Michaela Kotziers
on translating Eugenio Montale
Mine is a translation of the first poem in Montale's series, "Da Mottetti." The form of the poem is clearly different in my translation, and my changes to the first stanza were an effort to linger on the hesitations that inevitably follow loss. In the second stanza I focused more heavily on "you" in an attempt to convey absence without solitude, which I believe is what Montale was after in "Da Mottetti." In this way I consider my poem more of a molding of the original than a literal translation.
about the author
Eugenio Montale (1896-1981) is an early twentieth-century Italian poet associated with the "Hermetic" poetry movement--one marked by and at times criticized for a volume of emotion and inexplicable concepts.
about the translator
Michaela Kotziers is a sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania, majoring in English with a concentration in Creative Writing and a minor in German. She hopes to pursue writing after she graduates, and this is her first foray into translation.
