The Italian Translation of "Under Milk Wood": a Theoretical and Practical Approach

This work offers a survey of some translation methods and strategies by providing an overview of the state-of-the-art translation criticism. It also analyzes and discusses some extracts of an Italian translation of ?Under Milk Wood?. Based on the idea that theory must be tied to practice to be of any real benefit, the pragmatic and the normative dimension of translation are indissolubly linked. A good theoretical back-ground plays a key-role in understanding the structures operating within a language. Since Dylan Thomas uses different registers and a wide range of expressive forms such as monologues, dialogues, songs, nursery-rhymes, and lullabies, a translator should be particularly accurate at reproducing all these features in order to preserve the integrity of the source text. Only through a logical combination of the levels of language, reference, cohesion and naturalness, the translation results as the product of a deep transposition of verbal subtlety, word-play, and rhythm of the prose which are distinctive features of ?Under Milk Wood?.