Lanzarote and Saramago in the words of an exceptional translator: Pilar del Río’s La intuición de la isla (2022) and the problems of translating it into Italian

Abstract

The article aims to explore the challenges posed by the Italian translation of La intuición de la isla (2022) by Pilar del Río—wife of José Saramago—, a work devoted to the years spent in Lanzarote. The author, in fact, was not only Saramago’s wife but also his Spanish-language translator from 1997 onwards, and the memoir includes passages recounting the writing process of some of the Portuguese author’s novels, texts which she often began translating into Spanish almost simultaneously. Inevitably, the book contains reminiscences and intertextual references, as well as frequent allusions to Portuguese language and culture. This unique interplay offers an opportunity to reflect on how the Italian translation —introducing a third language into the dialogue and addressing a new readership not necessarily familiar with Saramago’s universe— can accommodate and convey such material. As will be shown, the Italian version published by Feltrinelli in 2024, signed by long-standing translator Rita Desti, is based on the Portuguese translation; this explains why some passages had already undergone a process of neutralisation.