Irina Georgievna Konstantinova is a renowned translator from the Italian language, a member of the Russian Union of Journalists, Russian Union of Writers and the Russian Union of Translators. A special place in her translations are Gianni Rodari’s books. Irina Georgiyevna managed to translate not only the text, but also the author’s feeling, his subtle humor. Interesting fact, but the most famous Rodari’s tales – ‘The Adventures of Chipollino’ and ‘The Adventures of the Blue Arrow’ – she translated after all the others. Many of the stories from ‘The Telephone Tales’ she even translated several times – at first in prose, then in verse – together with her husband, a director, screenwriter and translator, Lev Tarasov.
For the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Gianni Rodari, Irina Georgiyevna has answered several questions about the challenging work of a translator, about her first translated book, and of course, about the influence of Gianni Rodari’s books on the development of children’s literature in the world.
Irina Georgiyevna, good afternoon! Tell us please what interested you in Gianni Rodari’s books? Why did you choose to translate them?
Well, like many other things in the world, it happened accidentally. Just when I was learning Italian, ‘Unita’ newspaper (which means ‘unity’) started a ‘Kids’ Corner’ where they published short tales by Gianni Rodari, or ‘the stories’ how he called them himself. It was the very beginning of his literary career – first steps, indeed! I liked these amusing short stories and I decided to translate at first one, then another one. It appeared that I was not the only one who liked them, various Soviet children’s newspapers and magazines of the day were eager to publish them – ‘The Pioneer Truth’, ‘Lenin’s Sparkles’, ‘The Campfire’…
At first, I didn’t even pay too much attention to it, but as time went on and Rodari started to write longer and more engaging stories, I never missed one, just like the readers as well. It happened so that we were kind of marching in step with him – he wrote, I translated... But that was not the case with ‘The Adventures of Chipollino’. When the translation edited by Samuil Marshak came out, I thought that I won’t be able to translate better – he was a genius poet and translator, how could I compete with him? But years passed, I gained some experience, knowledge, and having read through his ‘Chipollino’ once more, I understood that I can offer my own edition of this amazing story to young readers. It does not mean at all that I did it better! No, it was just in a different way – my way. Just like our fingerprints are unique, so is our creative style. That’s why it was different.
Which book was the most difficult to translate and which one became your favorite?
I can’t say for sure! Rodari’s tales are all very different, very charming – both long and short. It wasn’t particularly difficult. The only task I had – to translate them into Russian so they could bring out the same vibrant emotions, just like in Italian kids. And to achieve this, you need to be proficient not only in their native language, which is obvious, but rather in your own – the Russian language.
It’s hard to say which book became my favorite. They all are! Because I put a lot of effort and worries into each one of them. Yes, worries, because I always tried to imagine how people will read and receive my Russian text. I happened to read several someone else’s translations and what alarmed me was the number of vulgar words, absolutely inappropriate for a children’s books. When you’re writing for kids, your language should be clear, beautiful, literary and very comprehensible, and this is exactly what I’ve been trying to do.
Do you think you’ve managed to render the narrative style of Gianni Rodari? Can we hear his voice through your text?
I don’t want to seem self-conceited, but I would say – yes, I have. I think that the readers of my translations can feel and understand his smile, irony, subtle mockery. Moreover, I believe that this is exactly his style, because my goal was not just to translate his words precisely and literally into Russian. It is absolutely not enough and even not as difficult. More important is to render the author’s unique intonation – his style!
The first book by Gianni Rodari that you’ve translated, was ‘The Mouse That Ate Cats’. Why did you choose exactly that book?
I just liked this lovely story very much. It is rather short, but there is so much imagination, fantasy and such a character in it! This is, however, a distinctive feature of all Rodari’s books without exception.
What do you like the most in Gianni Rodari’s stories?
Exactly this thing – unbound fantasy and extraordinary imagination. With their help Rodari turns simple things and ordinary situations into fabulous portraits, paints them in vibrant colors, gives them character… He used to say that his goal as a writer is to teach children to fantasize and imagine! And each of his stories is an amazing example of such ‘literary lesson’.
Do you have a favorite quote from Gianni Rodari’s books?
There are no such quotes, I suppose, because all of the interesting thoughts in his tales are closely intertwined with the context and derive from it, so it’s almost impossible to take something out of it. But I just might quote his words from a preface to ‘Bon Appetit!’, which he wrote for a collection of his tales, published by Lenizdat back in 1980:
‘…I wrote articles for newspapers and magazines, engaged in school problems, played with my daughter, listened to music, walked, thought. And thinking is a very useful thing to do. If not the most useful out of any other. I believe every person should think at least half an hour a day. You can do it whenever you want – sitting at the table, walking in the woods, alone or with friends.’
