Freie Universität Berli Skopos Theory and the Sardic version of Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea A Translational and Stylistic Analysis Elisabetta Soro The article aims to highlight how a text can change in translation if the translator’s (or publisher’s/ editor’s) main concern is to give prominence to the target culture and prestige to the target language. Drawing on Vermeer’s Skopos theory (1989/ 2004: 221) and addressing the question of the translators’ voice, I will analyse the Sardinian version of Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea (Hemingway 1952), reflecting especially on the style of this translation and its importance in Sardinian literature. A comparative analysis of the two texts will show how the final product can differ from the original and serve a new cause that is different from the author’s, but no less effective. Given that Hemingway’s style is highly distinctive and precisely built, the question arises if the translator manages to maintain the same unique style or, if not, whether this new text can still be considered authentic, faithful to the source text and relevant. 1. Introduction In the late 1970s the German linguist and translation scholar Hans Josef Vermeer developed what is nowadays considered the best known among the functionalist approaches to the field of translation studies, Skopos theory. Christiane Nord’s recent translation into English of Katharina Reiß and Hans J. Vermeer’s 1984 book Grundlegung einer allgemeinen Translationstheorie has given easy access to one of the most interesting theories of translation which can well serve the specific case of translations into minority languages. Starting from the idea that translating means performing an action and that every action has a purpose, he borrowed a term from Greek to refer to the aim or goal of a translation: skopos. The skopos can vary and AAA - Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik Band 44 (2019) · Heft 1 Gunter Narr Verlag Tübingen DOI 10.2357/ AAA-2019-0002 Elisabetta Soro 20 be redefined from time to time according to the translator’s decision regarding the “role a source text plays in his translational action” (Vermeer 2000: 222). Indeed, not only does the translator as an expert mediate between two cultures but, by freely interpreting the message given in a text, he/ she can also choose to follow one idea rather than another. This depends on how he/ she first approaches the Source Text (ST) and his/ her skopos in giving birth to a new one, the translatum, i.e. “the resulting translated text” (Vermeer 2000: 221). This is the reason why different translations of the same book exist and why some of these appear to be quite different from each other, even though they share the same starting point. We can only speak of “intertextual coherence” (Vermeer 2000: 223) between the ST and the Target Text (TT) when the translator judges that the form and function of the ST conform to the skopos he/ she had decided upon in advance (Vermeer 2000). In this case, a faithful translation of the source text is mandatory, even though the former cannot be equivalent to the latter since the target text both reflects the personal interpretation of the translator and considers the encyclopedic knowledge of the recipient reader (Eco 2003). This means that the translation process can be conceptualised as involving three parties: the author with his/ her source text and his/ her source culture; the reader with his/ her target text and culture; and the translator, who plays a central role in the process, mediating between the two worlds through choices based on his/ her own sensitivity. The theory of translational action pays much attention to the translator’s task in terms of ethics and responsibility (Vermeer 2000). However, Vermeer’s ideas have failed to convince some scholars. Let us consider the three types of objections that were raised against Skopos theory, taking for granted that nowadays it is commonly accepted that translating is performing an action: Vermeer himself states that one of the arguments against Skopos theory was that “literature has no purpose” (Vermeer 2000: 224), and hence, neither does translating. Scholars criticised Skopos theory by claiming that: a) the translator does not have any specific intention when translating, he just translates “what is in the source text”, b) a specific goal limits the range of interpretation of the TT compared to that of the ST, c) the translator has no specific addressee in mind (Vermeer 2000: 226). It is Vermeer himself who responds to each of these objections. He claims, for instance, that advertising texts are supposed to advertise, instructions to describe, newspaper reports to inform and so on. There is no doubt, then, that such “pragmatic texts” (Vermeer 2000: 226) are goal-oriented, and so are their translations. In response to the second objection, he replies that although it is true that a given skopos may exclude certain Skopos Theory and the Sardic Version of The Old Man and the Sea 21 interpretations because they are not part of the translation goal, “one possible goal would certain be precisely to preserve the breadth of interpretation of the source text.” He adds that a translation realises something that is completely different, i.e. nothing “more” and nothing “less” (Vermeer 2000: 227). Finally, his reply to the last objection is that even though the text-producer and hence also the translator are not thinking of a specific addressee, they unconsciously orient their choices towards the various levels of intelligence and education they associate with a certain restricted group (Vermeer 2000: 226-7). The above objections will be reconsidered at the end of this article, following a comparison of the two texts in question to find out whether Skopos theory can help better understand diversities in translation into minority languages. The present article will examine several aspects of the ST previously analysed by researchers and academics from all over the world. It will investigate Hemingway’s style to find out whether the Sardinian version maintains the same features or if, how, and why they have been changed. In fact, the article aims to highlight how a text can change in translation if the translator’s (or publisher’s or editor’s) main concern is to give prominence to the target culture and prestige to the target language. This is particularly true when minority languages are involved. In Hearing voices, Millán-Varela analyses the translation into Galician of James Joyce’s Dubliners and states that translating international authors into minority, or, as she puts it, minoritized languages goes far beyond the mere mediation between two cultures, but “constitutes a political act where the socio-cultural and political context much more than the ST or the author, determines and shapes both translating process and the final product” (Millán-Varela 2004: 37). Thus, going back to Skopos theory, we can assume that the goal of the translator in the case of minority languages is to give prominence and prestige to the minority language itself. Indeed, translating an international masterpiece into a minority language gives new life to the target culture and offers the translator, who is in a way the second author, the chance to put the minority language to the test. “The translation into a minoritized language becomes an exploration of the Self, rather than an encounter with an Other” (Millán-Varela 2004: 37). This begs the following questions: is it possible to know in advance whether the translator has a different goal with respect to the ST? And if so, is it ethically correct to denounce it? How can we know the translator’s skopos? To find answers, we have three