Manzoni’s I promessi sposi in Slovene: Characteristics of the Three Translations and the State of Development of the Target Translation Culture

Abstract

The article deals with Alessandro Manzoni’s text I promessi sposi and its three Slovene translations, which testify to the significance of the novel in Slovene translation culture. The differences between the three versions (1901, by Ivo Benkovič; 1925, by Andrej Budal; 1977, by Jaša Zlobec) are dealt with in terms of the translators’ individual approaches and are also interpreted as a reflection of the conditions in the target culture at the time when the translations were produced. The earliest version was made before the activity of literary translation into Slovene became fully established and before canonical texts from various literatures, especially European, started to be translated on a relatively large scale and with a certain degree of systematicity. The first version presents various problems and is lacking both in its loyalty to the original and in regard to its literary and aesthetic value. The second version, which was published about a quarter of a century later, represents a decisive qualitative leap and could only have been produced by a highly skilled and competent translator, whose work contributed to setting new translation standards in the target culture. A drawback of this version may be that its style is somewhat archaic and probably off-putting to a present-day reader. There is no such difficulty with the third translation. It is certainly intended for a modern readership; the target text successfully combines an expressive, modern style with some limited archaisms, which enhances its overall literary and aesthetic unity. However, because of the at times erudite diction (for example Spanish and Latin sentences from the source text are not translated or explained in notes), the text may not always be accessible to a wide audience. The most recent version incorporates many solutions from the previous two translations and can therefore be considered both a new translation and to an extent a synthesis of the earlier versions; it thus presents a microcosm of over seven decades of the use of Slovene as a language of literary translation.