It took seven years, seven translators and three nations to complete the English version of legendary Italian litterateur Giacomo leopardi’s works. By Karan Bhardwaj
Three countries, seven translators, seven years and over 4,500 pages; the mammoth task to translate the personal notebook of Italy’s iconic philosopher and poet Giacomo lenopardi has finally seen the light of the day. Despite being one of the legendary literary figures in the 19th century, he remained unknown in the Anglophone world, simply because there was no English translation was available. For the first time, leopardi’s personal notebook has been translated and was released in london some time back. A formal event also took place in Delhi recently where the editors and Italian scholars took part but the launch of the book is yet to happen. Titled My Name Is “James” leopardi, the book is a collection of the leopardi’s ideas, observations and analyses over 15 years of his work. “When I went to England at Birmingham University to teach Italian literature, I realised leopardi wasn’t well-known, especially his philosophical work, since he was known more as a poet. Then we organised lots of seminar and conferences. At a certain point, we decided to take up this huge project. We found translators in England, US and Italy,” said co-editor Franco D’Intino, professor of modern Italian literature at la Sapienza University in Rome, who spoke to us a day before the inaugural ceremony of the book in India.
The notebook, originally called Zibaldone, was found and published in Italy some 60 years after leopardi’s death. “It’s a private manuscript. It was found by chance, long after his death. It’s a notebook which he kept all his life and made long and short entries. They are essays on topics like life, passion and emotions. At the end of each passage, he also put a date. There are many quotations from ancient Greek, latin, French and English. He analysed a lot of works from linguistic point of view. There were many sources which we had to source and verify. It was not merely translation. Although it’s a modern prose, its style is partly-contemporary Italian. We chose to render it in contemporary English, to maintain the structure of body syntax and I think it has worked well,” said Franco.
Professor Raffaele Torella who teaches Sanskrit at the University of Rome told us about the Indian influence of leopardi. “There’s no doubt that India and its culture have influenced works of several iconic figures in the world of literature. leonardi was smitten by the Indian tantras and Sanskrit. I find astonishing parallels on different topics between the positions held by leopardi, particularly in Zibaldone, and tantric orders. By tantra, I don’t mean sex. It’s a refined philosophy besides tantra practices. While I was understanding the tantric positions by India’s philosopher Abhinava Gupta, I happened to read two long passages from Zibaldone, which are in perfect tune with leopardi’s positions, particularly in regards to the role of passion and emotions in life, and relationship of passion with reason. leopardi has said wonderful things about the non-opposition of passion in reasons and Gupta and other tantric authors have said similar things. One of the passages also expresses faith in beliefs, as suggested by most works of Gupta,” said Torella, who specialises in Kashmir Shaivism in tantrism.
Even Franco admits leopardi’s interest in Sanskrit. According to him, he was one of the first scholars in Europe to become interested in Sanskrit. “leopardi was obsessed with original language which can divide and modify itself in different ways. He is one of the first scholars to think about Sanskrit. A few passages are connected to Indian culture and Sanskrit,” he said.
leopardi was born in 1798 in a small town in what was then the Papal States. To many, he is Italy’s finest lyric poets, second only to Durante Alighieri. leopardi commanded ancient and modern languages as a young man, and wrote his first Canti at the age of 20. However, he died when he was 38 in 1837.
Franco calls him “the Dante of modern times — the thinking poet, the moral and the metaphysical poet. He could predict future. His writings hold more relevance in our times. He was a critic of rationality. He thought growing importance of reason would damage our effective imaginative life. For this reason, the world may lose a lot in terms of imagination and possibility to wonder. When reason becomes more powerful, it becomes dangerous since it weakens our capacity to experience things, to have feelings and illusions.”