
Very soon after I went to live with Subito dopo essere andato a vivere
Mr. and Mrs. Auld, she very kindly con i coniugi Auld, la padrona molto
commenced to teach me the A, B, C. gentilmente cominciò ad insegnarmi
After I had learned this, she assisted l’ABC, dopodiché mi aiutò
me in learning to spell words of three insegnandomi a scrivere parole di tre
or four letters. o quattro lettere.
 Here, instead of literally translating il signor e la signora Auld, I have
preferred to render it in the target text as i coniugi Auld, since I think it
is more immediate and streamlines the text.
 For translating so, I had to specify the female subject in the next
sentence as la padrona, in order to make clearer the readership who
was doing the main action.
Just at this point of my progress, Mr. Ma proprio a questo punto dei miei
Auld found out what was going on, progressi, il Signor Auld scoprì cosa
and at once forbade Mrs. Auld to stesse accadendo, e subito vietò alla
instruct me further, telling her, among moglie di continuare ad istruirmi,
other things, that it was unlawful, as dicendole, tra le altre cose, quanto
well as unsafe, to teach a slave to fosse illegale, così come pericoloso,
read. insegnare a leggere ad uno schiavo.
 Here, I have added the contrasting conjunction ma, but, to make the
readers more evident the change of situation.
  Even in this case like before, I have preferred to translate in a more
orthonimic way “my progress” into the corresponding plural form
progressi of the target language.
 Moreover, I have chosen to translate “Mrs. Auld” to la moglie, because
it is quite clear from the context who she is, and so I have avoided
specifying it through the woman proper name.
To use his own words, further, he Per usare le sue stesse parole, disse:
said, “If you give a nigger an inch, he “Se dai ad un negro un dito, lui si
will take an ell. A nigger should prenderà tutto il braccio. Un negro
know nothing but to obey his master non dovrebbe saper nulla se non
—to do as he is told to do. Learning obbedire al suo padrone – farlo come
would spoil the best nigger in the gli viene detto di fare. L'istruzione
world. Now,” said he, “if you teach rovinerebbe il miglior negro esistente
that nigger (speaking of myself) how sulla terra. Ora,” disse, “se insegni a
to read, there would be no keeping leggere a quel negro (parlando di me),
him. It would forever unfit him to be non ci sarà modo di trattenerlo. Si
a slave. He would at once become sentirà per sempre inadatto come
unmanageable, and of no value to his schiavo. Tutto ad un tratto diventerà
master. As to himself, it could do him ingestibile e senza alcun valore per il
no good, but a great deal of harm. It suo padrone. Quanto a lui, non gli
would make him discontented and farà alcun bene, ma solo molto danno.
unhappy.” Diventerà scontento e infelice.”
 I have preferred to delete “further”, as I think it is useless to transfer it
to the target text, since it would only be a repetition, the sentence
already makes sense.
 “If you give a nigger an inch, he will take an ell” → translated into the
corresponding Italian proverbial expression dare a qualcuno un dito e
questo si prende tutto il braccio. This quote is also an appeal to logos -
it is an argument that appeals to an audience's sense of logic or reason.
 In this case, Douglass precisely recounts historical events relevant to
his argument, by using logos.
 In this part of the text we also find the word nigger, used to address
black slaves and it is so loaded with racist meanings that it has been
deleted from any form of communication. Nowadays, it has been
replaced by the euphemism «n-word». In this text, the word is clearly
used in a derogatory way and it has been translated into the target text
equivalent term negro.
 The master’s direct speech has been rendered as first conditional
sentence, here would is used in the future subjunctive tense to describe
a possible or - as in this specific case - unlikely action or scenario in the
future.
 We also find an example of synonymy 2 in “discontented and unhappy”
translated into the scontento e infelice equivalent terms of the target
text.
These words sank deep into my heart, Queste parole mi sprofondarono nel
stirred up sentiments within that lay cuore, scatenando dei sentimenti che
slumbering, and called into existence giacevano addormentati e chiamando
an entirely new train of thought. a vita un modo di pensare
completamente nuovo.
 Here, I have chosen to translate the expression “sank deep into my
heart” into the target text equivalent one mi sprofondarono nel cuore,
merging both the meaning of “sank” and “deep” into only one Italian
word, and the first person singular possessive adjective, my, has been
transferred as the complement personal pronoun mi to the target text, so
maintaing the same values.
[…] […]

The girls seldom passed her without Raramente le ragazze le passavano

2 A rhetorical figure of repetition which consists of expressing the same idea with several words of
similar meaning.
her saying, “Move faster, you black davanti senza che lei dicesse: “Più
gip!” […] veloci, zingare neg(r)e!” […]
 The meaning of “to pass someone” has been rendered here as passare
davanti a qualcuno, as it makes the comprehension on the part of the
target reader clearer than the equivalent literal meaning “sorpassare”.
 “Black gip” as zingare ne(g)re, as the English verb to gip means “to
cheat or to swindle them” and it is mainly used in the informal
American English in an offensive way. Possibly, we could also render
the insult in the target text as negre, as this expression is considered to
be offensive in it.
I have seen Mary contending with the Ho visto Mary contendersi con i
pigs for the offal thrown into the maiali gli scarti gettati in strada. Era
street. So much was Mary kicked and talmente pestata e maciullata che
cut to pieces, that she was oftener sempre più spesso veniva chiamata
called “pecked” than by her name. “pecked” - trivellata - piuttosto che
col suo nome.
 The translation is once again a literal one (word-for-word); I haven
chosen to omit the repeated Mary, as it is quite clear from the context.
 I have chosen to maintain the original word pecked, and to explain it
immediately after, in order to give the readers a taste of the American
linguistic, social and cultural landscape.
 Moreover, it is also useful to add that Douglass, here as in other parts of
the text, employs an effective literary device - the imagery - to
emotionally appeal the readership: the image of a woman suffering.

More details:

 Douglass can be trusted because of his direct personal experience - this is

ETHOS in Aristotelian terms.
 He describes his quest for literacy and freedom. This creates a sense of
sympathy that the audience is affected by. Emotional appeal uses
language in a way that helps audiences empathize with the author.
Douglass describes his experiences in a way that lets audiences feel the
indignity of being owned by another person - this is the PATHOS.