I think it was his favorite preoccupation. That’s why he INVENTED so many remarkable stories.
And still, I will mention a couple of quotes. ‘The Road to Nowhere’ ends with the words, which sound like a saying: ‘And this is all because some treasures open only to the one who walks off the beaten track, who walks the hard way’.
From ‘The Boy Who Played with a Cane’: ‘There’s no happier person in the world, than the one who can give something to a child’.
From ‘The Giacomo of Crystal’: ‘The Truth is the most powerful thing in the world – it is brighter that daylight, stronger than any hurricane.’
Who was your favorite character from Gianni Rodari’s books and why?
I can’t name one as my favorite! They are all so different in character! Each one is great in his own way!
Could you lift the veil off your work on the stories about Gelsomino, ‘The Blue Arrow’ and Chipollino?
It’s not a secret and it could not be. There we wonderful tales in front of me. When you read them in Italian, everything was clear as a day. But when I started translating, I always doubted if certain word or a phrase were expressive enough. ‘Maybe I need to find a synonym? I should definitely choose another epithet… How can I say this in Russian more precisely? What would we, Russians, say in this case?’ In a word, it was a meticulous work with another language, because I wanted Russian readers to understand the tale easily and at once, not to ‘stumble’ on a clumsy expression, a complicated phrase, unknown word… Although fairytales are written in prose, they should be perceived as easily as a song or a poem. I like to bring up the words of the great Russian poet Vasily Andreyevitch Zhukovsky, contemporary of Alexander Sergeyevitch Pushkin. He wrote ‘A translator of prose is a co-author of the writer; a translator of poetry is a competitor.’ Genius words and I always remembered about this exceptionally responsible role of mine – to become a co-author of the great Italian storyteller.
What appeared to be the most difficult in these stories?
The only difficulty, which was quite passable, was to find a precise and vibrant Russian equivalent to culture-specific elements and notions.
Do you have favorite scenes with Gelsomino, Chipollino, or from ‘The Adventures of the Blue Arrow’?
Definitely! It is from the tenth chapter of ‘Gelsomino in the Country of Liars’, which I translated with an exceptional pleasure:
‘The next morning citizens saw these posters on every corner:
This morning
(but not right after the sunset)
The most terrible tenor in the world
GELSOMINO
Who has an incredible annoying voice?
Egged in all theatres of Africa and America
Will not give any concert
In the city theatre
Distinguished audience is not welcome
The tickets cost nothing’
In ‘The Adventures of the Blue Arrow’ it’s the episode with salvation of a real train, not a toy, and the other one when Befana finds out that Francesco saved her from robbers and takes him away from the police.
In ‘The Adventures of Chipollino’ it is very hard to highlight a single episode, they are all so good and well created. Perhaps, we can stop at the touching story how the onion-boy met the spider-postman.
Your husband also translated the books by Gianni Rodari. Tell us please a little about the process. Did he translate only poems, or prose as well?
Did you happen to work together? What is the basis of a solid and proficient collaborative work?
My husband was a very talented man of pen and ink, but he did not translate because he had another profession – ha was a television director. But sometimes I would occasionally give him my prose translation of Rodari’s poems, and in fifteen minutes he would already come up with his translation in verse. Of course, I asked him to change or correct something a bit, in a word, I gave him directions. And as a result, he would make rather well-written poems, surprisingly matching the style and even the rhythm of the original. They all were published many times.
In your opinion, how did Gianni Rodari’s tales influence the development of children’s literature in the world?
I am no judge in this. The topic is subject matter of a scientific research. I think, however, that his tales and stories definitely left a bright trace in the souls of readers of the whole generations, if not two generations. I happened to see not once, how elderly people would break into smile only at a mention of his name, and it brought me joy every time.
What do you think Gianni Rodari would say if he knew that his books would be so popular over a hundred years?
I think he would be happy that he became a part of a ‘gold reserve’ of the children’s literature, that people remember him, read and re-publish his books – in other words, that his legacy lives! Not all writers are so fortunate. Only the most talented and genius.
Do you think his characters and stories will be as popular in a hundred more years?
This question makes me smile. If today already we can question if our grandchildren will read books, then what will happen with them – both books and kids – in a hundred years, perhaps, is unknown even to God, if he exists at all. Let’s wait and see!
