Blindly (The Margellos World Republic of Letters) (43 page)

The verse in Triestine dialect, “
Del mio fato no me lagno, go trovà un altro bagno
,” is from a poem by Cesare Colussi, one of the many
individuals who emigrated from Trieste to Australia after the Second World War; it is found in the volume
Giuliano-Dalmati in Australia
, edited by Gianfranco Cresciani (1999). Passages regarding Italian emigration to Australia, in particular that of Triestines and Giulians after the Second World War, are drawn from various sources, specifically the work of Cresciani. In the pastiche regarding the war between the Venetians and the Uscocchi pirates from the sixteenth to the early seventeenth centuries, the altered, reworked quotations are drawn from Nicola Contarini,
Delle Istorie veneziane et altre a loro annesse, cominciando dall’anno 1597 e successivamente
, now in
Storici e politici veneti del Cinquecento e del Seicento
, edited by Gino Benzoni and Tiziano Zanato (Milan and Naples: Ricciardi, 1982).

The phrase “entering a nocturnal smoky purgatory” is taken from Marisa Madieri’s
Verde acqua
, the chapter entitled “April 29, 1983.” The line from Dante’s
Inferno
, “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here,” is from John Ciardi’s translation (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1954). The lines “Ash tree of the family / master of the sword” are drawn from the
Sonatorrek
, a skaldic poem in twenty-five stanzas by Egill Skalla-Grímsson (c. 910–990). “But the piglet has to suffer for the piggery of the porker” is taken from Linnaeus,
Nemesis Divina
IV.i.4.3 (edited and translated by Michael John Petry, Dordrecht and Boston: Kluwer Academic, 2001, p. 185). The “final darkness in which metaphors die” is a hidden citation from the novel
Un vento sottile
by Stefano Jacomuzzi (Milan: Garzanti, 1988). The lines “Grim stings the adder’s forked dart; The vipers nestle in my heart … Fifty times and one I stood Foremost on the field of blood, Tinging my sword with blood, And no king my equal have I ever met” are loosely drawn from two translations of
The Death-Song of Ragnar Lodbrok:
W. Herbert’s in
The Masterpieces and the History of Literature: Analysis, Criticism, Character and
Incident
, by Julian Hawthorne et al. (Hamilton Book Co., 1906) and Owen Connellan’s in vol. 2 of
Annals of Ireland by the Four Masters
, by Michael O’Clery et al. (Irish Roots Cafe, 2003).

The quotations referring to the infant god are from Robert Graves,
Hercules, My Shipmate
(alternate title:
The Golden Fleece
; New York: Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, 1945, p. 158). The lines beginning “She plunged, poor woman, into the sea” are from Euripides’
Medea
, v. 1285ff., translated by C.A.E. Luschnig. The bawdy song “Oh! if I had her …” is a Tasmanian shanty reprinted in
Shantymen and Shantyboys
by William Doerflinger; the excerpts were discovered by Doerflinger in
The Quid
(London, 1832). The phrase “Let your ‘yes’ be ‘yes,’ and your ‘no,’ ‘no,’” which the reverend has the natives recite, is a biblical reference to Matthew 5. The singsong verse “cassezigonaiedè siraicrumpira zielahisciaseplema,” a Croatian nonsense rhyme recited by children in the area around Fiume, is taken from the abovementioned
Verde acqua
by Marisa Madieri, the section entitled “January 18, 1982.” The chant heard as the natives slip away in the bush paraphrases a song contained in
Canti aborigeni australiani
, collected by Graziella Englaro (Milan: Mondadori, 1999). The book of recipes mentioned is
The Australian Convict Recipe Book, Featuring Ex-Convict Bessie Baldwin Cook to Sir John and Lady Franklin at Government House 1842–1849
. The episode about the petty officer Barclay, who flogged the convicts to make their scarred backs look like the back of a tiger, is a true story, reported by Robert Hughes in his book
The Fatal Shore: The Epic of Australia’s Founding
(Knopf, 1987).

—Anne Milano Appel
October 2009

C
LAUDIO
M
AGRIS
is a critic, journalist, novelist, and translator, and one of Europe’s leading cultural philosophers. He is a professor of German studies at the University of Trieste and writes for
Corriere della Sera
and several other European publications. His novels and theatrical works include
Un Altro Mare
(
A Different Sea
),
La mostra, Stadelmann
, and
Illazioni su una sciabola
(
Inferences from a Sabre
), and his novel
Alla Cieca
(
Blindly
) won the Premio Campiello Europa in 2009. Published essays include
Il mito absburgico nella letteratura austriaca moderna
, as well as
Lontano da dove: Joseph Roth e la tradizione ebraico-orientale
. Magris’s cultural and literary nonfiction titles have won him particular acclaim worldwide:
Danubio
(
Danube
) has been translated into more than twenty languages, and
Microcosmi
(
Microcosms
), which has been translated into eighteen languages, received the 1997 Premio Strega. Magris was awarded the Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger in 1990, the Erasmus Prize in 2001, the Prince of Asturias Prize in 2004, the Österreichischer Staatspreis für Europäische Literatur in 2005, and the Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels in 2009. Magris is also the recipient of several honorary degrees.

A
NNE
M
ILANO
A
PPEL
is a professional translator and native English speaker. She has been translating professionally for over sixteen years, and is a member of ALTA, ATA, and PEN. Many of her book-length translations have been published, and shorter works that she has authored or translated have appeared in other professional and literary venues. Her translation of Stefano Bortolussi’s novel
Head Above Water
was the winner of the 2004 Northern California Book Award for Translation, and her translation of Giulio Leoni’s novel
Mosaic Crimes
was published in 2007. Most recently she translated Elena Kostioukovitch’s
Why Italians Love to Talk about Food
, Giovanni Arpino’s
Scent of a Woman, P.O. Box Love
by Paola Calvetti, and Maurizio de Giovanni’s
I Will Have Vengeance
. To learn more about Anne and her translations visit her website:
www.annemilanoappel.com
.