Dario Voltolini (1959-) is a contemporary Italian writer and the author of several novels, collections of short stories and essays, travelogues, radio plays, and numerous articles in the Italian press and online. His most recent work, Pacific Palisades (2017) was published in Italy by Einaudi and subsequently adapted for the stage by Alessandro Baricco. Voltolini’s prose is notable for the deceptive simplicity of its lexicon, the understated, almost minimalist narration, and its quotidian subject matter: scenes of domestic life, children at play, men and women at work. And yet, from underneath this prosaic veneer emerges an astonishing sense of the poetic and the extraordinary. Voltolini blends the everyday with the literary and the imaginative, posing a challenge to the translator: how to retain the simplicity of diction and the understated narrative tone while also conveying the lyricism and emotive force of his texts. As we see in “An Ordinary Evening,” a broken TV set unleashes forgotten memories, inspiring an overworked mother to tell a magical tale to her bored daughter and thus connect with her emotionally. Translating this particular story posed a challenge—the diction is so simple, the imagery drawn from everyday life, the themes seemingly so banal that I’ve had to resist the impulse to make his language more elevated, less repetitive, more aesthetically pleasing. But I also understand the underlying logic of this simplicity, the evidentiary power of repetition and monotony: his characters are not intellectuals, they are not inspired by lofty ideals or aspirations; instead they grapple with the most ordinary, recurring exigencies of existence. Thus I have tried to preserve much of his casual tone and informal diction, only occasionally gifting the overworked mother with a word or image drawn from the language of the medieval romance she is telling her daughter and allowing her a moment of eloquence she lacks otherwise.

中文翻译：

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达里奥·沃尔托利尼的《平凡的夜晚》，斯蒂利亚娜·米尔科娃翻译

达里奥·沃尔托里尼 (Dario Voltolini，1959-) 是当代意大利作家，着有多部小说、短篇小说集和散文集、游记、广播剧，以及在意大利媒体和网络上发表的大量文章。他的最新作品 Pacific Palisades (2017) 由 Einaudi 在意大利出版，随后由 Alessandro Baricco 改编为舞台。沃尔托里尼的散文以其看似简单的词汇、低调、近乎极简主义的叙述以及日常主题而著称：家庭生活场景、玩耍中的孩子、工作中的男人和女人。然而，从这幅平淡无奇的饰面之下，浮现出一种诗意和非凡的惊人感觉。Voltolini 将日常生活与文学和想象力融为一体，对译者提出了挑战：如何在保留措辞的简洁和低调的叙事基调的同时，又传达出他文本的抒情和情感力量。正如我们在“一个平凡的夜晚”中看到的那样，一台破旧的电视机释放出被遗忘的记忆，激励一个过度劳累的母亲给她无聊的女儿讲一个神奇的故事，从而与她建立情感上的联系。翻译这个特定的故事是一个挑战——措辞如此简单，日常生活中的意象，主题似乎如此平庸，以至于我不得不抵制让他的语言更高级、更少重复、更美观的冲动。但我也理解这种简单背后的逻辑，重复和单调的证据力量：他的人物不是知识分子，他们没有被崇高的理想或抱负所鼓舞；相反，他们与最平凡的人作斗争，反复出现的生存需要。因此，我试图保留他大部分随意的语气和非正式的措辞，只是偶尔给过度劳累的母亲一个词或图像取自她告诉女儿的中世纪浪漫的语言，并让她有一些她在其他情况下缺乏的口才。