Da Varsavia a Varsavia. Alcune osservazioni sulle due "traduzioni immaginarie" dal polacco (1944) di Franco Fortini

From Warsaw to Warsaw. Some remarks about two Franco Fortini's "Imaginary Translations," from Polish (1944). The article analyses Franco Fortini's two poems written in 1944 during his exile in Switzerland: Warsaw 1939 and Warsaw 1944 (the latter's for¬mer title was Warsaw 1943). Fortini defined them Imag-inary Translations, because he conceived them as translated from an inexistent original, written in occu-pied Poland. Following Macpherson and Leopardi's tradition of "Literary Hoaxes", the Italian poet sought new forms and "new words" for Poetry on the Resistance and on WW II. The analysis considers Fortini's later comments on Imaginary translations: in his opinion they are akin to "Imitation or Parody" and are created "taking delight in prank and experiment". The article pays particular attention to the two poems' strong intertextuality and to their allusions to Poetry translation's habit in Interwar Italy.