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received: 2021-11-29                 DOI 10.19233/ASHS.2022.02
BORIS PAHOR’S PROSE IN ITALIAN AND FRENCH: THE CASE OF 
THE VILLA BY THE LAKE
Adriana MEZEG
University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Arts, Department of Translation, Aškerčeva 2, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
e-mail: adriana.mezeg@ff.uni-lj.si
Anna Maria GREGO
Padna 14, 6333 Sečovlje, Slovenia
e-mail: annamaria.grego@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
This article discusses Boris Pahor’s novel Vila ob jezeru in Italian and indirect French translation. After an intro-
duction to Pahor’s language and style and an overview of his works translated into Italian and French, we highlight 
the main differences between the two Slovenian editions of Vila ob jezeru (1955 and 1993) and the three Italian 
versions (2002, 2004 and 2012). The analysis focuses on the translation of proper nouns, footnotes and stylistically 
marked vocabulary, and reveals some significant deviations from the source text in both target languages, although 
not always in the same places, showing that the Italian manuscript submitted to the French translator must have been 
significantly modified later by the Italian publisher.
Keywords: Boris Pahor, The Villa by the Lake, translation, proper nouns, footnotes, dialect, colloquial expressions, 
Italian, French
LA PROSA DI BORIS PAHOR IN ITALIANO E FRANCESE: IL CASO DEL ROMANZO 
LA VILLA SUL LAGO
SINTESI
Questo articolo discute il romanzo di Boris Pahor La villa sul lago in italiano e la sua traduzione indiretta in 
francese. Dopo un’introduzione sulla lingua e sullo stile dello scrittore, seguita da una panoramica delle sue opere 
tradotte in italiano e francese, mettiamo in evidenza le principali differenze tra le due edizioni slovene del romanzo 
Vila ob jezeru (1955 e 1993) e le tre versioni in lingua italiana (2002, 2004 e 2012). L’analisi si concentra sulla 
traduzione dei nomi propri, delle note a piè di pagina e del vocabolario stilisticamente segnato e rivela alcune diver-
genze significative dal testo di partenza in entrambe le lingue di arrivo (anche se non sempre nelle stesse posizioni), 
mostrando che il manoscritto italiano consegnato al traduttore francese era stato modificato successivamente in 
maniera significativa da parte dell’editore italiano.
Parole chiave: Boris Pahor, La villa sul lago, traduzione, nomi propri, note a piè di pagina, dialetto, espressioni 
colloquiali, italiano, francese
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INTRODUCTION
Boris Pahor was born in Trieste (Italy) in 1913 to 
Slovenian parents and is one of the best known and 
most translated Slovenian authors.1 In 108 years he 
has experienced many violent and traumatic events, 
especially during the First World War, such as the 
arson of the Narodni dom (Slovenian Cultural Centre) 
in Trieste in 1920 and the dictatorship of the Duce, 
whose policy of forced Italianization (e.g. Johnston, 
2019, 136) and ban on the public use of the Slovenian 
language2 marked Pahor’s youth (Rojc, 2006, 420), as 
well as during the Second World War, the last year of 
which Pahor had to spend in the concentration camps 
of Dachau, Natzweiler-Struthof, Dora-Mittelbau, 
Harzungen and finally Bergen-Belsen (Rojc, 2013, 
143). After a long convalescent stay in France to cure 
the tuberculosis he had contracted in the camps, he 
returned to his hometown, graduated from the Uni-
versity of Padua in 1947, and a year later published 
his first work, the collection Moj tržaški naslov (My 
Trieste Address), which was followed by dozens more.
In his works, Pahor exposed the atrocities of the 
great totalitarian systems and the German camps, 
which is why his name is often mentioned in con-
nection with those of the writers Primo Levi and Imre 
Kertész. Consequently, his novels belong to ‘concen-
tration-camp literature’ (Paternu, 2014). In addition 
to the themes of fascism, national oppression (e.g. 
the fascist violence against the Slovenian population 
living in Italy), the experience of exile and the Nazi 
concentration camps, his writing is characterized 
by the themes of Slovenian national consciousness, 
Trieste and its hinterland, the Adriatic Sea and the 
Karst,3 but also of love, which is often presented as a 
regenerating force that makes it possible to ‘forget’ the 
horrors of war.
Although Pahor began writing and publishing his 
first literary texts in the 1930s,4 it was not until the 
1990s that he started to gain recognition abroad. 
Before that, no one was interested in publishing him 
(Rojc, 2013, 264).5 Pahor wanted to be recognized by 
Italy and his works to be published in Italian, but his 
Paris-based friend, the philosopher, writer, and pho-
tographer Evgen Bavčar, predicted that Italy would not 
1 The article was written in the framework of the research program P6-0265, financed by the Slovenian Research Agency (ARRS).
