Getting Noticed: James Joyce's Italian Translations

Joyce Studies Annual, Volume 12, Summer 2001© 2001 by the University of Texas Press, P.O. Box 7819, Austin, Texas 78713-7819 I would like to thank Laura Pelaschiar for her valuable comments on an earlier draft of this essay, and the editors thank Professor Maria X. Wells for her comments and invaluable translation assistance. Getting Noticed: James Joyce’s Italian Translations ERIC BULSON Very many notices—but very small sales I fear will be your opinion. —Joyce to Weaver, 26 October, 1918 part i: noticed, clipped, sent Joyce had a penchant for circulating newspapers, book notices, and journal clippings: if you received one in the mail, it was intended as a subtle solicitation for a review, a translation, or, on occasion, modest recognition of the sender’s success. Joyce’s transition from struggling author to monumental literary figure during his lifetime happened, in part, because of his capacity to match an expansive print culture with eager friends and acquaintances willing to promote him. In one of his more generous moods, Joyce sent “33 clippings” to Frank Budgen in an effort to help him with an article he was writing on Finnegans Wake; instructions were also included to return them by “registered letter post” (L I 405). Strains of this career-oriented zeal for the careful supervision of his public persona became noticeable during the pre-published Trieste years, and he was never bashful about tapping into his Triestine connections when the occasion arose. In one of his more amusing bids for recognition in 1909, Joyce brusquely ordered his brother to insert a paragraph in Il Piccolo della Sera while he was busying himself with the Volta theater opening in Dublin: “Go eric bulson 11 1 I checked both Il Piccolo and Il Piccolo della Sera (both of the newspapers with which Prezioso would have been affiliated) for any references. All unidentified translations are my own. 2 Il Piccolo, December 17, 1936. at once to Prezioso, show them [clippings from Dublin newspapers] and get a par: I nostri Triestini in Irlanda or like that. A little allusion to me and a little to the enterprise of the proprietors Edison and Americano (without giving their names) in opening here” (L II 277). Complete with a byline, a title, a story, and a modest “little allusion ,” this sketch is practically complete with the necessary journalistic props so that his business dealings can be properly reported back in Trieste; the “par,” for whatever reason, never appeared.1 After leaving Trieste, Joyce’s preoccupation with his local notoriety did not cease. As late as 1936, orders were sent to Joyce’s fraternal correspondent, Stanislaus, that the 1936 British edition of Ulysses get a “par” as well as Lucia’s illustrations for the ABC book. Stanislaus furiously replied: “At one time I used to be able to have a ‘par’ inserted in one or other of the papers when something new cropped up regarding ‘Ulysses’ or its modest young author” (L III 392). Despite Stanislaus’ frustration, an article nonetheless appeared on December 17th entitled “La curiosa opera di un’ Irlandese Triestina” [“The Curious Work of an Irish Triestine”] signed by a lower case “b” indicating that it was Silvio Benco’s work.2 In this specific instance, the advertisement for Lucia’s book was surely guided by paternalistic motives. Benco played up Lucia’s status as “una nostra concittadina” [“our fellow citizen”] and “nostra concittadina d’Irlanda” [“our fellow citizen from Ireland”], and closed with the following nostalgic line: “E’ una sottile artista questa nostra lontana concittadina: e conveniva pure farne conoscere l’esistenza” [“She is a clever artist this far away fellow citizen of ours: and it was worthwhile being made known of her existence”]. Joyce’s curious desire for such sporadic returns by way of brief paragraphs betrays signs that his eye may have been on Ireland but his hand was forever in Trieste prodding and plotting. Starting as an occasional journalist himself in Trieste, Joyce knew how to maneuver a “par” when it was needed. The Il Piccolo della Sera articles attest to his talents for the rhetorical conditioning of an event that might at first be of minimal...