possibilities: 1. look for a direct manifestation of the translator’s intent in the book; 2. interview both the translator and the publisher and ask them directly; 3. compare the ST and the TT to find out similarities and discrepancies. Elisabetta Soro 22 Given the fact that in our case we did not have the chance to meet either translator or publisher, other instruments must be used to learn about the translator’s aim. As for point 1., the translator’s intention is evident from the very beginning of the book, where we find this parenthetical on the inside front cover of the Sardinian version: “Paberiles” est una colletzione chi cheret ajudare sa limba nostra a intrare in su terzu millenniu, “Paberiles” is a collection that wishes to help our language to enter the third millennium. Accordingly, the objective of the Sardinian translation is to help the Sardinian language enter the third millennium. This means that this translation represents an opportunity, and even a pretext, to test the language and to show that it can well serve literature. The translation was commissioned to Mario Vargiu, who graduated in Pedagogy in the 1960s and who is passionate about the Sardinian language. The newspaper Nazione Sarda (“Sardinian Nation”) allowed him to give voice to the protest which demanded that bilingualism be put to a popular referendum. He translated several books from Italian to Sardinian before tackling foreign authors: a new challenge for the language. When reading the book in translation it immediately becomes noticeable how he plays with the language, to the effect that Hemingway becomes a mere means to discover and recognise the great expressive and descriptive powers of the Sardinian language. His meticulous work of lexical research is still valuable for the Sardinian language. At this point it should be mentione that Sardinian has only recently been recognised as a language (it was previously considered an Italian dialect). Indeed, with the provisions of Law No. 482/ 1999, the Regione Autonoma della Sardegna (Sardinia Autonomous Region) began to promote Sardinian as the Island’s official language, at the same level as Italian. Several initiatives have been enacted ever since to promote a new use of the language not only in private, but also in the official context of institutions and public administration. Translations were part of this important project. Official documents and laws, projects for schools, but also books started to be translated into Sardinian. Condaghes is one of the publishing houses which, since 1999, has offered Sardinians translations of several important works by internationally known authors including, for example, Joseph Conrad, George Orwell, Richard Bach, Gabriel García Márquez and, obviously, Ernest Hemingway. This was because, as Natalino Pira stated during his lecture on the Sardinian translation of George Orwell’s Animal Farm and the Spanish Lazarillo de Tormes, “Sardinian has its raison d’être because of its need to be used in literature” (Asproni 2004). More than just a meeting between cultures, the translation in this case assumes a connotation of tribute to the importance of a finally codified Sardinian language. Vargiu’s study is primarily text-oriented, or dare I say, Skopos Theory and the Sardic Version of The Old Man and the Sea 23 language-oriented, since it focuses mainly on the form, the structure and the language of the target text without paying attention to the historical or social context of the writer and the message of the text itself. The third way of understanding whether the translator’s aim differs from that of the author is to employ the methodology of translational stylistics, which compares the translated text and its source text (Malmkjær 2004: 16). This method allows the researcher to take into consideration the relationship between the two texts through gloss marks which, word by word, highlight both the similarities and the differences between ST and TT. This relationship is fundamental and helps shed light on aspects of major interest for the translator and on the textual features of potential interest for the analyst. A comparative analysis of the two texts will show how the final product can differ and serve a new cause which may be different from that of the author, but not necessarily less effective. As Hemingway’s style is highly distinctive and precisely built, the question arises whether the translator manages to maintain the same unique style and, if not, if this new text can still be considered authentic - in other words, does the translation respect the author’s original intent? If not, is it still a relevant literary contribution? 2. Hemingway’s style Most students have read The Old Man and the Sea (Hemingway 1952) at least once in their life and have probably been taught that Hemingway’s style is journalistic, sober, dry, direct, flat - a “tough guy” way of writing, so to speak (Simpson 2014: 53). As Paul Simpson stated in his book, this perception is, among other things, due to the scarce use of adjectives. For most of the novella, “the tuna” is merely referred to as such, rarely it is described as “small” or “big”. This tendency to omit adjectives, perceived as a deviation from the norm, has come to be known as a distinguishing feature of Hemingway’s style, namely foregrounding. Paraphrasing Paul Simpson, foregrounding refers to a form of textual patterning motivated by literary and aesthetic purposes. Foregrounding, Simpson remarks, “is essentially a technique for 'making strange' in language” (Simpson 2014: 52). The following quantitative analysis will briefly highlight the most distinctive aspects of the text that come to the fore by using this technique, i.e. constitute a deviation from a linguistic norm. The following features will be taken into consideration: the mentioned scarce use of adjectives, the use of short words, the recurrence of the verb said, the use of coordinating conjunctions to start a sentence, the abundance of figurative speech, the preference for simple sentences and constructions, the repetition of the most common subordinating conjunctions and the creative use of punctuation. Elisabetta Soro 24 2.1. A quantitative analysis The book contains 27,133 words. The title of six one-syllable words is itself the first example of the pattern of brevity which is rarely broken throughout the whole text. Indeed, no words contain more than four syllables and the greater lengths (six maximum) are rarely achieved by affixation, verbs included. Furthermore, not only are the verbs short, but they are mainly in the active voice, with long verbs and passives only being used when really necessary. The simplicity of the individual word is, then, the second stylistic aspect taken into examination (Heaton 1970: 11-12). Among these short words the most frequently used in the text is the verb said, which appears 189 times and holds the 26 th position on the list of the most frequent 100 words, soon after articles, conjunctions, prepositions, personal pronouns, possessive adjectives, adverbs, auxiliary verbs (be and have) and the lexical words fish, man, old, which appear in the text 285, 266 and 248 times respectively. Moreover, the word said appears 170 times to introduce or end a dialogue. Among hundreds of possibilities, as Heaton noticed, Hemingway always uses the word said in dialogue situations between the old man and the boy. They could have mumbled, whispered, stated, answered, claimed, but according to Hemingway they just said. This can be ascribed to his “typical refusal to draw conclusions for his reader” (Heaton, 1970: 13) and, again, to his predilection for simple, wellknown words. He mainly tells facts without commenting. Comments and conclusions are left to the reader. Another