Aradia -- The Translation (review)
Jenny
jennyg@compuserve.com
Wed Apr 21 15:28:45 1999
The translation in the new Aradia is much more readable and pleasant than Leland's original.  However there were several things that disturbed me about it.*p*One of the first questions a translater has to face is, why are *you* qualified to translate this piece?  I found Pazzaglini's "answers" somewhat unsettling.*p*First, he emphasized that he had a PhD.  Which is true -- but it's in psychology.  As far as I could tell from his book, he doesn't have any training in textual analysis or translation.*p*His major claim was his geneology, not his education.  The book stresses that his "family origins on both sides are deeply rooted in the area where Aradia originated".  He also points out that he's a settimani (seven-month baby) which gives psychic powers.  And since he was raised in both the Old and New religions, he was quickly able to see places in Aradia where Leland had mistranslated things, because they were different from the lore he was taught.*p*These things may all be true, but they're not the sort of qualifications one would want for a *scholarly* translation.*p*Another fact that disturbed me was that I was unable to determine exactly how Pazzaglini had detected Leland's "erroneous" translations.  He examined Leland's original materials, but I couldn't tell if his corrections were based on a close reading of these texts (as it should be) or if he'd simply corrected Leland's grammatical errors and shifted the book's Italian (which is a dialect) into "regular" Italian.*p*Yet despite these reservations, I still believe that the translation is better than Leland's original.  Mario's mother Dina did most of it, and she apparently can read the dialect that Aradia was originally written in.  The Pazzaglinis did have an Italian scholar double-check the final draft.  And while I don't read Italian, friends who do say that this is a better version.*p*My reaction to the translation is alot like my reaction to the book as a whole:*p*It's good.*br*It's better than the original.*br*But it's not quite an unbiased or scholarly text.*p**br*Jenny*br*