Bassani in the World: Visual Translations
Bassani’s works have enjoyed great success not just in Italy, but all over the world. He first acquired an international readership in the 1950s, with the publication in the literary journal Botteghe Oscure of Passeggiata prima di cena, which was immediately translated into English, and the number of his international readers grew surprisingly quickly. The world depicted by Bassani was not seen as merely a mirror of life in Ferrara, but as a microcosm of universal themes expressed using universal forms of representation. Indeed, in his “Ferrara novel”, as if in a laboratory experiment, we observe the reactions of the diverse qualities and tendencies of human beings, the major topics of justice, guilt, the attraction of evil and the compensatory power of memory. Readers of the numerous translations of his works produced over the years in French, German, Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Polish, Japanese, Hebrew and Chinese have recognised in Bassani that rare trait – one very few people possess – of saying something that is, at the same time, both specific and universal, also thanks to his use of language, which enables him to speak to the most disparate readers, both culturally and linguistically speaking. These translations, moreover, were always produced under the author’s watchful eye. The foreign editions presented here, which come mainly from the writer’s private library and are preserved by the Fondazione Giorgio Bassani in Ferrara, also offer a fascinating panorama of how the themes and characters from Bassani’s stories and novels were seen in the collective imagination. The book covers, elegant or excessive, realistic or abstract, are always empathic – a reflection of the fascination and involvement with a literary work that no reader can resist.
Rosy Cupo, University of Ferrara
Title: A Prospect of Ferrara
Year: 1962
Publisher London, Faber and Faber, translated into English by Isabel Quigly
Title: Die Gärten der Finzi-Contini
Year: 1967
Publisher Fischer Bücherei, translated into German by Herbert Schlüter
Title: Finzi-Contini ke no niwa
Year: 1969
Publisher Tokyo, Shinchōsha, translated into Japanese by Sachiko Ōzora
Title: La garza
Year: 1970
Publisher Barcelona, Editorial Seix Barral, translated into Spanish by Narciso Comadira
Title: Der Reiher
Year: 1970
Publisher translated into German by Herbert Schlüter
Title: The Heron
Year: 1970
Publisher New York, Harcourt, Brace & World, translated into English by William Weaver
Title: Lida Mantovani y otras historias de Ferrara
Year: 1971
Publisher Barcelona, Barral Editores, translated into Spanish by Sergio Pitol
Title: Zahrada Finzi-Continiu
Year: 1971
Publisher translated into by Czech Josef Hajný
Title: Five stories of Ferrara
Year: 1971
Publisher New York, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, translated into English by William Weaver
Title: Finzi-Continiék kertje
Year: 1971
Publisher Budapest, Magveto, translated into Hungarian by Zsámboki Zoltán
Title: The Garden of the Finzi-Continis
Year: 1989
Publisher London, Quartet Books Limited, translated into English by Isabel Quigly
Title: L'odeur du foin
Year: 1996
Publisher Paris, Éditions Gallimard, translated into French by Michel Arnaud
Title: Gullspanga-gleraugun
Year: 2001
Publisher Viborg, (Danmörk), Forlagið, translated into Icelandic by Guðbergur Bergsson
Title: Le Héron
Year: 2005
Publisher Paris, Éditions Gallimard, 2005, translated into French byMichel Arnaud
Title: The Garden of The Finzi-Continis
Year: 2005
Publisher New York-London-Toronto, Everyman’s Library, translated into English by William Weaver
Title: Le Roman de Ferrare
Year: 2006
Publisher Paris, Gallimard, translated into French by Michel Arnaud, Gérard Genot
Title: El jardí dels Finzi-Contini
Year: 2007
Publisher Barcelona, Edicions Proa, translated into Catalan by Carme Serrallonga
Title: La novela de Ferrara
Year: 2007
Publisher Barcelona, Editorial Lumen, translated into Espagnol by Carlos Manzano
Title: Die Gärten der Finzi-Contini
Year: 2008
Publisher Berlin, Wagenbach, translated into German by Herbert Schlüter
Title: La novela de Ferrara
Year: 2009
Publisher Barcelona, Delbosillo, translated into Spanish by Carlos Manzano
Title: Der Geruch von Heu: Erzählungen
Year: 2009
Publisher Berlin, Wagenbach, translated into German by Herbert Schlüter
Title: The Gold-Rimmed Spectacle
Year: 2012
Publisher New York-London, Penguin, translated into English by Jamie McKendrick
Title: Het verhaal van Ferrara / Verzameld werk
Year: 2013
Publisher Amsterdam, J.M. Meulenhoff, translated into Dutch by Erven Tineke van Dijk, Jan van der Haar, Tineke van Dijk
Title: Die Brille mit dem Goldrand: Erzählung
Year: 2013
Publisher Wagenbach, ttranslated into German by Herbert Schlüter
Title: A garça
Year: 2013
Publisher Lisboa, Quetzal, translated into Portuguese bySara Ludovico
Title: The Smell of Hay
Year: 2014
Publisher New York-London, Penguin, translated into English by Jamie McKendrick
Title: Finzi-Contini’lerin Bahçesi
Year: 2015
Publisher Istanbul, Yapi Kredi Yayinlari, translated into Turkish by Neyyire Gül Işik
Title: Las gafas de oro: La novela de Ferrara. Libro segundo
Year: 2015
Publisher Barcelona, Acantilado, translated into Spanish by Juan Antonio Méndez
Title: Il Giardino dei Finzi Contini
Year: 2015
Publisher Shanghai, Shanghai Translation Publishing House, translated into Chinese Mandarin by Wang Jianquan
Title: The Novel of Ferrara
Year: 2018
Publisher New York, Norton & Company, translated into English by Jamie McKendrick