Reasons for chooice:

I picked these three quotations because I judge they represent well the book and, at the same time they are also appropriate to underline the differences between the two linguisitc systems.

This extract is very relevant because it tells about Changez first experiences in America and how he was also bearer of some prejudices, that are clearly exemplified in his surprised in noticing Erica’s T-shirt, that was herald of the image of Chairman Mao, a symbol of communism.

On the linguistic side, the reader can, once more, single out the characteristic of the English language to talk through images thanking to the comparison with the Italian language. In the first part indeed, the description of Erica’s hairstyle was conveyed just by the use of the expression “pilled up” which gives a clear visual image of her hair and it’s more effective than its translation. The same can be said about the expression “made firm” and its correspondent translation in Italian. In addition to this though, this time the reader can notice also a big difference in terms of punctuation. The Italian version indeed points out the attention more on the sentiment of wonder and amazement Erica’s navel had on the protagonist, while the original version seems not to give it the same importance, considering it just an additional information. Finally the last and maybe more important difference the reader can observe it’s in the way the two versions describe the T-shirt. The translated version says that the T-shirt simply had the image of Mao on it while the original version says that the “T-shirt (was) bearing an image “ suggesting that it may bring also a message, an ideology. So the connotation of the original version is deeper and doesn’t stop just at the denotative level.

The quotation deals with the fundamentals of Changez’s job, and in particular tells about what was his specific work. It is therefore important to understand one of the main aspects of his life.

In this case the reader can’t notice so many many differences because the extract expresses a not so complicated concept, it is indeed a pretty basic meaning. Anyway, the reader can notice that the word “mandate” and its translation can’t find perfect correspondence. The English version indeed conveys an atmosphere of more formality than the Italian one, and this is in terms of output surely more effective because it’s more coherent with the argument of the speech. In addition to this, the reader can also notice that the last expression used to explain Changez’s role, it’s translated in a different way in relationship to the original version. “How much fat could we cut” may be an American expression to exemplify the concept that they needed to cut all the excess and so it may not be possible to find a perfect correspondent. However, this example underlines the tendency of the English language to translate concepts into images, that, in this occasion are pretty clear

This sentence is very important in the economy of the novel because it tells about the first time Changez found that there was something “wrong” in Erica. Moreover it contains one of the key words that had been previously highlighted by the use of a different font.

On the linguistic side, the first thing that the reader can single out is that the word “broken” is translated in Italian with “incrinato”, that is not exactly the same. The Italian word is indeed more specific and represents a better linguistic choice than “rotto”, which is more generic and would have made the sentence less elegant. So in this case the translation has the merit to have found the perfect word to adapt to the metaphor. On the other hand, the word “crack” is translated with “fenditura” which has a different meaning and is not appropriate to return the same image, without counting that it can’t have the same expressive power due to the fact that the English word is an onomatopoeia and the Italian one is not. In addition, the word “tiny” is more generic than its correspondent in the Italian translation and give more freedom to the reader to imagine. In this case so, the distance between the two versions is mainly caused by the attitude of the English language to translate the content into images, throughout the use of generic terms that give the reader the possibility to use his imagination.