William Weaver
William Fense Weaver (24 July 1923 – 12 November 2013)translator of modern Italian literature.[2]
Weaver was best known for his translations of the work of Umberto Eco, Primo Levi, and Italo Calvino,[3] but translated many other Italian authors over the course of a career that spanned more than fifty years. In addition to prose, he translated Italian poetry and opera libretti, and worked as a critic and commentator on the Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts.
Biography
William Weaver was born in
American Field Service, and lived primarily in Italy after the end of the war. Through his friendships with Elsa Morante, Alberto Moravia
and others, Weaver met many of Italy's leading authors and intellectuals in Rome in the late 1940s and early 1950s; he paid tribute to them in his anthology Open City (1999).
Later in his life, Weaver was a professor of literature at Bard College in New York, and a Bard Center Fellow. He received honorary degrees from the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom and Trinity College in Connecticut. According to translator Geoffrey Brock, Weaver was too ill to translate Umberto Eco's novel, The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana (La misteriosa fiamma della regina Loana 2004).
Weaver died in Rhinebeck, New York.[3]
Major translations
Italo Calvino
- Fiction
- ISBN 0-15-622600-6).
- ISBN 0-15-692400-5).
- ISBN 0-15-694952-0).
- ISBN 0-15-645380-0).
- ISBN 0-15-615455-2).
- ISBN 0-15-643961-1).
- ISBN 0-15-657204-4).
- ISBN 0-15-626055-7). (W.W. was one of three translators of this collection.)
- ISBN 0-15-662780-9).
- Prima che tu dica 'Pronto' (1985). (Prima che tu dica 'Pronto' , 1985.)
- ISBN 0-15-692794-2).
- Non-fiction
- ISBN 0-15-693250-4).
Umberto Eco
- Fiction
- ISBN 0-15-600131-4).
- ISBN 0-345-36875-4).
- The Bomb and the General (1989). (La bomba e il generale, 1966, 1988.) HBJ (ISBN 0-15-209700-7).
- The Three Astronauts (1989). (I tre cosmonauti, 1966, 1988.) HBJ (ISBN 0-15-286383-4).
- ISBN 0-14-025919-8).
- ISBN 0-15-602906-5).
- Non-fiction
- Travels in Hyperreality (1986). (based in part on Sette anni di desiderio: cronache 1977 - 1983, 1983.) Harcourt (ISBN 0-15-691321-6).
- Serendipities: Language & Lunacy (1989). Harvest Books (ISBN 0-15-600751-7).
- "A Rose by Any Other Name", in the Guardian Weekly, January 16, 1994 [1]
- Postscript to The Name of the Rose (1995). Harcourt (ISBN 1-56849-675-3).
- Misreadings (1993). (Diario minimo, 1963, 1975.) Harcourt, (ISBN 0-15-660752-2).
- ISBN 0-15-600125-X).
- Apocalypse Postponed (1994). Indiana University Press (ISBN 0-85170-446-8). (W.W. translated only one of the selections in this collection.)
Others
- The Heron (1970). (L'airone, 1968.) Harcourt (ISBN 0-7043-0186-5).
- Five Stories of Ferrara (1971). (Cinque storie ferraresi, 1956.) HBJ (ISBN 0-15-131400-4).
- Behind the Door (1972). (Dietro la porta, 1964.) HBJ (ISBN 0-15-111697-0).
- The Smell of Hay (1975). (L'odore del fieno, 1972.) Quartet Books (ISBN 0-7043-0221-7).
- ISBN 0-15-634570-6).
- Private Renaissance: A Novel (1989). (Rinascimento privato, 1985). William Morrow (ISBN 0-688-08188-6).
- Incubus (1966). (Il male oscuro, 1964.) Knopf.
- Antonio in Love (1968). (La cosa buffa, 1966.) Knopf.
- The Ruin of Kasch (1994). (La rovina di Kasch, 1983.) Belknap Press (ISBN 0-674-78029-9).
- The Helmsman (1991). (Il nocchiero, 1989.) HarperCollins (ISBN 0-00-223649-4).
- An Arid Heart (1964). (Un cuore arido, 1961.) Pantheon.
- Macno (1987). (Macno, 1984.) Harcourt (ISBN 0-15-154899-4).
- Yucatan (1990). (Yucatan, 1986.) HBJ (ISBN 0-15-199895-7).
- Remorse (1967). (Il rimorso, 1963.) Doubleday.
- Piazza Carignano (1986). (Piazza Carignano, 1985.) Atlantic Monthly Press (ISBN 0-87113-109-9).
- Misguided Lives: A Novel (1989). (Montagne russe, 1988). Atlantic Monthly Press (ISBN 0-87113-295-8).
- ISBN 0-671-25241-0).