distinctive characteristic of Hemingway’s style is the frequent use of coordinating conjunctions at the beginning of a sentence. This choice could be attributed to a question of rhythm or better, to his desire to make the story sound natural in speech. Indeed, Hemingway’s prose mainly consists of physical descriptions and dialogues between the old man and the boy, and monologues. In any case, this choice stands out, because it is contrary to grammar rules. As Heaton noticed, Hemingway uses the coordinator but for this purpose 178 times out of the 236 examples in the text, for instance: But you are your father’s and your mother’s and you are in a lucky boat. (Hemingway 1952: 36) Another recurrent feature is the marked preference for simple sentences instead of complex ones with “an excessive” (Simpson 2014: 142) use of simple markers of coordination like and, as several literary critics have pointed out (Simpson 2014). As Heaton remarked in his research on Hemingway’s style, The Old Man and the Sea consists of 1,735 sentences and 77 sentence fragments. Of these 1,735 sentences, 890 (51%) are simple sentences, 231 (13%) are compound sentences, 440 (25%) are complex sentences and 174 (11%) are Skopos Theory and the Sardic Version of The Old Man and the Sea 25 compound-complex sentences. This means that nearly two-thirds of the sentences in the novel are simple or compound (Heaton 1970: 14). Let us take the following as an example: After a while the fish stopped beating at the wire and started circling slowly again. The old man was gaining line steadily now. But he felt faint again. He lifted some sea water with his left hand and put it on his head. Then he put more on and rubbed the back of his neck. (Hemingway 1952: 48) Situations are presented simply from the point of view of both grammar and meaning. The Subject Verb Object or Subject Verb Complement pattern is the most common in the book, although the use of compound predicates is quite frequent. Similarly, the structure of the compound sentences is equally simple, since the sentences linked by coordinating conjunctions maintain the same structure, allowing the reader to move from one action to the next without interrupting the rhythm (Heaton 1970: 15): He swung at him and hit only the head and the shark looked at him and wrenched the meat loose. (Hemingway 1952: 52) Even when Hemingway chooses to make dramatic use of compound sentences as in the following passage, the flow of his narration is always smooth and direct with a fundamental point always in mind, i.e. simplifying the readers’ task and evoking connections and conclusions: The line rose slowly and steadily and then the surface of the ocean bulged ahead of the boat and the fish came out. He came out unendingly and water poured from his sides. He was bright in the sun and his head and back were dark purple and in the sun the stripes on his sides showed wide and a light lavender. His sword was as long as a baseball bat and tapered like a rapier and he rose his full length from the water and then re-entered it, smoothly, like a diver and the old man saw the great scythe-blade of his tail go under and the line commenced to race out. (Hemingway 1952: 44) Here the author uses the conjunction and 13 times to link the sentences in a short portion of text. As Heaton states, this choice is justified by the fact that at this point Hemingway must include a great deal of material in a short space allowing the reader to keep the sequences in mind. The use of punctuation, as well as the use of subordinating conjunctions, would interrupt the fluency of the discourse. He needs a structure where considerable material can be inserted also at a distance, but which keeps the action moving. For this purpose, “the compound sentence is the most suitable vehicle” (Heaton 1970: 16). As already said, Hemingway tries to simplify the reader’s task by also avoiding the use of relative pronouns or conjunctions in noun and adjective Elisabetta Soro 26 phrases, thus leaving pronouns, nouns and verbs side by side as in “I wish the boy were here” or by repeatedly using the same subordinating conjunctions. In particular when, as and while are used to coordinate events or ideas in time (Heaton 1970: 18): He did not remember when he had first started to talk aloud when he was by himself. He had sung when he was by himself in the old days and he had sung at night sometimes when he was alone steering on his watch in the smacks or in the turtle boats. He had probably started to talk aloud, when alone, when the boy had left. But he did not remember. When he and the boy fished together they usually spoke only when it was necessary. They talked at night or when they were storm-bound by bad weather (Hemingway 1952: 40). Apparently in contrast with Hemingway’s preference for directness and simplicity there is a massive use of figurative language (Heaton 1970: 13). As Heaton points out “there come times when the simple, direct statement will not achieve the effect that Hemingway wants.” (Heaton 1970: 14). Among the 70 different figures of speech present in the book, “50 of them are used to evoke an image of something in nature” (Heaton 1970: 13). “Hemingway seems to feel,” Heaton continues, “that a simple description of color, shape and size will hardly do to describe the marlin, for example” (Heaton 1970: 14). Remembering the time he had hooked one of a pair of marlins, he thought of the male fish’s tail… …which was sharp as a scythe…When the old man had gaffed her and clubbed her, holding the rapier bill with its sandpaper edge … (Hemingway 1952: 41) The shark’s teeth were: … not the ordinary pyramid-shaped teeth of most sharks. They were shaped like a man’s fingers when they are crisped like claws. (Hemingway 1952: 50) And their stripes were: … wider than a man’s hand with his fingers spread and the fish’s eye looked as detached as the mirrors in a periscope or as a saint in a procession. (Hemingway 1952: 49) As Sandamali points out, in American literature we frequently find authors who use figurative language and symbols to “give an artistic beauty and a depth for their creations and for any other purposes”. Among these writers, Ernest Hemingway stands out “for his mastery of using symbols,” (Sandamali 2015: 125). As already said, he developed a style that was utterly simple, built on basic American speech, and used it to convey complex Skopos Theory and the Sardic Version of The Old Man and the Sea 27 situations and depths of emotion through subtle nuances and suggestion rather than by explicit statements. His prose largely consists only of physical descriptions and realistic details. In this way Hemingway could create 'natural metaphors' which became charged with an expressive significance. Although the surface of Hemingway’s novels and short stories presents us with what looks like bare realism, his use of these 'natural' symbols and metaphors greatly extends and enriches their significance (Belarbi 2016). Lastly, there is the question of punctuation. Once again Hemingway does not follow preconceived rules, but uses punctuation marks for his own needs, namely to imitate the pauses of spoken interaction (Heaton 1970: 22). It is worth noting that the book contains many passages which would normally be terminated by an exclamation mark and which Hemingway decides to end in another way: “What a fish, he said,” is the example offered by Heaton (1970: 22). Indeed, the whole novella contains just one exclamation mark, which is used in the scene describing the old man’s struggle with the fish, the most significant moment in the story. Eat it so that the point of the hook goes into your heart and kills you, he thought. Come up easy and let me put the harpoon into you. All right. Are you ready? Have you been long enough at table? “Now! ” he said aloud and struck hard with both hands, gained a yard of line and then struck again and again, swinging with each arm alternately on the cord with all the strength of his arms and the pivoted weight of his body. (Hemingway 1952: 41) In conclusion, it can be said that Hemingway’s main concern in this novella is to tell his story in a simple and direct way without influencing the reader with his personal point of view. This manifests in his use of language, giving birth to his personal 'sober', 'dry' style whose main characteristics can be roughly summarised as follows: a) Scarce use of adjectives; b) Short words; c) Recurrence of the verb said; d) Coordinating conjunctions to start a sentence; e) Simple sentences and simple constructions; f) Repetition of the most common subordinating conjunctions; g) Massive use of figurative speech; h) Creative use of punctuation. 