2 On Mussolini’s non-acknowledgement of the Slovenian ethnicity, culture, and way of life, cf. Johnston (2019, 130–134).
3 On the representation of Trieste and its surroundings in literature, the Slovenian Triestine community, and the national identity of Slove-
nians living in Trieste, see also Toroš (2021b).
4 His very first texts were published under the pseudonym Jožko Ambrožič (his mother’s surname) in the journal Mladika, while those 
published in Edvard Kocbek’s journal Dejanje in the period 1939–1940 already bore his real name (Rojc, 2006, 421; Rojc, 2013, 85).
5 In fact, according to COBISS, only one of his works was translated before the 1990s, i.e. Vila ob jezeru into Serbian in 1958 (Vila na 
jezeru, translated by Roksanda Njeguš, Belgrade, Kosmos). 
6 Because of his political beliefs, his support for Edvard Kocbek, who condemned the mass killings of Slovenian Home Guard prisoners of 
war by the Yugoslav communist regime after World War II in an interview published in Zaliv magazine in 1975 (Tuma, 2014, 16), and 
his opposition to various regimes, ideologies and ideas, Pahor was denied entry to Yugoslavia in 1979 and was not really appreciated in 
Slovenia until its independence (1991) and democratization.
be willing to publish him until he was recognized in 
France and Germany (Zajc & Burlin, 2010). Through 
friends abroad and the French magazine Esprit, Pahor 
made efforts to ensure that 20th-century Slovenian 
authors living in Trieste would become known in 
Europe, but it was not until the late 1980s that things 
finally started to look up. Thanks to Evgen Bavčar, 
who promised Pahor to help Slovenian literature from 
Trieste break into the French market (Rojc, 2013, 
263–264), Pahor entered the French literary scene 
in 1990 with the translation of his best-known work 
Nekropola (Rojc, 2013, 264). As French editor Pierre-
Guillaume de Roux explains in a documentary on 
Pahor (Zajc & Burlin, 2010), when he got his hands 
on the Italian translation of Nekropola, which had 
lain in Pahor’s drawer for twenty years (Rojc, 2013, 
264), he knew that France had to get to know Boris 
Pahor immediately. The publication of Nekropola in 
France was the beginning of a great publishing story 
(Zajc & Burlin, 2010), which gave Pahor access to 
other markets and slowly brought him international 
recognition. France was thus the first country to rec-
ognize Pahor’s literary value (Rojc, 2013, 266), while 
Italy began to show interest in Pahor’s prose only in 
the 2000s, after the publication of Necropoli (1997). 
However, his real breakthrough on the Italian cultural 
scene began in 2004 with the publication of La villa 
sul lago (The Villa by the Lake) as a supplement to the 
Trieste newspaper Il Piccolo, which sold more than 
4,000 copies within a few days. He gained general 
recognition from 2008 onwards following his confi-
dent appearance on the late-night show Che tempo 
che fa, which was watched by around four million 
viewers. As a result, a revised translation of Necropoli 
(Fazi, 2008), printed in 140,000 copies, became the 
book of the year, Pahor received various awards, 
meetings were organized throughout Italy and articles 
about Pahor appeared in the most important Italian 
newspapers, all of which represented a success for 
the whole Slovenian community of Trieste and for 
Slovenian culture (Rojc, 2013, 270–272). Even in Slo-
venia, Pahor was not properly appreciated6 until he 
was already over 90 years old (Rojc, 2013, 266) and 
after he had already become well-known in Europe 
(Rojc, 2013, 269). 
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Nekropola (translated into English as Pilgrim 
Among the Shadows (1995) and Necropolis (2010)), 
first published in Slovenian in 1967, has to date been 
translated into more than fifteen languages7 and re-
printed several times (e.g. five times in the case of 
the French translation Pèlerin parmi les ombres). In 
contrast, the novel Vila ob jezeru (The Villa by the 
Lake), which first appeared in Slovenian in 1955, has 
not received as much attention as Nekropola. From a 
translation point of view, however, as this article will 
show, it certainly deserves attention, since it is the only 
work by Pahor to have been translated from Italian 
into French, while all his other works were translated 
directly from Slovenian into both French and Italian, 
and since the 1955 version differs considerably from 
the one published in 1993. The novel Vila ob jezeru 
and its Italian and indirect French translations are 
therefore the focus of this article. 