- Inshallah (1992). (Insciallah, 1990.) Talese (ISBN 0-385-41987-2).
- For Love, Only for Love (1989). (Per amore, solo per amore, 1983.) Ballantine (ISBN 0-345-36336-1).
Fruttero, Carlo & Lucentini, Franco
- The Sunday Woman (1973). (La donna della domenica, 1972.) HBJ (ISBN 0-15-186720-8).
- ISBN 0-8076-1093-3).
- "The fire in via Keplero" (L'incendio in via Keplero). In Art and Literature 1 (March 1964), pp. 18–30.
- ISBN 0-8076-1115-8).
- A Day of Impatience (1954). (Un giorno d'impazienza, 1952.) Farrar, Straus, Young. (This was W.W.'s first full-length literary translation, per Healey's Bibliography.)
- The Lizards (1972). (I lucertoloni, 1969.) Harper & Row (ISBN 0-06-012537-3).
- The Monkey's Wrench (1986/1995). (La chiave a stella, 1978.) Penguin Classics (ISBN 0-14-018892-4).
- If Not Now, When? (1995). (Se non ora, quando? 1982.) Penguin Classics (ISBN 0-14-018893-2).
- The Dust Roads of Monferrato (1990). (Le strade di polvere, 1987.) Knopf (ISBN 0-394-58849-5).
Luciani, Albino
- Illustrissimi: Letters from Pope John Paul I (1978) Little, Brown, & Co. (ISBN 0-316-53530-3).
- The Serpent (1968). (Il serpente, 1965.) Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
- What is this buzzing, do you hear it too? (1969). (Salto mortale, 1968.) Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
- Butterfly of Dinard (1966). (La farfalla di Dinard, 1956/1960.) In Art and Literature 9 (Summer 1966), pp. 54–60.
- "Italo Svevo, on the centenary of his birth." In Art and Literature 12 (Spring 1967), pp. 9–31.
- ISBN 1-58642-004-6).
- Aracoeli: A Novel (1984). (Aracoeli 1982.) Random House (ISBN 0-394-53518-9).
- 1934 : A Novel (1983). (1934, 1982). Farrar, Straus and Giroux (ISBN 0-374-52652-4).
- Life of Moravia (2000). (Vita di Moravia, 1990.) Steerforth Italia (ISBN 1-883642-50-7).
- "Two Germans" (2002). (Due tedeschi, 1945.) In Conjunctions:38, Rejoicing Revoicing. Bard College (ISBN 0-941964-54-X).
- Boredom (2004). (Noia, 1960.) New York Review Books Classics (ISBN 1-59017-121-7). (Introduction by W.W.; trans. by Angus Davidson.)
- Artists in Rome (1958). (Gente al Babuino, 1955.) Macmillan.
- The Boss (1966). (Il padrone, 1965.) Knopf.
- A Violent Life, (1968). (Una vita violenta, 1959.) Jonathan Cape (ISBN 1-85754-284-3).
- One, No One, and One Hundred Thousand (1990). (Uno, nessuno e centomila, 1926.) Marsilio (ISBN 0-941419-74-6).
- The Late Mattia Pascal (1964). (Il fu Mattia Pascal, 1904.) New York Review Books Classics (ISBN 1-59017-115-2).
- The Hard Thorn (1966). (La dura spina, 1963.) Alan Ross.
- Extract from Capriccio italiano. In Art and Literature 2 (Summer 1964), pp. 88–97.
- The School for Dictators (1963). (La scuola dei dittatori, 1938/1962.) Atheneum.
- The ISBN 0-06-013873-4).
- The Emerald: A Novel (1977). (Lo smeraldo, 1974.) Harcourt (ISBN 0-15-128530-6).
- The American Bride (1979). (La sposa americana, 1977.) Hodder & Stoughton (ISBN 0-340-24148-9).
- Zeno's Conscience (2001). (La coscienza di Zeno, 1923.) Vintage (ISBN 0-375-72776-0).
Verdi, Giuseppe and Arrigo Boito
- The Verdi-Boito Correspondence (1994). (Carteggio Verdi/Boito, 1978.) Marcello Conati and Mario Medici, eds. U. of Chicago Press (ISBN 0-226-85304-7). (With commentary by W.W.)
- Zavattini: Sequences from a Cinematic Life (1970). (Straparole, 1967.) Prentice-Hall (ISBN 0-13-983916-X).
As editor
- Open City: Seven Writers in Postwar Rome: Ignazio Silone, Giorgio Bassani, Alberto Moravia, Elsa Morante, Natalia Ginzburg, Carlo Levi, Carlo Emilio Gadda (1999). Steerforth Italia (ISBN 1-883642-82-5).