3. The target text The Sardinian version of the novella The Old Man and the Sea was translated for the first time by Mario Vargiu in 2001 for the Condaghes publishing house as part of the Paberiles series. S’Omini Becciu e su Mari is written in the Campidanese variety of Sardinian, primarily spoken in the Province of Elisabetta Soro 28 Cagliari, the capital city located in the south of the Island. Indeed, the first choice a translator into Sardinian has to make is between the existing varieties of the same language. The present structures of Sardinian are mainly the result of internal evolutions within the language itself, which have become permanent because of its geographic isolation (Grimaldi-Mensching 2004). Of course, the translator chooses the variety he knows and uses, since Sardinians rarely know more than one sublanguage (Bolognesi 1999). Then the translator must decide how to write the chosen variety. Indeed, another big problem is that Sardinian lacks any shared orthographic rules (1999 saw the first official attempt to elaborate an orthographic spelling hypothesis for Sardinian). This aim was reached, but never accepted by those who wished to maintain their individuality regarding their sublanguage (Grimaldi-Mensching 2004). After this, the translator must be sure that the text is translatable, i.e. that the topic of the ST has something in common with the target culture and therefore shares at least part of the existing vocabulary with the target language (Eco 2003). Before starting our detailed comparative study, let us just briefly describe the Sardinian language with some references to its history and modern situation. 3.1. Sardinian multilingualism through the centuries In the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Sardinia’s linguistic evolution has been deeply and repeatedly modified by different historical events which have greatly influenced the stratification of the lexicon and its spatial distribution over the years. Moreover, its geographic isolation has contributed to the conservation throughout history of forms that refer to different periods and bear the mark of contacts with other cultures. The proto-Sardinians, who stably inhabited the island from the Neolithic onwards, were replaced over time by various peoples who brought with them their traditions and languages. The Paleosardi, the Phoenician- Punic civilisation who conquered the plains and coastal areas, the Vandals who, according to the linguist M. L. Wagner (Wagner 1997), influenced the vocabulary of the Sardinian Campidanese variety of Sulcis, the Byzantines, the Pisans and Genoans, who left their traces in legal and administrative vocabulary as well as in the field of fashion, especially around the province of Cagliari. The Roman domination and use of Latin left much evidence especially among the populations of the inland mountainous areas whose contacts with the external world were rare or non-existent at all. Even today, we find still visible conservative traces of the Latin language and culture. The four hundred year-long Catalan-Aragonese occupation first and Castilian domination later left deep traces in many aspects of Sardinian life and culture. Some greetings, polite expressions of respect and T-V distinctions derive from Castilian words. When Sardinia was annexed to Piedmont (circa 1718) some Gallicisms entered Sardinian, especially in the field of furnishings, fashion and food culture (Puddu 2003). Skopos Theory and the Sardic Version of The Old Man and the Sea 29 The situation described above gave birth to a great variety of idioms that have only recently been recognised as languages. However, this has done nothing to help the stability of the language since, according to the online edition of the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger last updated on Feb 7, 2016, the Sardinian Campidanese variety (one of the two main languages on the island) appears to be endangered (UNESCO 2017). One of the factors that has certainly put the language at risk is that in the generational transition Italian has almost completely replaced Sardinian in public contexts as well as in familiar ones and young people today do not speak Sardinian. Secondly, Sardinian still presents a great variety of idioms which differ in many aspects, especially in the lexicon. Probably due to the different linguistic influences over the centuries, as mentioned above, Sardinian is currently subdivided into the two main languages of Campidanese and Logudorese, and additionally into Tabarchino, Algherese, Sassarese and Gallurese (Virdis 2018). 4. A comparative study Those who have read The Old Man and The Sea probably still remember the direct, overwhelming opening for both its simplicity and, at the same time, its enormous potential. In just a few words, it manages to introduce the whole story and allow the reader to become immediately absorbed in the narrative. He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish. The narrator sets the scene in 23 words giving us a great deal of fundamental information about the whole plot and the author’s style. We immediately learn that the main character is a man; he is old, he works as a fisherman and he is alone on a small sailing boat somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. We also know that he is unlucky, because 84 days have passed since he last caught a fish. Hemingway does not make any judgements, he just describes the scene, leaving readers, as previously stated, to draw their own conclusions. Let us analyse the opening of the Sardinian version now. Applying the technique of translational stylistics, I shall use a gloss marking to compare the two openings: G stands for gloss and V for Vargiu’s translation. V: Mancai fessit un' omini becciu piscàt a solu cun G: Although (he) was a man old (he) fished alone with V: d'una barca a vela in su grandumari biu G: a sailing boat in the big sea open Elisabetta Soro 30 The original pattern S + V + SC of the main sentence (He was an old man) is replaced in the Sardinian version by a complex sentence introduced by a subordinating conjunction with the meaning of concession. In this introductory sentence we can also notice other differences concerning the vocabulary. The noun skiff, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, denotes a small light boat for rowing or sailing, usually used by only one person. The translator’s use of barca a vela simply translates sailing boat, thereby losing the denotation of being small, an important detail especially when the old man leaves for the open sea and starts fighting against the big fish. Moreover, Hemingway mentions the Gulf Stream, which offers an important geographic clue: The Gulf Stream is defined as “an Atlantic Ocean current that originates in the Gulf of Mexico…crossing the Atlantic Ocean” (Science