After an introduction to the language and style of 
Boris Pahor, we will give an overview of those works 
of his which have so far been translated into Italian 
and French. We will then highlight the main differ-
ences between the two Slovenian editions and the 
three Italian editions (published in 2002, 2004 and 
2012). Special attention will be paid to the translation 
of proper nouns, footnotes and stylistically marked vo-
cabulary. In accordance with the principles and prac-
tice of translation (e.g. Newmark, 1988), we expected 
that proper nouns would remain unchanged in Italian 
and French, with the exception of toponyms or place 
names, which would be adapted to the conventions 
of the target language, while footnotes would be faith-
fully translated into both languages. In the category of 
stylistically marked vocabulary, we are interested in 
the translation of dialectal and colloquial expressions, 
which can be a real challenge. Due to its indirectness, 
i.e. the fact that it is a translation of a translation, 
we hypothesized that the French translation would 
be less faithful to the Slovenian source text and that 
numerous dialectal and colloquial expressions would 
be lost due to the neutralization of the vocabulary 
(Newmark, 1988, 195). We therefore hypothesized 
that the French translation would be more domesti-
cating or target-oriented, which is usually the case 
when translating from peripheral to central languages 
(Ožbot, 2012, 37). The analysis will mainly refer to 
examples from the 1993 Slovenian edition, the 2002 
Italian translation and the 1998 French translation. For 
the purposes of this study, interviews were conducted 
with Boris Pahor and the two translators (i.e. Marija 
Kacin and Benito Merlino)8 to clarify some issues that 
arose during the analysis.
7 Namely into Albanian, Catalan, Croatian, Dutch, English, Esperanto, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Macedonian, Portuguese, Roma-
nian, Russian, Serbian, Spanish and Swedish.
8 Due to the situation surrounding the Covid-19 crisis, the interviews with Pahor and Kacin were conducted by telephone, and that with 
Merlino via LinkedIn. They took place in the spring and summer of 2021.
9 This is also true for other authors of the Slovenian minority living in Italy (e.g. Toroš, 2021a, 357).
PAHOR’S LANGUAGE AND STYLE
Boris Pahor started elementary school in his moth-
er tongue, Slovenian, but after the 1923 reform of 
the Italian educational system, the so-called Gentile 
reform, he had to continue his education in Italian, as 
the Slovenian language was banned from all spheres 
of life due to the rise of fascism and the accompany-
ing forced Italianization (Bernard, 2002, 548), which 
was truly shocking and traumatic for the young Pahor 
(Rojc, 2006, 423). From then on, he received no for-
mal education in Slovenian and had to learn Slovenian 
grammar and literature on his own (Rojc, 2013, 57). 
As a student, Pahor began writing in Italian, but soon 
realized his true, Slovenian identity (Rojc, 2013, 81). 
He began to secretly study Slovenian literature and 
the standard Slovenian language, writing down all the 
words he did not understand in the notebooks he still 
keeps (Rojc, 2013, 82). With no formal education in 
Slovenian, he slowly improved his native language 
and developed his Slovenian vocabulary “only on 
the basis of Prešeren and the books he got, and his 
notes” (Rojc, 2013, 82). This self-taught writer felt a 
great desire and need to express himself in Slovenian 
or ‘Trieste Slovenian’, because for the Slovenians liv-
ing in Trieste, the Slovenian language represents an 
“identification with the community” (Bernard, 2002, 
554). Given the historical context, his decision to 
write his novels in Slovenian was undoubtedly daring, 
but for Pahor, “fidelity to one’s mother tongue is the 
most important ethical requirement of man” (Bernard, 
2002, 550), and Trieste Slovenian is his trademark and 
the main motivation for his literary work (Bernard, 
2002, 554). Pahor is thus a man aware of his identity 
and a cultural mediator who represents the Slovenian 
perspective abroad through his work. This is also true 
for other Slovenian authors belonging to the Slovenian 
minority abroad, such as Cvetka Lipuš in Austria (cf.
Žigon et al., 2020). 
The Slovenian language is also a key element of 
Pahor’s work, because apart from his dissertation and 
some articles, his work is written exclusively in this 
language. According to Rojc (2013, 424), Pahor’s 
language, especially in terms of lexis, is truly specific, 
which has angered Slovenian language purists on many 
occasions, mainly because the author never submitted 
to the standardized rules proposed by SAZU, the Slo-
venian Academy of Sciences and Arts. The influence 
of Italian language and culture can be felt in his work 
(Rojc, 2013, 257).9 It is full of Italianisms, dialectal and 
colloquial expressions, culturally specific words and 
neologisms. Interestingly, these words and expressions 
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have gradually found their place in the dictionary of 
standard Slovenian SSKJ: for example, borjač ‘Karst 
courtyard’, baladur ‘outer passage’, žolt ‘yellow’ and rus 
‘cockroach’ (Rojc, 2006, 423–424).
At the beginning of his writing career, Slovenian 
literary critics were reticent about his novels.10 Pahor 
was aware that he lacked the suppleness to express 
himself in Slovenian due to his lack of education and 
writing experience, and he was aware of the need 
to revise his language (Rojc, 2013, 257). After the 
war, he learned not only how to live, but also how to 
write (Rojc, 2013, 257). Among other things, Pahor 
admits that it took him a long time to learn Slovenian 
word order, but also that he did not care much about 
it. What really interested him was finding the right 
expression for what he wanted to say, without paying 
attention to aesthetics or trying to make his writing 
fancier or more literary (Rojc, 2013, 257–258). For 
Pahor, “the greatest concern was to highlight the 
contribution of the littoral element to Slovenian 
cultural history, especially to Slovenian literature” 
(Rojc, 2013, 258). 
