>> View sample translation of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s “Analisi linguistica di uno slogan”
The translation provided in the link is of an article written by Pierpaolo Pasolini and published in Il Corriere della Sera on 17 May 1973, with the title “Il folle slogan dei Jesus jeans”, and later republished in Scritti Corsari with the new title “Analisi linguistica di uno slogan”. It is a conceptually complex linguistic analysis of the advertising slogan for Jesus jeans in the 1970s and the resulting furore in Italy over the religious references and blasphemy mixed with blatant sexuality used to market these jeans, allegedly influenced by the hit musical Jesus Christ Superstar (Tungate, 2007, p. 1451), to which the author of the text refers in the piece.
The main difficulty in translating this article is unravelling the complex semantics, and fully understanding the points Pasolini is making, in order to then properly encode them in the target language and clearly express these concepts. He uses subtle, sophisticated language to express complicated thinking, and the difficulty here is matching the author’s level of writing and elegant style while adequately conveying all the underlying concepts, and the translator has quite a responsibility to do the author justice in this regard.
There are not too many insurmountable lexical problems, but there a few cultural issues to be dealt with, which often arise in texts dealing with religion and the reactions of Italy’s authorities, in this case the Vatican. I have tried to bear in mind the potential audience when dealing with these issues: for example, in this case I would imagine a translation of this text into English to be commissioned for an English-speaking publication similar to Il Corriere, such as a UK broadsheet. Alternatively, it could be part of collection of linguistic analyses, or a work examining the effects of twentieth century advertising, the history of advertising or Italian fashion. I would assume the target text (TT) audience to be of an intelligence and education equal to the source text (ST) audience, so maintaining register is important here.
There is also a difficulty in maintaining an equivalent effect of the text on the target audience, given the difference in culture and religious history between the ST audience and possible TT audiences. In this case I have chosen not to add too much information unless absolutely necessary: I would assume that the TT audience would understand and have prior knowledge of the obvious differences in the two cultures, and make allowances for these differences, without every instance having to be spelled out and explained.
Another issue I have tried to be aware of is the date of the original publication. Before beginning to translate I asked myself: would this translation be for a contemporary audience, and should I translate from the angle of hindsight and current context (while not actually altering content, obviously) or should I assume the translation is “intended for” an audience of 1973, when the article was first written? In this case I have chosen to assume the intended audience is a contemporary one, but an audience well aware of the original date of publication, and therefore an audience able to put into context the concepts and references made within the text. In 1970s Italy, the impact of the Jesus Jeans advertisements is perhaps difficult to comprehend fully. When translating, I tried to maintain an understanding of perspective of that time, when the use of religious imagery in this manner would have been considered shocking and deeply upsetting for many people, especially in a Catholic country such as Italy.
>> View sample translation of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s “Analisi linguistica di uno slogan”