Daily, online). Some pieces of information are completely lost in translation. Hence, from the very first lines, Hemingway's desire for clarity, force and directness seems to be lost. This deserves further investigation. I shall retrace the main points of Hemingway’s style listed in 2.1. to find out the common grounds and the diversities between the two texts. a) The scarce use of adjectives As already stated, Hemingway became famous, among other things, for his scarce use of adjectives. This aspect was investigated by Paul Simpson, taking the following passage as an example: He knelt down and found the tuna under the stern with the gaff and drew it toward him keeping it clear of the coiled lines. Holding the line with his left shoulder again, and bracing on his left hand and arm, he took the tuna off the gaff hook and put the gaff back in place. He put one knee on the fish and cut strips of dark red meat longitudinally from the back of the head to the tail (Hemingway 1952: 43). Simpson stresses the fact that “almost all of the nouns receive no adjectival modification at all: the tuna, the stern, the gaff, the line and the fish are referred to as they are, which deviates his style from the 'norm' used by the authors of 20 th century prose fiction and then gives prominence to this 'unconventional' characteristic. Simpson adds that this non-adjectival pattern is in contrast with another passage of the same text: But the bird was almost out of sight now and nothing showed on the surface of the water but some patches of yellow, sun-bleached Sargasso weed and the purple, formalized, iridescent, gelatinous bladder of a Portuguese man-of-war floating dose beside the boat. (Hemingway 1952: 39) Skopos Theory and the Sardic Version of The Old Man and the Sea 31 Here, the author even uses four adjectives together (purple, formalized, iridescent, gelatinous) to describe a jellyfish, generating a hyperbole which clashes with the 'conquered norm' and gives birth to another phenomenon called internal foregrounding, namely a “deviation within a deviation”. (Simpson 2014: 53). It goes without saying that these are important features to be considered when speaking about the style of an author and that, when translating, they should be taken into consideration to convey the same message and make the translated text as authentic as possible. However, if we read the same passage in Sardinian, we immediately notice that this only partly happens there: Si fiat ingenugau e cun su ganciu iat agatau sa tuninèdda a puppa e ndi dd'iat tirada accantu cle issu senza de dda fai arresci in is lenzas pinnigadas. Poderendu imoi puru sa lenza cun sa pala de manca e poderendisì derettu in sa manu e in su brazzu de manca, ndi iat bogau sa tuninèdda de su ganciu e dd'iat torrau a ponni in su logu su'. Iat postu unu genugu asuba de su pisci e iat segau tiras longas de pezza arrubia e asula, de parti de sa conca a sa coa (Vargiu 2001: 50). In Sardinian, the tuna becomes a small tuna through the addition of the derivational suffix -edda which, joined to the root tunina, adds a ‘hidden’ adjective to the noun. Indeed, although the new insertion does not modify the rhythm of the sentence (in both languages we have 13 words to describe the same scene), it changes its meaning. Hemingway does not qualify the size of the fish. The same phenomenon can be observed throughout the text when referring to Manolin, “the boy” who looks after Santiago and helps him with fishing. In Sardinian he becomes unu piccioccheddu, where, again, the use of the suffix -eddu implies his being under ten. Indeed, several historical, literal and journalistic sources fix a precise gap for the word piccioccu/ a, i.e. boy/ girl, in Sardinian. We find reference to this in a book by an anthropologist investigating the social and criminal condition of children and youths in Cagliari at the turn of the 20 th century. These children and young men, known at the time as ‘piccioccus de crobi’, (‘boys carrying baskets’) were aged between 10 and 17 (Tiragallo 2014: 135). Piccioccus is the plural form of piccioccu, obtained by adding the inflection -s to the base form of the noun. Instead, by adding -eddu to the root, we refer to the fact that he is younger than 10. Now, how old is Manolin? Hemingway never mentions his age explicitly. This fact has been the subject of lengthy debates and researchers have conflicting points of view as to whether Manolin is a boy or a teenager. As P.G. Rama Rao states in his book, “Santiago always refers to him as the boy even though he calls him 'a man' in banter: “You bought me a beer,” the old man said. “You are already a man.”” (Rao 2007: 105). However, Donaldson is quite sure he is “a young man of twenty-two” (Donaldson 1996: 254), while others say he Elisabetta Soro 32 is 12. These speculations come from the individual interpretation given to the personal pronoun he in the sentence pronounced by Manolin at some point in the text: “The great Sisler’s father was never poor and he, the father, was playing in the Big Leagues when he was my age.” Whatever the case, it is a common idea that Manolin is no younger than 12. Hence, if we take it for granted that Manolin is between 10 and 22, why does the translator decide to make him younger than he really is? The answer can be found flicking through the pages of Umberto Eco’s Dire quasi la stessa cosa (Eco 2003). Starting from the awareness that translating is “saying almost the same thing,” he points out that the extension of the word almost depends on some criteria that should be met and negotiated preliminarily (Eco 2003). Eco states that translating is not producing a copy of the original, but being able to recover the intention of the original text, without forgetting the sensitivity and the culture of the target reader (Eco 2003). And this is the point. For the word boy the translator has probably thought of the sensitivity of the target reader who knows that nowadays piccioccu/ a is also used to refer to adults when they look particularly young, while piccioccheddu/ a is used for teenagers (under the age of 10 we use the word pippiu/ pippieddu, i.e. baby). So, what appears to be an inaccuracy is, in fact, an act of fidelity and attention to both the source and the target culture. It also happens that the translator even reinforces the already existing adjective by adding a hidden adjective as in the example below: A small bird came toward the skiff from the north (Hemingway 1952: 42; Vargiu 2001: 47) Unu pilloneddu pitticcu si fiat accostau a sa barca de parti de tramuntana A small bird small came toward the skiff from the north Some lines below Vargiu writes: The bird made the stern of the boat and rested there. (Hemingway 1952: 42) Su pilloni fiat lompiu in sa puppa de sa barca. (Vargiu 2001: 47) Thus, the fully respects the original, as also happens in: “Take a good rest, small bird,” he said (Hemingway 1952: 42) - Pasiadì beni, pilloneddu iat nau (Vargiu 2001: 48) Let us take another example of Sardinian suffixation with -eddu, which interferes with the denotative meaning of the word in English. Skopos Theory and the Sardic Version of The Old Man and the Sea 33 They played like young cats in the dusk (Hemingway 1952: 38) Giogànt comenti pisittus a mericeddu (Vargiu 2001: 23) The equivalent for dusk in Sardinian is merì, while mericeddu means ‘soon after lunch, in the early afternoon’. The word mericeddu changes the denotative meaning of the original word and its connotation. In the original version, the reader visualises that part of the day when the light is diminishing after sunset, while in Sardinian it is the early afternoon. The Sardinian translation ignores the connotation of the 'unknown' represented by the dark light and shifts the scene to