The language and style of Pahor have been the 
subject of several studies. Among others, Mitja Skubic 
(1984) published a detailed study of the influence of 
Italian on the standard Slovenian spoken in Trieste. 
The Italian influence seems to be most noticeable 
in vocabulary and syntax. Thus, Pahor’s prose is full 
of words such as karabinjeri, repatriiranec, lojalni, 
manganel, škvadra, all of which derive from Italian. 
According to Skubic (1984, 318), it seems that the au-
thor uses these Italian expressions, Italian-Slovenian 
hybrids and expressions from the Trieste dialect (some-
times even from Venetian) to reflect the atmosphere of 
this cosmopolitan city and its hinterland. Moreover, 
these expressions of Pahor’s have to do with daily life, 
kinship, the sea, agriculture, etc.
In reading Pahor, one can note an undeniable 
duality: Some Romanisms have a literary, intellectual 
origin, while others derive from the spoken language 
of Trieste. This close symbiosis between Slovenian 
and Italian life in the Trieste region is marked linguis-
tically by the presence of borrowings and calques 
(direct translations), often syntactic in nature, which 
also prove to be trademarks of Pahor’s style (Skubic, 
1984, 318). Pahor’s language is undoubtedly that of a 
“cultivated writer, but for a large part of the calques it 
can be said to be vernacular, for through his writing 
breathes the authentic Triestine and the language of 
the Karst” (Skubic, 1984, 320).
According to Jevnikar & Cenda (2013, 64), Pahor’s 
works are fresh, varied, and refined, while literary 
historian Matjaž Kmecl describes Pahor’s style as 
“characterized by a varied sentence structure, surpris-
ing associative connections, […] rich description that 
10 Indeed, they were reticent until Pahor was recognized in France and elsewhere after the success of Nekropola.
is especially visible in lyrical digressions, frequent 
eruptive disorder, and numerous regionalisms and 
Italianisms in the language, especially in the syntax” 
(Jevnikar & Cenda, 2013, 64).
In addition to style, a key element contributing to 
his popularity is his precise yet sensitive description 
of events, emotions, and stories. Pahor is a poet of 
life and its beauties, a spokesman for democracy and 
humanity, and an activist against social and national 
differences (Jevnikar & Cenda, 2013, 65). His style is 
clear and distinct so that his messages of peace, love 
and tolerance towards others can be easily recognized 
by the reader (Rojc, 2006, 422).
TRANSLATIONS OF PAHOR’S WORKS INTO 
FRENCH AND ITALIAN 
The first novel by Pahor to be translated into French 
(1990) and Italian (1997) was Nekropola, which is 
also the most reprinted to date. It was followed by 
ten more novels (not counting reprints and new edi-
tions), translated into each of the two languages and 
published mainly in France and Italy. According to the 
data available in the Slovenian online bibliographic 
system COBISS, the following translations (in chrono-
logical order, including reprints and new editions) 
had been published by the end of October 2021:
Translations into French:
Pèlerin parmi les ombres/Nekropola 
(translated by Andrée Lück-Gaye – Paris, La Table 
ronde, 1990, cop. 1996, 2005, 2007, 2012; Lju-
bljana, Slovenian Book Agency, 2011) 
Printemps difficile/Spopad s pomladjo
(translated by Andrée Lück-Gaye – Paris, Phébus, 
1995; Paris, Libretto, 2013)
La villa sur le lac/Vila ob jezeru
(translated from Italian by Benito Merlino – Paris, 
Bartillat, 1998)
Arrêt sur le Ponte Vecchio (collection of short 
stories)
(translated by Andrée Lück-Gaye and Claude 
Vincenot – Paris, Éditions des Syrtes, 1999; Paris, 
10/18, 2006)
La Porte dorée/Zibelka sveta
(translated by Andrée Lück-Gaye – Monaco, Édi-
tions du Rocher, 2001)
Jours obscurs/Zatemnitev
(translated by Antonia Bernard – Paris, Phébus, 2001)
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Dans le labyrinthe/V labirintu
(translated by Antonia Bernard – Paris, Phébus, 
2003)
Le jardin des plantes/Zgodba o reki, kripti in dvor-
ljivem golobu
(translated by Antonia Bernard – Monaco, Éditions 
du Rocher, 2007)
L’appel du navire/Parnik trobi nji
(translated by Antonia Bernard – Paris, Phébus, 
2008)
Quand Ulysse revient à Trieste/Mesto v zalivu
(translated by Jure Kozamernik – Paris, Pierre-
Guillaume de Roux, 2013)
Place Oberdan à Trieste/Trg Oberdan 
(translated by Andrée Lück-Gaye – Paris, Pierre-
Guillaume de Roux, 2017, cop. 2018)
Translations into Italian:
Necropoli/Nekropola
(translated by Ezio Martin – San Canzian d’Isonzo, 
Edizioni del Consorzio culturale del Monfalconese, 
1997; translated by Ezio Martin and revised by 
Valerio Aiolli – Ronchi dei Legionari, Edizioni 
del Consorzio culturale del Monfalconese, 2005; 
Rome, Fazi, 2008, cop. 2008, 2009)
Il rogo nel porto/Grmada v pristanu
(translated by Mirella Urdih Merkù, Diomira Fab-
jan Bajc and Mara Debeljuh – Rovereto, Nicolodi, 
2001, cop. 2004)
La villa sul lago/Vila ob jezeru
(translated by Marija Kacin – Rovereto, Nicolodi, 
2002, cop. 2004; Trieste, Editoriale FVG, 2004; 
Rovereto, Zandonai, 2012)
Il petalo giallo/Zibelka sveta
(translated by Diomira Fabjan Bajc – Rovereto, 
Nicolodi, 2004; Rovereto, Zandonai, 2007, cop. 
