Abstract

The linguistic specificities of Marguerite Yourcenar’s narrative speech have influenced the translation approach, which is affected not only by the courtly style of Yourcenar’s work but, above all, by the notion of “choiceµ that is present in the work of writing as well as in first translation practice. Let us consider some aspects of the writing that, in our opinion, are peculiar and are highlighted through the first Italian translation of Mémoires d’Hadrien by Lidia Storoni Mazzolani in order to highlight how the multi- expressive structure of the Belgian author’s multifaceted universe. In particular, we will have explored some of Storoni’s translation choices in which there is the mise en place of the Italian language richness, its potentialities and the expressive generosity of its solemn lexicon. While working on the text of Hadrian, Lidia Storoni Mazzolani first made a translation from French that was requested directly by Yourcenar for her skills as a Latinist. The quest for writing perfection drives Yourcenar to express her linguistic and translation reflections. In fact, the Carnets de notes contain the elaboration of many stylistic, lexical, expressive choices, she devotes some highlights of the Italian translation of her work to.