an earlier part of the day. b) Short words The phenomenon of affixation analysed above has its obvious consequences in the length of the words. Indeed, the number of words with more than 4 syllables in the Sardinian version is higher than those with less than 4. The following short paragraph serves as an example: In the first forty days a boy had been with him. But after forty days without a fish the boy’s parents had told him that the old man was now definitely and finally salao, which is the worst form of unlucky, and the boy had gone at their orders in another boat which caught three good fish the first week. (Hemingway 1952: 35) This paragraph counts a total of 76 syllables. No word has more than 4 syllables. In is primus coranta dis dd'iat accumpangiau unu piccioccheddu, ma a pustis de coranta dis senza de pigai nimancu unu pisci, su babbu ei sa mama de su piccioccheddu ddi iant nau chi su becciu oramai fiat diaderu e senza de perùnu arremediu possidìu de su sali, su peus frastimu chi pozzat sezzi a un'omini, e su piccioccheddu ddus iat obbedius accordendisì in d'una atra barca chi iat pigau tres piscis mannus in sa prima cida. (Vargiu 2001: 9) The Sardinian translation of the above paragraph counts 149 syllables in total, with 5 five-syllable words. c) Recurrence of the word said As stated above, Hemingway uses the verb said in almost all the dialogue passages between the old man and the boy, from the first (“Santiago,” the boy said to him as they climbed the bank…) to the last (“I didn’t either,” her male companion said), using other words only when forced to explain the situation better (Heaton, 1970). Elisabetta Soro 34 If we compare the two previous examples in brackets we immediately notice that the former is perfectly equivalent to the ST, while the latter changes in translation: “I didn’t either,” her male companion said. (Hemingway 1952: 54) V: Nimancu deu iat arrespustu s'amigu su’. (Vargiu 2001: 108) G: Didn’t either I answered male companion her Where Hemingway uses the verb said, Mario Vargiu uses the verb arrespundi, i.e. ‘to answer'. This tendency to deviate from the original text is confirmed by figures. Indeed, the verb phrase iat nau, which corresponds to the English said, is present in dialogue situations only 35 times out of the 170 in the English version. Where Hemingway repeats the verb said, Vargiu looks for new solutions, synonyms or equivalent expressions. d) Coordinating conjunction but Even though the frequency of the coordinating conjunction in Sardinian and in English is almost the same (but appears 236 times in English and 237 times in Sardinian), its use at the beginning of the sentence to reproduce the spontaneity of speech changes somewhat. Indeed, in the Sardinian version, ma with this purpose appears just 53 times against the 178 times of the English text. This happens because the Sardinian version alternates the use of ma with other, similarly used expressions (tandu meaning 'so/ then', tocca similar in meaning to the informal 'c’mon', etc.). In the following example Vargiu respects the English version faithfully: But then I think of Dick Sisler. (Hemingway 1952: 37) Ma a pustis torru a penzai a Dick Sisler. (Vargiu 2001: 19) In this other example he prefers to change it: But she can be so cruel… (Hemingway 1952: 39) Eppùru  podit essi malu meda… (Vargiu 2001: 26) e) Simple sentences and simple constructions What changes substantially in translation is the use of complex sentences instead of simple ones. I shall restate here some of the figures pertaining to The Old Man and the Sea and compare the data obtained by means of the quantitative analyses carried out on S’Omini Becciu e su Mari. Skopos Theory and the Sardic Version of The Old Man and the Sea 35 The ST consists of 1,735 sentences and 77 sentence fragments. Of these 1,735 sentences, 890 (51%) are simple sentences, 231 (13%) are compound sentences, 440 (25%) are complex sentences and 174 (11%) are compound-complex (Comp.-Cx) sentences. Conversely, in the TT we have 1,827 sentences and 47 sentence fragments. Of these 1,827 sentences, 446 (24%) are simple sentences, 249 (14%) are compound sentences, 706 (39%) are complex sentences and 426 (23%) are compound-complex sentences. Let us summarise these data as follows: English (/ 1735) Sardinian (/ 1827) Difference rate Complex 25% 39% +14% Simple 51% 24% - 27% Complexcompound 11% 23% +12% Compound 13% 14% +1% Therefore, Vargiu’s interpretation significantly modifies what has become a syntactic stylistic feature in Hemingway where we find consistent repetition of the same type of short simple sentences. On the one hand, as mentioned above, Hemingway’s limited vocabulary is expanded, on the other, short simple sentences become long complex ones. Let us represent these figures in a graph that easily shows the differences: The English version The Sardinian version 0 20 40 60 Simple Complex Compound Comp.-Cx 0 20 40 60 Simple Complex Compound Comp.-Cx Elisabetta Soro 36 The number of complex sentences is higher in Sardinian than in English, this also applies to the complex-compound ones. On the contrary, there is only a small gap between the use of compound sentences in the two versions, with a difference ratio of 1%. f) Repetition of subordinating conjunctions A comparison between the passage used to describe the phenomenon of the repetition of the coordinating conjunction when in English and its Sardinian translation might lead us to think that the translator respected the author’s stylistic choice of repetition. Indeed, he uses the word candu to translate 'when' exactly in the same position and for the same number of times as in the ST. However, if we turn to the figures again, we realise that the word when appears 105 times in the ST, compared to the 146 occurrences in the TT. This discrepancy deserves extra investigation. Let us take the following sentence as an example: The sail was patched with flour sacks and, furled, it looked like the flag of permanent defeat. (Hemingway 1952: 35) Mario Vargiu translates it as follows: Sa vela fiat acconciàda cun saccus de farra e candu fiat pinnigàda pariat sa bandera de una gherra perdia po sempri. (Vargiu 2001: 9) V: Sa vela fiat acconciada cun saccus de farra G: The sail was patched with sacks of flour As can be seen from the gloss, the translation of the main sentence is accurate both in form and in meaning. But if we look at the complex-compound sentence, we immediately notice that something differs from the original: V: e candu fiat pinnigàda  pariat sa bandera G: and furled it looked like the flag V: of defeat permanent. G: de una gherra perdia po sempri. Could Mario Vargiu have translated this in a different way? The answer is yes. He could have used a past participle as in the original, for instance as follows: Skopos Theory and the Sardic Version of The Old Man and the Sea 37 and furled it looked like the flag e pinnigàda pariat sa bandera The same construction can be found in this second example: It made the boy sad to see the old man come in each day with his skiff empty. (Hemingway 1952: 35) S'attristàt su piccioccheddu candu biat arribai dònnia dì su becciu cun sa barca sbuida … (Vargiu 2001: 9) where the -to-clause of the English version is substituted with a subordinate clause introduced by candu ('when') in the Sardinian one. In this case, too, he could have translated more faithfully. Apparently in contrast with the translator’s preferences, there is this third example: Five and you nearly were killed when I brought the fish in too green… (Hemingway 1952: 36) V: Cincu e fiast accanta di essi boccìu poita nd’appu arziau su pisci. (Vargiu 2001: 12) G: Five and you nearly were killed because I brought the fish Again, the translator ignores the original text, which uses the coordinating conjunction when and this time decides to use poita, which means 'because'. So, the question is always the same. Even when the translator has the chance to translate the ST more faithfully, thereby respecting the author’s stylistic choices, why does he decide to change the original text, sometimes interfering deeply with the meaning? g) Figurative speech The use of figurative speech is fully respected in the translation. Hemingway and Vargiu use the same figures of speech and it is interesting to see how they work perfectly in both languages. 