Three Plays - Giovanni Verga

Abstract

The three plays included in this volume were first published in Milan by the Treves publishing company in 1897. They had previously appeared on stage, also in Milan, 'Cavalleria rusticana' in 1884, 'In portineria' in 1885 and 'La lupa' in 1896. All three are reworkings for the theatre of short stories written between the years 1880 and 1883. For the present translations the text used is the Mondadori edition of Verga's theatrical works (G. Verga, Teatro, Milan 1952). In the original stories 'Cavalleria rusticana' and 'La lupa', (translated here as 'The She-Wolf'), both set in Sicily, Verga attempted to give a particularly local colour by using Sicilian linguistic forms in an otherwise standard though highly poetical Italian. Though the plays do not contain the extremely suggestive sort of language as the stories they derive from, their dialogue does produce some problems for the translator. ... The more straightforward language of 'In portineria', translated as 'The Door-keeper's Lodge', which is set in Milan, presented fewer problems. But colourful dialogue makes demands on anyone attempting to render it in another language and the ad hoc decisions of how to translate any particular expression or turn of phrase should reflect the larger one of how it is felt the whole work should sound in its new form. Here a balance has been sought between as much accuracy as possible and a reasonably acceptable English version of the originals. Inevitably at some points there may be some exotic oddities. To have taken a more liberal attitude to the texts may in some cases have produced a more easily flowing dialogue, but one that might be qualified, as in the Italian expression 'tradimento non traduzione', as a betrayal rather than a translation.