2008)
Il rogo nel porto/Kres v pristanu
(translated by Mirella Urdih Merkù, Diomira 
Fabjan Bajc and Mara Debeljuh – Rovereto, Zan-
donai, 2008, cop. 2009; Milan, La nave di Teseo, 
2020)
11 Jevnikar & Cenda (2013, 64) state that the novel was first published in 1950 under the title Laneni kosmiči v laseh (literally: Flax 
Flakes in the Hair) in the Trieste literary magazine Razgledi, but according to our research, it was not published in its entirety. 
This short novel consisted of only eight chapters, which Pahor incorporated almost entirely into the novel Vila ob jezeru with 
additional explanations, descriptions, etc. According to Kmecl (in Mlekuž, 2013, 136), “some Slovenian authors use their short 
prose as a basis for longer literary works”, which also happened in the case of Vila ob jezeru.
Una primavera difficile/Spopad s pomladjo
(translated by Mirella Urdih Merkù – Rovereto, 
Zandonai, 2009; Milan, La nave di Teseo, 2016)
Qui è proibito parlare/Parnik trobi nji
(translated by Martina Clerici – Rome, Fazi, 2009)
Piazza Oberdan/Trg Oberdan
(translated by Michele Obit – Portogruaro, Nuo-
vadimensione, 2010)
Dentro il labirinto/V labirintu
(translated by Martina Clerici – Rome, Fazi, 2011)
La città nel golfo/Mesto v zalivu
(translated by Marija Kacin – Milan, Romanzo 
Bompiani, 2014, cop. 2015)
Nomadi senz’oasi/Nomadi brez oaze (bilingual 
edition)
(translated by Martina Clerici – Trieste, Associazi-
one temporanea di scopo Jezik – Lingua/Trst, Ciljno 
začasno združenje Jezik – Lingua, 2014)
VILA OB JEZERU IN SLOVENIAN
The novel Vila ob jezeru, first published under this 
title11 in Slovenian by the publishing house Obzorja in 
1955, is set in the idyllic surroundings of Lake Garda, 
with the villa of the title referring to Mussolini’s 
residence. The story revolves around Mirko Godina, 
a Slovenian architect from Trieste, who returns for a 
few days in 1948, three years after World War II, to 
the shores of Lake Garda, where he had spent a few 
months before being sent to the German concentra-
tion camps. During his visit, Mirko meets Luciana, a 
daughter of Signora Amalia, the patroness of an old 
inn, who defends with tenacity and a certain nostalgia 
the era of Mussolini, whom she describes as a man 
of ‘great benevolence’. Luciana, still a teenager, is a 
young labourer who works in a textile factory. During 
long walks in the countryside and by the lake, the two 
fall in love and are gradually able to imagine a future 
and a new life after the ‘barbarism’. This powerful 
love affair enables Mirko to make Luciana aware of 
what fascism was and of the atrocities committed 
by the supporters of this regime. In a way, then, the 
protagonist resembles Pygmalion in that he transforms 
a young working girl from an admirer of the Duce 
into a free woman (Bernard, 2002, 556). Luciana sym-
bolically breaks ties with the Duce by throwing his 
picture into the lake. According to Antonia Bernard 
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(2002, 550), Vila ob jezeru is perhaps the brightest of 
Pahor’s novels, although it deals with the difficult and 
confusing times of the post-war period. It is divided 
into three parts, each describing a day spent by Mirko 
Godina at the lake, and is dedicated to Pahor’s sister 
Evelina.
Almost forty years later, in 1993, Vila ob jezeru 
was republished by the Mohorjeva publishing house 
on the occasion of the author’s eightieth birthday. 
