LCMC - Lingua e Traduzione Inglese 2 - Prof. E. Grazzi - A.A.

2021-22

Surname: _____________ Name: ____________ Matr. _______ Date _____ B2 test: _________
TEST 1

Time: 2 hours

• Activity 1 Imagine that you are a reporter who works for an Italian newspaper. You have been asked by
the editor to translate this article into Italian, in order to be published tomorrow.
You are allowed to use monolingual and bilingual dictionaries, and a thesaurus of the English and of the
Italian languages.
The use of any personal appliances (e.g. laptops, tablets, cell phones) is prohibited.

• Activity 2 Choose a few examples from the source text that were particularly challenging to you (e.g.
idioms, exophoric references, language registers, word collocations, false friends, etc.), and explain in
English how you translated them into Italian.

National Public Radio

Book Reviews

'Lessons' finds some familiarity with author Ian McEwan's own life
September 13, 2022

HELLER MCALPIN

In Ian McEwan's expansive new novel, a man assesses his life's trajectory from
childhood to old age. Set against the backdrop of 70 years of major global events,
Lessons displays both breadth and depth. It ranks among McEwan's best work.
Intent on self-improvement, Roland, the novel's protagonist, strives to make up for his
aborted formal education with an ambitious self-directed reading course, but he lives
with watered-down versions of his talents — playing piano in a cocktail lounge instead
of a concert hall, teaching tennis instead of competing in it, writing greeting cards
instead of great poems.
In Lessons there are many salient parallels with McEwan's life. McEwan and Roland
were both born in 1948 to mothers who had a wartime extramarital affairs while their
first husbands were at the front.
McEwan has a lesson for you, delivered by Alissa, the character who is one of Europe's
most acclaimed writers: "Everything that ever happened to me and everything that
didn't. Everything I know, everyone I ever met mash up with whatever I invent." It's
an apt description of the art of literary fiction.
Traduzione

Recensioni letterarie

“Lessons” trova una certa familiarità con la vita dell’autore Ian McEwans.

Settembre 13, 2022

HELLER MCALPIN

Nel nuovo e esteso romanzo di Ian McEwan, un uomo assiste al percorso della sua vita
partendo dall’infazia alla senilità. “Lessons” mette a disposizione ampiezza e
profondità sullo sfondo di 70 anni dei principali eventi globali. Si posiziona tra i
migliori lavori di McEwans. Cercando di migliorare se stesso, Roland, il protagonista
del romanzo, si sforza di rimediare per la sua mancata istruzione formale con un
ambizioso corso di lettura autogestito, ma convive con una versione indebolita dei suoi
talenti; suonando il pianoforte in una sala cocktail invece di una sala concerti,
insegnando tennis invece di praticarlo, scrivere biglietti di auguri invece di poemi
grandiosi.
In Lessons ci sono molte somiglianze con la vita di McEwans. McEwans e Roland
sono nati entrambi nel 1948 da madri che hanno avuto affari extraconiugali in tempo
di guerra mentre il loro primo marito era sul fronte.
McEwans riserva una lezione per voi, data da Alissa, il personaggio che è uno degli
scrittori più acclamati d’Europa: “Tutto quello che mi è successo e tutto quello che non
mi è successo. Tutto quello che so, chiunque io abbia mai incontrato si unisce con
qualsiasi cosa io inventi” è una descrizione azzeccata dell’arte della narrativa letteraria.

Attività 2
During the translation of this text I did not encounter difficulties in understanding the
ST, so I was able, in different situations, to find an adequate equivalent to words that
did not sound good in translation.
But, as I said, I did find some difficulties, such as:
- Set against the backdrop of…—> at first I didn’t understand the meaning of this
phrase, so I did first a literal translation of each word and then I put them
together. Doing so I found the meaning and founding so an equivalent in italian.
- Competing in it—> the first translation I found was "gareggiare in esso" but in
my opinion this translation was not adequate because it sounds too mechanical,
so I decided to put “praticarlo” that even if it doesn’t fully respect the original
meaning, transmits the same concept.
- Mash up—> I encountered difficulties with this word mainly because there is no
real equivalent in Italian, and this word when it is found (for examples in songs)
usually is not translated, thus entering into colloquial use also in Italian. But in
a translation you can not assume that all readers are aware of the meaning of this
term, so I chose the word that came closest to the original meaning.