'The fish’s tail is “sharp as a scythe” (Hemingway, 1952, p. 41) both in English and in Sardinian, where it has a “coa (‘tail’) accuzza (‘sharp’) comenti (‘as’) una (‘a’) fraci (‘scythe’)” (Vargiu 2001: 43). The shark’s teeth are “shaped like a man’s fingers when they are crisped like claws” (Hemingway 1952: 50) in both versions: Elisabetta Soro 38 V: Teniant sa forma de didus di omini furriaus comenti G: (they had) (the) (shape)(of) (fingers) (of) (man) (crisped) (like) V: farruncas (Vargiu 2001: 86) G: (claws) It is important to remember that the translator is mainly interested in showing how Sardinian can perfectly compete with any other language; how it can easily reproduce even the most difficult thoughts and the extent of its descriptive powers. It is not rare that where Mario Vargiu finds simple sentences to be translated, he prefers to transform them into complex ones, as we will see in detail in paragraph f), or that he sometimes chooses to look for a different expression when a perfect synonym exists in the target language to translate an English word. Figures of speech in the ST gave the translator the chance to model the language according to the new meanings. As mentioned in paragraph 2.1., 50 out of 70 figures of speech present in the book “are used to evoke an image of something in nature” (Heaton 1970: 13) and all of these pertain to physical descriptions and realistic details. This certainly works in the translator’s favour since Sardinian has always preferred the use of concrete words rather than abstract ones. As the linguist Eduardo Blasco Ferrer noticed, ever since the Romans brought Latin to Sardinia, Sardinian has documented shifts in meaning from abstract to concrete referents (Ferrer 2017). This is probably why the 'natural figures of speech' in translation fully respect the original ones. The same thing happens for the technique of speech and thought presentation (Simpson 2014) whose strands are perfectly recreated in the translation. Starting from the categorisation of the modes of speech and thought presentation, Simpson studied an extract from The Old Man and the Sea (Hemingway 1952: 43) which well serves the present research. Following Paul Simpson’s analyses and template (Simpson 2014: 141- 3) referring to a portion of text taken from the novel, one can observe that the source text and the target text blend perfectly except for one strand. As can be seen in the graph below (pic. 1), in 31-33 Vargiu uses the Free Direct Thought (FDT) mode (with just the reporting clause and no inverted commas), whereas Hemingway prefers the Direct Thought (DT) mode (both the reporting clause and the inverted commas) for the following passage: “It is a strong full-blooded fish,” he thought. “I was lucky to get him instead of dolphin. Dolphin is too sweet. This is hardly sweet at all and all the strength is still in it.” (Hemingway 1952: 43) Est unu bellu pisci ttu sangunosu, iat penzau. Appu tentu fortuna a piscai custu prus de unu delfinu. Su delfinu est troppu durci. Custu non est durci po nudda e tenit finzas totu sa sustanzia. (Vargiu 2001: 51) Skopos Theory and the Sardic Version of The Old Man and the Sea 39 Fig. 1 1 The analysis of other randomly chosen portions of text corroborates what was said before. Apart from rare exceptions the strands are perfectly blended in the two languages. h) Creative use of punctuation The eighth and last of the stylistic devices Hemingway uses to write his novella is punctuation. In this case too, Hemingway shows great creativity and originality because, as already stated, he does not follow preconceived rules, but tries to imitate the pauses of spoken interaction in writing. And once again the Sardinian version differs from the original. Let us analyse one of the several examples in the text using a vertical gloss to leave the punctuation intact: Sometimes someone would speak in a boat. But most of the boats were silent except for the dip of the oars. (Hemingway 1952: 38) A bortas, in d'una barca, calincunu fueddàt, ma giai in totus is barcas non s'intendiat nudda foras chi su sciumbullu de is remus. (Vargiu 2001: 25) 1 The numbers in the bottom line of figure 1 refer to sentences; the following abbreviations are used: Free Direct Speech: FDS, Direct Speech: DS, Narrator’s Representation of Action: NRA, Free Indirect Thought: FIT, Direct Thought: DT, Free Direct Thought: FDT. Elisabetta Soro 40 Sardinian version English gloss A bortas, Sometimes in d’una barca, in a boat Calincunu someone Fueddàt, would speak ma But giai in totus is barcas… most of the boats… As we can notice, Vargiu ignores Hemingway’s choices and prefers to follow the given punctuation rules, for example using a comma instead of a full stop in front of the conjunction but. Heaton points out that if Hemingway “wants the flow interrupted, he breaks it; if he does not want the flow broken, he continues on, even though traditional punctuation practice calls for a punctuation mark” (Heaton 1970: 21). Hemingway also commonly omits the comma in direct address, while Vargiu prefers to change the construction or totally omit the passage, as is clear in the following short dialogue between the boy and the old man: “Good luck old man.” “Good luck,” the old man said. (Hemingway 1952: 38) In the Sardinian translation the boy’s wish is totally ignored and only the old man’s reply is translated. At this point it is interesting to compare other translations of the same passage (French, Spanish and Italian) and to notice that not only do the translators translate the whole short dialogue, but they all also change the punctuation as per given rules (i.e. a comma before the direct address): French (26) Spanish (13) Italian (35) Sardinian (25) Bonne chance, le vieux. Bonne chance, répondit le vieil homme. Buena suerte, viejo. Buena suerte - dijo el viejo “Buona fortuna, vecchio.” “Buona fortuna” disse il vecchio. Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxx “Bona fortuna - iat nau su Becciu” Skopos Theory and the Sardic Version of The Old Man and the Sea 41 Moreover, while in Hemingway’s version only one exclamation mark highlights the most important scene in the text, namely that of the fight between the old man and the fish, in Sardinian, apart from this scene, we have another exclamation mark that substitutes Hemingway’s question mark: “No? ” the old man said and… (Hemingway 1952: 52) No dda lassas! iat nau su becciu e… (Vargiu 2001: 93) Another feature which I did not analyse before, but which grasped my attention while reading S’Omini Becciu e Su Mari, is that of the foreignness which I shall discuss before concluding. 