Interestingly, a brief comparison reveals discrepancies 
between the 1955 and 1993 versions, although this is 
not mentioned in the 1993 version.12 The first notice-
able difference is that thirteen footnotes were added 
in the 1993 edition that were not included in the 1955 
version. In addition, there are frequent changes in 
word order, spelling,13 vocabulary,14 conjunctions,15 
punctuation,16 and layout,17 but we also discovered 
the addition or omission of information18 compared 
to the 1955 version. Moreover, we can also observe 
changes in proper names (e.g. Sandro from the 1955 
edition becomes Enrico in the 1993 version) and 
some major changes in content (e.g. the character of 
Carmen is a teacher in the 1955 version, while she 
becomes a clerk (uradnica) in the 1993 version). It 
seems that these changes were made by Pahor him-
self, as evidenced by his statement in Rojc (2013, 
257): “When I rewrote Vila ob jezeru some time ago, 
I realized how necessary it was to revise my earlier 
Slovenian.”19 In the examples showing these changes 
(see the relevant notes), we can observe, among other 
things, changes of meaning in the 1993 version (ka-
znovati (to punish) vs. obesiti (to hang) in the 1955 
version), but also changes of register (the conjunction 
zaradi (because of) from the 1955 version is replaced 
by zavoljo (because of), the latter being more literary 
and slightly archaic). When we make a comparison 
between source and target (i.e. translated) texts, we 
first need to find out which version of the source text 
served as the basis for the translation. Otherwise, if 
we compare the translations with the ‘wrong’ source 
12 The only information given is that the book was edited by Bogdan Petric, but nowhere in the book are changes to the 1955 text mentioned. 
13 E.g. Mussolini (1955) vs. Musolini or Mussolini (1993). According to Slovenian orthography, the name must be written with a double ‘s’. 
14 E.g. change (1955 vs. 1993) of nouns or noun groups (vojna (war) vs. vojska (army); majhen vs. mali trg (small square); točilni bank vs. 
pult or miza (bar counter); žica (wire) vs. kabel (cable); hip vs. trenutek (moment); prilika vs. priložnost (opportunity, occasion); vodja 
vs. voditelj (leader)), verbs (jesti (to eat) vs. otepati (to eat heartily, expressive use); obesiti (to hang) vs. kaznovati (to punish)), adjectives 
(neresen (not serious) vs. svobodomiseln (free-thinking)) and adverbs (takoj (immediately) vs. hitro (quickly)), and pronominalization of 
proper names (e.g. Mirko vs. on (he)).
15 E.g. (1955 vs. 1993): toda vs. a (but), in vs. pa (and), kajti vs. zakaj (for), nato vs. potem (then), zaradi (because of) vs. zavoljo (more literary 
and archaic); some conjunctions (e.g. nato (then)) are left out.
16 E.g. adding punctuation (e.g. commas, semicolons) or changing it (e.g. converting colons to semicolons).
17 E.g. change in paragraphs, addition of chapter numbers, and different organization of chapters in the 1993 version.
18 E.g. omission of proper names (e.g. Mirko, Mirko Godina), and omission or shortening of clauses introducing direct speech. 
19 Pahor’s statement in Slovenian: “Ko sem pred časom predelal Vilo ob jezeru, sem ugotovil, kako je bilo potrebno, da se moja tedanja 
slovenščina lektorira.” (Rojc, 2013, 257). 
20 It was Pahor himself who suggested to the Italian publisher Nicolodi that Marija Kacin should undertake the translation of Vila ob jezeru 
into Italian (Marija Kacin, personal communication).
21 We have noted that a comma or period is added when the direct speech is an interrogative or exclamatory sentence, e.g.: “Non c’è anima 
viva in questa casa?” chiese di proposito ad alta voce, allegro./“Chi è?” (Nicolodi, 2002) vs. “Non c’è anima viva in questa casa?”, chiese 
di proposito ad alta voce, allegro./“Chi è?”. (Editoriale FVG, 2004).
text, we might find big differences and conclude that 
a certain translation does not correspond to the source 
text. This would have been an easy mistake to make in 
the translation analysis of Vila ob jezeru. Therefore, it 
would have been very helpful if the 1993 version had 
contained the information that the text was a version 
of the 1955 novel rewritten by Pahor himself. 
VILA OB JEZERU IN ITALIAN AND FRENCH 
TRANSLATIONS
To date, Vila ob jezeru has been translated into Ser-
bian (Vila na jezeru, 1958), French (La villa sur le lac, 
1998), Italian (La villa sul lago, 2002, cop. 2004; 2004, 
2012) and German (Villa am See, 2009). An English 
translation has not yet been published.
The translation of Vila ob jezeru into Italian was done 
by Marija Kacin, a friend of Boris Pahor20 who lives and 
works in Trieste. Originally from Gorizia (Italy), she 
taught Italian at many Slovenian high schools in Trieste 
and later devoted herself to research. She has translated 
several literary texts into Slovenian and Italian, includ-
ing Pahor’s work Mesto v zalivu (La città nel golfo/The 
City in the Gulf). La villa sul lago was first published in 
Italian by Nicolodi in 2002 and reprinted by the same 
publisher in 2004. According to our analysis, the two 
editions are identical. 
