Per brimosi canali dei la mia linfa (o vita!). Translating the linguistic invention of Amelia Rosselli

Abstract

Amelia Rosselli (1930-1996) was one of the most significant voices in Italian poetry in the twentieth century. Plurilingualism and musical studies have made her writing particularly innovative, inventive and sonorous. This article presents the translation of the poem “Cos’ha il mio cuore che batte sì soavemente” into Portuguese, accompanied by an analysis examining the most relevant aspects of the translation process. This poem, part of Variazioni Belliche (1964), Rosselli’s debut collection, stands out as a unique piece within her body of work. It condenses an extraordinary range of linguistic procedures — fused words, verbal associations, deletions, phonological and morphological shifts — that must be recreated in translation, as they are crucial to the poem’s construction. This paper aims to expand the body of studies dedicated to the poetry of Amelia Rosselli and to reflect on the practice of poetic translation by presenting a text that is difficult to interpret and capable of conveying the inventive brilliance and linguistic richness that characterize the writing of one of the most important authors in Italian literature.