Sometimes it’s hard for a translator to choose a proper word. Do you ask someone for some advice in such cases, or do you have a personal secret how to find a perfect word?
I’ve never had problems with this, and here’s why. Ask any schoolboy today to imagine that suddenly all gadgets disappeared. He would look at you with astonishment and say that it is impossible to imagine.
But I and people of my generations studied in schools when there was even no television at all, to say nothing of the Internet. There was only radio, and not in every house. I didn’t have it, that’s why all my time I spent reading. The school library appeared to be rather extensive and as a child I read an immense number of books. This became, I think, a solid basis for my knowledge of the Russian language, and my future studies at the university, on the philological faculty, only deepened it, without any doubt. I studied at the journalistic department, where more or less the most important thing is to know your way around with words. And here’s what I also think. Should I have studied Italian at the department of Roman philology, I would probably never become a translator, because students there can learn different techniques – technical, simultaneous or consecutive translation, but they won’t teach you how to translate literature. There are almost no places where you can learn it, and you often run into poor quality book translations. But that’s another problem already.
I should point out, however, that my editors always help me a lot. They are the first to read my work, so they see any stylistic flaws at once. After reading my text dozens of times during the work process, I get so called ‘tunnel vision’ and can miss something. But when I go through my translation after a month or even years, I see it the same as an editor did back then, and certainly can find what could be changed for the better. You know what they say, the road to excellence is endless.
How much, in your opinion, a translator is limited by the author’s creative style? Can he change the narration style to achieve more coherent flow?
A translator is not so much limited by the author’s creative style, as much as he has to keep it. Because it is unique for every writer. And of course, you need to carefully follow it, and in any case not to allow any literalism or ad-libbing. On the other hand, Umberto Eco used to say that a translator needs to say almost the same as the author. And in this ‘almost’, I think, lies the secret of a good translation.
What do you like the most in your profession? Is there something that is difficult for you?
I greatly enjoy the work with word, which sometimes seems to be endless. What’s difficult, is the working hours – it’s hard to stop being a work addict. On second thought, I must bring up and old fact – happy is the one who does what he loves – I can relate to it nobody else.
Do you recite any excerpts from your translations to someone to see how the text may be perceived?
No, I don’t have such experience.
The first book that was published with your translation – do you remember how did you react to it?
It was a very long time ago. And my first translated book was not Rodari’s tales, but memoires of an Italian tenor Beniamino Gigli, published by ‘Music’ publishing house in 1964 and 1967. In 1966 they also published memoires of another legendary Italian singer Mattia Battistini. And only in 1969, half a century ago, Lenizdat published my first translated Gianni Rodari’s book of stories, with a door, a keyhole and a key on the cover.
I was lost for words, and very pleased. Particularly because they printed unbelievable by today’s standards number of copies – 100,000 books!
One thing was sad – the book was thick, not for small children’s hands, 600 pages, small typeface, newsprint paper, faded printing, few black and white images of average quality. But it was a thing, indeed! Today’s editions are completely different. They are vibrant, colorful, on good paper, and – what’s important – each tale is a separate book! Half a century ago this was impossible, although I asked them to do so.
I remember working with a wonderful editor, Boris Druyan, and recently we were reflecting with him on that happy times. He almost changed nothing in my draft, but I myself all the following years was correcting my own translations all the time.
Later, there was one more absolutely incredible issue – one million copies. In this quantity and on good paper ‘Yunatstva’ publishing house in Minsk issued a collection of stories by Gianni Rodari. It was way back in the Soviet Union, in 1987. Now these books are very rare.
And as a conclusion, could you please wish something to our young readers?
Several centuries ago, the most significant thing in our history took place – in 1440 Johannes Guttenberg invented the printing press. And since then, all the best humanity has created, is stored in books.
Of course, you will say that today you can find everything on the Internet, today you can read e-books. I won’t argue with that. Internet is indeed a world encyclopedia of some sort.
But having a book on a computer or a smartphone is absolutely not the same as holding a book, smelling it, watch illustrations in any order, go through pages and appreciate it as a work of printing art – this is the other way!
The difference between an e-book and a real paper book is like between the see on canvas by the great artist Ivan Aivazovsky and the real-life sea that you can swim in.
And here, of course, a lot depends on the family traditions and upbringing. If there’s not a single bookshelf at home, children will never know the joy of reading and learning. But if there is one, they may as well grow up talented, if not genius.