“Translating poetry is not an arid academic and philological exercise on the grammatical and syntactical complications of language. Translating poetry means striving to understand it; it almost means reliving it. All you need (but it is indispensable) is to have a common denominator with the poet on man’s position on life.” Joyce Lussu
For the first time, and for a poem I have “relived”, as the poet rightly states, please find here the recording of both the English and Italian versions of the poem.
| C’è un paio di scarpette Rosse di Joyce Lussu C’è un paio di scarpette rosse numero ventiquattro quasi nuove: sulla suola interna si vede ancora la marca di fabbrica “Schulze Monaco”. C’è un paio di scarpette rosse in cima a un mucchio di scarpette infantili a Buchenwald. Più in là c’è un mucchio di riccioli biondi di ciocche nere e castane a Buchenwald. Servivano a far coperte per i soldati. Non si sprecava nulla e i bimbi li spogliavano e li radevano prima di spingerli nelle camere a gas. C’è un paio di scarpette rosse di scarpette rosse per la domenica a Buchenwald. Erano di un bimbo di tre anni, forse di tre anni e mezzo. Chi sa di che colore erano gli occhi bruciati nei forni, ma il suo pianto lo possiamo immaginare, si sa come piangono i bambini. Anche i suoi piedini li possiamo immaginare. Scarpa numero ventiquattro per l’eternità perché i piedini dei bambini morti non crescono. C’è un paio di scarpette rosse a Buchenwald, quasi nuove, perché i piedini dei bambini morti non consumano le suole… | There is a pair of red shoes by Joyce Lussu There is a pair of red shoes toddler size eight almost new: on the inner sole still visible is the brand name “Schulze Monaco.” There is a pair of red shoes on the top of a heap of toddler shoes in Buchenwald. Not far from there is a pile of blond curls of black locks and brown in Buchenwald. They were used to make blankets for the soldiers. Nothing was wasted and the children were undressed and shaved bald before being pushed into the gas chambers. There is a pair of red shoes red shoes Sunday shoes in Buchenwald. The shoes of a three year old boy or maybe three and a half. Who knows what colour his eyes were, burnt in the ovens, but his tears we can imagine, we know how children cry. And his feet too we can imagine. Toddler shoes size eight for eternity because the feet of dead children don’t grow. There is a pair of red shoes in Buchenwald, almost new, because the feet of dead children don’t wear down the soles… Translation ©Matilda Colarossi 2020 |
From http://www.enciclopediadelledonne.it/biografie/joyce-salvadori-lussu/
Joyce Salvadori Lussu was born in Florence on May 8, 1912.
She was the third child of Guglielmo Salvadori and Giacinta Galletti, who were anti-fascist intellectuals. In 1924, at the age of 12, after her father was beaten by a fascist squad, she moved to Switzerland with her family. She then studied philosophy in Heidelberg, Germany. In 1933, with the advent of nazism, she abandoned her studies for moral reasons. She returned to Switzerland and became a member of the anti-fascist association Giustizia e Libertà.
In 1943 she returned to Italy. Her experience in anti-fascism and as a partisan in the war are found in her highly autobiographical texts Fronti e frontier (1944), L’uomo che voleva nascere donna (1976), and Lotte, ricordi e altro (1992).
In the years to follow, she would travel Europe on behalf of the Peace Movement. In Stockholm she met the poet Nazim Hikmet; she became his friend and translator, making his poems known to the Italian public. In the text Tradurre poesia (1967) Joyce Lussu explains how, by allowing the words to travel, she felt she was putting forth the values of the Resistence.
Painting by Lucio Fontana: SPATIAL CONCEPT, WAITING, 1967
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
parallel texts: words reflected 
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Reblogged this on parallel texts: words reflected and commented:
“There is a pair of red shoes
by Joyce Lussu
There is a pair of red shoes
toddler size eight
almost new:
on the inner sole still
visible is the brand name
“Schulze Monaco.”
There is a pair of red shoes…”
#JoyceLussu (May 8, 1912-November 4, 1998)
#LestWeForget
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