In 2004, the translation by Marija Kacin was pub-
lished by Editoriale FVG from Trieste and distributed as 
a supplement to the daily newspaper Il Piccolo. Within 
a few days, more than 4,000 copies were sold, which 
was a great success for Pahor in Italy. Apart from the 
punctuation added after the direct speech,21 this transla-
tion is identical to the one published by Nicolodi.
According to Latella (2017, 3–4), it was Nicolodi 
who discovered Boris Pahor in Italy and published 
several of his works, namely Il rogo nel porto (Grmada 
v pristanu, 1972) in 2001 (reprinted in 2004), La villa 
sul lago in 2002 (reprinted in 2004) and Il petalo giallo 
(Zibelka sveta, 1999) in 2004. After Nicolodi went out of 
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business, the newly founded publishing house Zandonai 
continued Nicolodi’s business from 2007, reprinting 
and publishing several more of Pahor’s works in Italian. 
La villa sul lago was published again by Zandonai in 
2012, but it was not a simple reprint. According to our 
analysis, the 2012 text, edited by Giusi Drago, is more 
readable, fresher and more modern; the Italian is more 
standardized and formal, more ‘Italian’ than in the 2002 
and 2004 editions. The changes concern layout,22 word 
order, tenses, punctuation,23 spelling24 and vocabulary,25 
but also additions and omissions.26 
La villa sur le lac is the third novel by Pahor to be 
translated into French, after Nekropola (Pèlerin parmi les 
ombres, 1990) and Spopad s pomladjo (Printemps dif-
ficile, 1995), and the only novel translated from Italian 
rather than directly from Slovenian. The French transla-
tion is by Benito Merlino, an Italian poet, composer, 
journalist, author and translator living and working in 
Paris. Interestingly, it was published by Bartillat in 1998, 
four years before the publication of the Italian transla-
tion (2002) which served as the source text. The French 
translation has not been reprinted, unlike the Italian 
one, which has seen three editions and one reprint. 
Nevertheless, the novel Vila ob jezeru is generally less 
known and its foreign editions have not received as 
much attention27 as those of Nekropola, Pahor’s most 
famous work. 
PROPER NOUNS
In comparing the French and Italian translations, 
some important differences were noted. The greatest 
concerns the character of Carmen, a daughter of Si-
gnora Amalia, who in all the Italian editions becomes 
Bruno,28 meaning a man and the son of Signora Amalia, 
not a daughter. Interestingly, the character of Carmen 
is retained in the French version, which confirms 
Marija Kacin’s statement29 that she did not change the 
original text and that this change must have been made 
22 The chapters are not numbered, as they are in the Slovenian version of 1955.
23 E.g. the addition of commas and dashes, the different use of quotation marks (“” (2002) vs. «» (2012)).
24 E.g. Monte Baldo (2002) vs. monte Baldo (2012).
25 E.g. the frequent use of synonyms, sometimes changing the register from rather archaic (2002) to rather neutral, standard (2012): e.g. egli 
vs. lui (he), ed vs. e (and), donnicciola vs. donnetta (a hag). 
26 E.g. to avoid repetition: “Oh, sempre lo stesso, sempre un poeta, ma è invecchiato, molto invecchiato.” (2002) vs. «Oh, è sempre lo stesso, 
sempre un poeta, ma è invecchiato, e molto.» (2012).
27 Interestingly, some Slovenian newspapers reported the publication of Vila ob jezeru in Italian and French, e.g.: Primorski dnevnik, 21. 
3. 1998: Vila ob jezeru Borisa Pahorja dostopna francoskim bralcem, 10; Primorski dnevnik, 5. 12. 2002: Vila ob jezeru v italijanščini: 
pisatelj Boris Pahor, 7; Novi glas, 19. 6. 2003: Dela Borisa Pahorja si utirajo pot med italijanske bralce, 7. 
28 Interestingly, there is a female character named Bruna in the source text, which is retained in Italian and French.
29 Personal communication by telephone.
30 Since neither Nicolodi nor Zandonai have stayed in business, we have not been able to discover the reasons for this change of name 
(and gender). It is possible that the editor of Nicolodi felt that in the post-World War II period, the position of clerk was more likely to be 
filled by a man, but this is only a hypothesis that we have not been able to clarify. 
31 Marija Kacin told us that she fought hard to get the Italian publisher to reverse the changes they had made and for the translation to 
remain faithful to the Slovenian novel. She even sought legal advice, but was dissuaded from filing a lawsuit against the publisher, as this 
would only cost her a lot of money and time.
