Human v. Machine
The original is a text written by Paolo Mauri about Elena Ferrante’s book. It was then machine translated. Here are my edits/reactions. (Scroll down to see the final edited translation).
Original:
Torna Elena Ferrante tra i segreti di Napoli
I romanzi di Elena Ferrante hanno in comune un elemento: vengono dal di dentro, storie sepolte che affiorano in superficie grazie alla scrittura e mantengono sulla pagina una sorta di forza sorgiva e insieme la solennità dell’atto dovuto che contagia il lettore e lo impressiona. Ora è la volta di una nuova storia napoletana, che promette di essere la prima di una serie. Si intitola L’amica geniale e comincia con una sparizione, quella della signora Lila Cerullo. Ad accorgersi della scomparsa è il figlio di lei, Rino, un quarantenne nullafacente e poco attento a quanto gli accade intorno. Infatti si rende conto che la madre non torna più a casa dopo ben quindici giorni e si decide a telefonare all’amica più cara di lei, Elena Greco, che però da molti anni vive a Torino. Elena, l’io narrante, capisce subito che la scomparsa di Lila è voluta e da tempo se l’aspettava: invita il figlio a guardare nei suoi armadi e lui, con stupore, scopre che ha portato via tutto, fino all’ultimo spillo. Questa la premessa, il vuoto che induce Elena a mettersi al computer per ricostruire con calma (per tirar fuori dalla memoria lontana) la storia della sua amicizia con Lila, che ci riporta a Napoli, in un quartiere periferico e poverissimo, separato dal resto della città e dai suoi quartieri ricchi, come Little Italy lo era dalla New York benestante.
[…] Siamo negli anni Cinquanta: Elena è figlia di un usciere comunale, Lila di un ciabattino. Si studiano per un po’, giocando, dai lati opposti del cortile, poi faranno amicizia quando decidono di andare dall’uomo più temuto del quartiere, un vero orco delle favole, l’usuraio don Achille.
[…] L’amica geniale è un libro che trabocca dall’anima come un’eruzione del Vesuvio. Si ferma al matrimonio di Lila, sedicenne, con il salumiere Stefano, figlio dell’usuraio don Achille. Per arrivare alla conclusione, che sta all’inizio del libro, mancano cinquant’anni esatti.
Automated Translation:
Returns Elena Ferrante between the Secrets of Naples
The romances of Elena Ferrante have in common an element: they come from within, buried stories that surface on the surface thanks to writing and maintain on the page a sort of spring force and at the same time the solemnity of the due act that infects the reader and impresses him. Now it’s the turn of a new Neapolitan story, which promises to be the first of a series. It is called The Brilliant Friend and begins with a disappearance, that of Mrs. Lila Cerullo. To notice the disappearance is her son, Rino, a forty-year-old idle and not very attentive to what happens around him. In fact, he realizes that his mother never returns home after fifteen days and decides to call her dearest friend Elena Greco, who has been living in Turin for many years. Elena, the narrating ego, immediately realizes that Lila’s disappearance is wanted and for a long time she expected it: she invites her son to look in his closets and he, to his amazement, discovers that he has taken everything away, until last pin. This is the premise, the emptiness that introduces Elena to put herself to the computer to calmly reconstruct (to pull out of the distant storage) the story of her friendship with Lila, who takes us back to Naples, in a suburb and poor neighborhood, separated from the rest of the city and its rich neighborhoods, as Little Italy was from the affluent New York.
[…] We are in the fifties: Elena is the daughter of a municipal usher, Lila of a cobbler. They study for a while, playing, on opposite sides of the courtyard, then they will make friends when they decide to go to the most feared man in the neighborhood, a real ogre of fairy tales, the usurer Don Achille.
[…] The brilliant friend is a book that boils over from the soul like an eruption of Vesuvius. He stops at the wedding of Lila, a sixteen-year-old, with the cured meat maker Stefano, son of the usurer Don Achille. To reach the conclusion, which is at the beginning of the book, there are exactly fifty years left.
Edited Translation:
Elena Ferrante Returns through the Secrets of Napoli
Elena Ferrante’s novels have one element in common: they come from within, buried they flourish to the surface through her impactful writing and on the page maintain a spring of suspenseful force. At the same time the solemnity of the story hooks the reader and shocks them. Now it’s time for the new Neapolitan story, which promises to be the first of a series. It is called My Brilliant Friend and begins with the disappearance of Mrs. Lila Cerullo. The one to realize her disappearance is her son, Rino, an idle forty-year-old who is not very attentive to what happens around him. In fact, he realizes that his mother never returned home after a good fifteen days; he then decides to call her dearest friend Elena Greco, who has been living in Turin for many years. Elena, the narrator, immediately realizes that people wanted Lila’s disappearance, and for a long time she expected it: she invites the son to look in her closets and he, to his amazement, discovers that everything was taken, cleaned out down to the last drop. This is the beginning, the event that pushes Elena to get on the computer and patiently reconstruct (to pull out of distant memory) the story of her friendship with Lila, that takes us back to Naples, in a suburb and poor neighborhood, separated from the rest of the city and its rich neighborhoods, as Little Italy was from the affluent New York.
[…] We are in the fifties: Elena is the daughter of a municipal worker, and Lila of a shoemaker. They study for a while, then playing on opposite sides of the courtyard, they will make friends when they decide to go to the most feared man in the neighborhood, a real ogre of fairy tales, the usurer Don Achille.
[…] My Brilliant Friend is a book that boils the soul like an eruption from Vesuvius. It stops at Lila’s wedding, the sixteen-year-old, with the butcher, Stefano, son of Don Achille. To reach the conclusion, which is at the beginning of the book, there are exactly fifty years left.
Explanation of Edits:
Besides some minor rearranging words to make the sentences flow better syntactically, I did change some words to have them make sense for the American-English target language.
- The title I did not change drastically, just switched some of the wording.
- I had to cut the first sentence in two to make it more in the American compositional style. That first sentence was the most difficult to translate, because I had to adjust the wording so that the target audience can get the gist that the author was trying to make with the story being an exciting story that builds suspense In the middle of the first paragraph.
- I changed “Elena, the narrating ego” to “Elena, the narrator” because “narrating ego” is not used.
- After that the phrase states “Lila’s disappearance is wanted and for a long time she expected it:” which I changed to “people wanted Lila’s disappearance, and for a long time she expected it:” which flows better.
- The same phrase continues with “she invites her son to look in his closets”, I changed “her son” to “the son” because in the source text it is “il figlio” and “his closets” I changed to “her closets” because in the source text it says “i soui” which can be used for both masculine and femmine and is actually referring to “her closets”.
- At the end of the sentence it is translated to “until last pin” which I changed to “down to the last drop” which is an idiomatic expression that holds the same meaning.
- Instead of “(to pull out of the distant storage)” I wrote “ (to pull out of distant memory)” because I interpreted it as the author talking about Elena trying to remember things from her past.
- In the second paragraph I changed “municipal usher” to “municipal worker” which is more common, and “cobbler” to “showmaker” also because it is more common, and cobbler is also a type of food.
- In the second sentence in the third paragraph the automated translation has “He” but in the source text “Si” is referring to the book in general so I changed that to “It”.
- Lastly, I changed “cured meat maker” to butcher to keep it more concise.
Automated translations tend to translate interlinearly which can make the reading choppy, and they do not take into consideration the context of the words, just the words themselves, as seen with “i suoi”. Having a translator can make the translation have a better flow in language, while getting the gist and meaning of the source text.