Original works
Monographs
- A Tent In This World (1950/1999). McPherson & Company ISBN 0-929701-58-5. (A novella)
- Duse: A biography (1984), London: ISBN 978-0-15-126690-6)
- The Golden Century of Italian opera from Rossini to Puccini (1980). Thames and Hudson ISBN 0-500-01240-7.
- Puccini: The Man and His Music (1977). E. P. Dutton, Metropolitan Opera Guild composer series.
- The Puccini Companion : Essays on Puccini's Life and Music (1994). (with ISBN 0-393-32052-9
- Seven Puccini Librettos in the Original Italian (1981). W.W. Norton ISBN 0-393-00930-0
- Seven Verdi Librettos: With the Original Italian (1977). W.W. Norton ISBN 0-393-00852-5
- The Verdi Companion (1979). W.W. Norton ISBN 0-393-30443-4
- Verdi, a Documentary Study (1977). Thames and Hudson. ISBN 0-500-01184-2
Articles and contributions
- "Pendulum Diary" (1990), Southwest Review Vol. 75 #2, pp. 150–178 (an account of Weavers's experience translating Foucault's Pendulum)
- Biguenet, John and Rainer Schulte (eds.), The Craft of Translation, essay in "The Process of Translation". Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1989. ISBN 0226048683
- ISBN 1-883642-51-5. (Weaver wrote an introduction for this travelogue/memoir by Clark, whom he knew in Rome in the late 1940s)
Interviews
- "William Weaver, The Art of Translation No. 3." The Paris Review, Issue 161, Spring 2002.
- "An Interview with William Weaver", by Martha King. Translation Review 14, 1984. pp. 4–9.
- Lawrence Venuti, “The Art of Literary Translation: An Interview with William Weaver,” Denver Quarterly 17/2 (1982): 16-26.
Awards
- National Book Award (U.S.) for Translation[6]
- 1969, for Calvino's Cosmicomics
- PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Prize
- 1984, for Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose[7]
- 1990, for Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum
- 1991 PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation
- The The Society of Authors
- 1969, for Pier Pasolini's A Violent Life
- 1971, for Giorgio Bassani's The Heron
- 1971, for Italo Calvino's Time and the Hunter
- 1992, for Rosetta Loy's The Dust Roads of Monferrato
- The Lewis Galantiere Prize from the American Translators Association
- Member, The American Academy of Arts and Letters
Quotes
- "Calvino was not a writer of hits; he was a writer of classics." — On the fact that Calvino's English translations have never been best-sellers, but have instead steady, consistent sales year after year. [2]
- "Translating Calvino is an aural exercise as well as a verbal one. It is not a process of turning this Italian noun into that English one, but rather of pursuing a cadence, a rhythm—sometimes regular, sometimes wilfully jagged—and trying to catch it, while, like a Wagner villain, it may squirm and change shape in your hands." [3]
- "Some of the hardest things to translate into English from Italian are not great big words, such as you find in Eco, but perfectly simple things, 'buon giorno' for instance. How to translate that? We don't say 'good day,' except in Australia. It has to be translated 'good morning' or 'good evening' or 'good afternoon' or 'hello.' You have to know not only the time of day the scene is taking place, but also in which part of Italy it's taking place, because in some places they start saying 'buona sera' ('good evening') at 1:00 P.M. The minute they get up from the luncheon table it's evening for them. So someone could say 'buona sera,' but you can't translate it as 'good evening' because the scene is taking place at 3:00 P.M. You need to know the language but, even more, the life of the country." — From the Paris Review interview, 2002.
Notes
- ^ "William Weaver, Acclaimed Translator, Dies at 90 - ABC News". ABC News. Archived from the original on 2013-11-19.
- ^ William Weaver at Annandale-on-Hudson by Elizabeth Kiem from The Morning News
- ^ a b Bruce Weber "William Weaver, Influential Translator of Modern Italian Literature, Dies at 90", New York Times, 16 November 2013
- ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-04-04.
- ^ Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2008
- ^
"National Book Awards – 1969". National Book Foundation. Retrieved 2012-03-11.
There was a "Translation" award from 1967 to 1983. - ISBN 0-911818-71-5.
Sources
- Robin Healey's monumental Twentieth-Century Italian Literature in English Translation: An Annotated Bibliography (ISBN 0-8020-0800-3) was extremely helpful in the preparation of the bibliography portion of this entry.
- Porto Ludovica from The Modern Word, supplied additional details on Eco translations.
External links
- William Weaver on Italo Calvino
- The Path to the Nest of Translation by Giulia Guarnieri
- Willard Spiegelman (Spring 2002). "William Weaver, The Art of Translation No. 3". The Paris Review. Spring 2002 (161).
- William Weaver, Influential Translator of Modern Italian literature, Dies at 90 By BRUCE WEBER Published: November 16, 2013
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