Prime traduzioni di Borges in Italia: 1927-1937

Abstract

The article identifies the first stages of Borges reception in Italy on the basis of some translations and scattered critical interventions that have been neglected by previous criticism. Attention is devoted to the years between 1927 and 1937, a period when three different translators published Italian versions of four Borges's poems. These one attest the Italian focus on Borges' avant-garde poetry as an important representative of innovation in Argentine literature. They are at the same time the oldest translations of Borges' texts in Europe, all prior to the French translation made by Néstor Ibarra in 1939. The analysis of this material reveals some aspects that allow us to connect these texts to the same cultural context, in which are particularly important (personal and cultural) relationships within the Italian-Argentine community.