[Ads-l] Adage: Traduttori traditori (Translators, traitors)

[Ben Zimmer]

Garson beat me to it, but I'll just note that the Italian proverb
"Traduttori, traditori" appeared in English sources as early as 1850:

https://books.google.com/books?id=ATsZAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA300

It's also perhaps notable that the canonical version of the proverb simply
presents the two plural nouns in an implicit equation, rather than a less
elliptical formulation like "I traduttori sono traditori."


On Sun, Apr 2, 2017 at 4:14 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com
> wrote:

> Laurence Horn wrote:
> > OK, QI and other sleuths—isn’t this, as I assumed, originally from the
> > Italian:  traduttore, traditore?  Or is the Spanish version (which I had
> > never previously encountered) earlier?  At least we know it didn’t start
> > out in English (or French).  But, given the plural forms this isn’t
> actually
> > mainstream Spanish anyway, right?
>
> "The Concise Columbia Dictionary of Quotations" presents an Italian
> version of the saying without an attribution or date.
>
> [ref] 1989, The Concise Columbia Dictionary of Quotations by Robert
> Andrews, Topic: Translation, Quote Page 267, Columbia University
> Press, New York. (Verified with scans)[/ref]
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> Translation
>
> Traduttori, traditori.
> Translators, traitors.
> Italian proverb
> [End excerpt]
>
> I only searched in Google Books, and I do not know how many Italian
> books are indexed.
>
> The adage appears in the 1754 commentary written by "M. Coste" about
> one of Montaigne's essays. The commentary is in French, but the adage
> "Traduttori traditori" is given in Italian.
>
> Year: 1754 (M.DCC.LIV)
> Title: Essais de Montaigne: Avec les Notes de M. Coste
> Volume: 4
> Quote Page 113
> Publisher: Chez Jean Nourse & Vaillant, a Londres
>
> https://books.google.com/books?id=JaYDAAAAQAAJ&q=traduttori#v=snippet&
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> C'est à quoi n'ont jamais pensé certains beaux-esprits, qui croient
> faire merveille d'anéantir nos vieux Auteurs en les traduisant en beau
> François moderne, (le plus moderne est toûjours le plus beau)
> Traduttori traditori, qu'on pourroit comparer à des Peintres
> médiocres, qui après avoir copié les tableaux de Raphaël, de Paul
> Veronese, du Titien, &c. jetteroient au feu ces divins originaux.
> [End excerpt]
>
> Garson
>
>
> On Sun, Apr 2, 2017 at 2:34 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
> wrote:
> > OK, QI and other sleuths—isn’t this, as I assumed, originally from the
> Italian:  traduttore, traditore?  Or is the Spanish version (which I had
> never previously encountered) earlier?  At least we know it didn’t start
> out in English (or French).  But, given the plural forms this isn’t
> actually mainstream Spanish anyway, right?
> >
> > LH
> >
> >> On Apr 2, 2017, at 1:23 PM, Dave Hause <dwhause at CABLEMO.NET> wrote:
> >>
> >> Of course, labels aren't the only place.  Many years ago, my
> dual-citizenship Venezuelan-Expat-American roommate taught me "Tradutore
> son traidore." Translators are traitors.
>
>

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