4.1. Foreignness “Foreignness refers to the treatment of 'otherness' in translation” (Millán- Varela 2004: 44). The final effect we have in the TT depends on the translator’s decision. This problem mainly regards proper names and place names. If we examine our target text we discover that most of the characters’ names have been adapted to the Sardinian context: so we have Santiagu instead of Santiago, Piricu instead of Perico, Martinu instead of Martin and Manolinu instead of Manolin. The need to emphasise Sardinian identity in the text becomes obvious with this persistent use of the typical -u ending of the Sardinian language. “This strategy creates an illusion of familiarity” (Millán-Varela 2004: 44). One exception to this foreignising tendency is when Santiago speaks about sports. In this case, the names of the famous baseball champions, Jo di Maggio, Dick Sisler, John J. McGraw, but also the great teams like the Yankees, Brooklyn and Philadelphia, are in the original language. As Millán- Varela points out in her article, such hybrid structures could be an attempt at a dialogue between the two cultures, looking for points of contact (Millán-Varela 2004: 44). However, in some cases the translator decides to completely ignore some difficult points in the ST and fails to include them in the TT, such as the reference to the “American League”, for instance, which is totally lost in translation (Vargiu 2001: 19), or the following expression: “Tell me about the great John J. McGraw.” He said Jota for J. (Hemingway 1952: 37) V: Naramì tandu de John J. McGrav, su grandu campioni (Vargiu 2001: 20). G: Tell me  about John J. McGrav, the great champion. Elisabetta Soro 42 Here there is a double phenomenon. On the one hand, there is a case of 'half-foreignisation' with the great champion John J. McGraw changed into John J. McGrav, preferring the more common v to the foreign w of his surname. Then there is a case of 'absolute' loss with the omission of the simple sentence, “He said Jota for J”. As Eco states, we have 'absolute losses' when it is not possible to translate a word, since that term does not exist in the target language and its forced translation produces an alienating effect (Eco 2003). The translator has two options in such cases: a) he/ she can introduce a footnote to explain what he/ she considers to be necessary for the comprehension of the next portion of text, or b) he/ she can ignore the reference and explain it later (in a postscript, for example). Theorists are divided on this point because many of them see translator's notes as something to be avoided, the translator’s moment of surrender. Others justify their use according to necessity. In any case, the translator who decides not to include something in the TT must be aware that it could result in the reader missing its relevance to the story. 5. Conclusion Finally, for the sake of convenience, I shall repeat the three objections to Skopos theory listed in Section 1. a. The translator does not have any specific intention in mind, he just translates “what is in the source text”. b. A specific goal would restrict the translation possibilities, and hence limit the range of interpretation of the TT in comparison to that of the ST. c. The translator has no specific addressee in mind. (Vermeer 2000: 232) As mentioned before, this text clearly reflects the translator’s specific intention, causing him to significantly change the ST and resulting in a translatum highly affected by his intentions. Thus, the translator’s skopos is that of giving prominence to the target culture and prestige to the target language, substantially changing language and style in his translation. I guess Mario Vargiu, or the publisher, chose this novella because it has much in common with the socio-linguistic situation of the target language and the peculiarities of the target context. Particularly interesting is the fact that the evident and high presence of the translator’s voice perfectly interacts with all the other voices already present in the ST, creating a new text that is well shaped, though quite different from the original one. As Millán-Varela states (Millán-Varela 2004: 38), this comparative analysis shows how texts translated into a minority language become self-reflecting Skopos Theory and the Sardic Version of The Old Man and the Sea 43 texts. The translations represent a way of raising the language status, “an effort to promote the national language and to (re)construct a lost or forgotten identity” (Millán-Varela 2004: 37). The importance of the target language in this context comes before everything else. The voice we hear when we read S’Omini Becciu e su Mari is certainly that of Mario Vargiu, who is providing his personal interpretation of the work. Translational stylistics have clearly allowed us to find out that what was of great importance for Hemingway is not so important for Vargiu. However, more than a limitation, this seems to be a change in point of view. Lastly, according to Vermeer (2000: 233), every kind of text is intended for specific addressee(s). These are clearly specified in some cases, while on other occasions, the author might unconsciously orient him/ herself towards a certain group, using language according to this group’s (perceived) level of intelligence and education and modifying items so that as many recipients as possible will be able to understand. In most texts the addressee or set of addressees is vague, i.e. not clearly defined, but certainly present. In our translation the addressee is clearly determined. On the one hand, it is the Sardinian people to whom the translator turns to speak about their language. As previously stated, Vargiu wants to show these people the greatness of their language and its vast potential. The instability of the code given by the absence of shared orthographic rules is replaced by a linear, fluent, well-written text. Then, the translatum in this case becomes a trophy to be shown to both common people and politicians, representing the second addressee. In fact, whilst translations are part of a great politically desired project to safeguard the language, scholars and researchers are constantly urging politicians to do something more and to do it quickly to save the language which is at risk. Translations in this case represent an example for politicians of how the minority language can be used in all contexts, even in literature. The path is certainly long, but undoubtedly fascinating and worth continuing. The last question I would like address regards authenticity. We have already said that in Vermeer’s Skopos theory, translation is seen as an action, something carried out by the second author, namely the translator. Robinson’s studies recall this theory when he states that “in translation studies, it is the translator’s job to do new things” (Robinson 2003). These “new things” are the result of what the original author did and what the translator intends to do through translating. Hence, if on the one hand, the skopos deeply affects the final product, and, on the other, the translator has done whatever he/ she can to keep the target text as close as possible to the source text, the final work will always be at least “slightly new” (Robinson 2003). This is particularly true when speaking about style, since “stylistic criteria that guide translators are themselves subjective…” and depend on the translator’s personal choices and “poetic taste” (Munday 2008: 227). As Baker states, style is “a kind of thumb-print” (Baker 2001: 245) and as such, it cannot be copied, imitated or reproduced. Nevertheless, it can be Elisabetta Soro 44 traced through translational stylistics, “which takes into consideration the relationship between the translated text and its source text” (Malmkjær 2004: 16). This comparison will lead the analyst to unveil the translator’s voice and will consequently open the way to extra investigation on the TT. The new text, then, can be considered authentic but new. The most important point, however, is that Sardinian has certainly passed the test. It can be used in literature, it can express deep thoughts and evoke heartfelt emotions. Its vocabulary offers a wide range of choices to express the most diverse ideas, be they abstract or concrete. 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