32 An employee means uslužbenec rather than uradnik/uradnica (a clerk), the latter being used in the Slovenian text.
33 In the 1955 Slovenian version, as already mentioned, Carmen is a teacher.
by Nicolodi.30 As Marija Kacin further states, Pahor 
checked her translation and made sure that it matched 
the source text and was ready for publication. She never 
received correction sheets and was never informed of 
the changes. Moreover, no one ever apologized to her 
or to Boris Pahor for these changes.31 
As we can see from the example in Table 1 below, the 
character of Carmen or Bruno in the Italian and French 
translations is an employee,32 which is an approximate 
translation of Carmen’s position in the 1993 Slovenian 
text33 and shows that Marija Kacin’s Italian translation is 
based on the 1993 Slovenian source text. This can also 
be confirmed by the change in the character of Sandro 
(1955), who is renamed Enrico in the 1993 version. This 
name is retained in the translations.
Apart from the changes concerning Carmen/Bruno 
and Sandro/Enrico, the other personal names in the 
translations correspond to those used by Pahor in the 
1993 version of the novel Vila ob jezeru. 
We were also interested in the use of place names 
or toponyms, which form an important element in 
Pahor’s works. It must be stressed that Boris Pahor 
comes from an area where the Italian and Slovenian 
languages have coexisted over the centuries, hence 
places there have both Italian and Slovenian names. 
While the author uses Slovenian names for places on 
Italian soil when such names exist (e.g. Devin, Gardsko 
jezero, Gorica, Kras, Rim, Rusi most, Trst), in the Italian 
translation, as expected, these are replaced by Italian 
names (Duino, lago di Garda, Gorizia, Carso, Roma, 
Ponterosso, Trieste). In the French translation, the Ital-
ian names are retained (Duino, Gorizia, Ponterosso, 
Trieste), except when a particular French version of the 
name prevails in French (lac de Garde, Karst, Rome). 
As for Koper, it becomes Capodistria in both languages, 
although Merlino could also have kept Koper, which 
appears in French encyclopaedias (e.g. Larousse), or 
could have used Capodistrie, which also exists and is 
adapted to the French spelling. 
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The use of Italian names is a natural option not only 
in Italian translation, but also in French, when there is no 
recognized translation into French (unlike, for example, 
Vérone for Verona (see Table 6)). Interestingly, the name 
of Kontovel (a village near Trieste) is always retained in 
French, even though it is replaced by the Italian name 
Contovello in the Italian translation, while Mokolan39 
becomes Moncolano in both Italian and French (see 
Table 2). Even if the Slovenian name had been used in 
the manuscript by Marija Kacin, Merlino should have 
used the Italian name (i.e. Contovello) for the sake of 
consistency.
Finally, an error was discovered in the French trans-
lation. When Pahor mentions Kanal with a capital letter, 
he refers to the Grand Canal of Trieste (Canal(e) Grande 
di Trieste, Canale for short) and not to just any canal as 
suggested by the French word canal used by Merlino 
(see Table 3). 
Based on the results of the analysis, the hypothesis 
that personal names would be retained in the translations 
cannot be fully confirmed, as the name of Carmen was 
changed to Bruno in Italian, which is a major change. 
34 “[…] he was a friend of her daughter Carmen and Sandro’s friend; Carmen? […] she is a teacher […].”
35 “[…] he is an acquaintance of her daughter Carmen and Enrico’s friend; Carmen? […] she is a clerk […].”
36 “[…] he is a friend of her daughter Carmen and Enrico’s friend; Carmen? […] she is an employee […].”
37 “[…] he is a friend of her son Bruno and Enrico’s friend; Bruno? […] he is an employee […].”
38 “[…] he is a friend of her son Bruno and Enrico’s friend; Bruno? […] he is an employee […].”
39 The name refers to the area near the castle of Mokolan, later renamed Tower of Prosecco.
That all Slovenian place names were replaced by Italian 
names, on the other hand, was as expected, and Italian 
names were of course retained, as the novel is set in 
Italy. Apart from the mistranslation and the example of 
Kontovel, the Italian place names were either retained in 
French or, as suspected, adapted to French conventions 
where possible. Thus, as far as the translation of the 
toponyms is concerned, the Italian translation is entirely 
target-oriented or domesticating, while in the French 
translation foreignization prevails over domestication in 
the absence of a recognized translation in French.
FOOTNOTES
What proves that the source version Marija Kacin 
translated was the 1993 Slovenian version are the 
footnotes that appear in both the Italian and French 
translations. Unlike the 1955 novel, thirteen footnotes 
have been added in the 1993 Slovenian edition to 
provide additional information on historical events and 
places, as well as on cultural and linguistic features 
of the source text, which is set in Italy. In this respect, 
Table 1: An example from the Slovenian editions and the French and Italian translations of Vila ob jezeru, concerning 
the change of proper names.
1955 Slovenian 
text
1993 Slovenian 
text
1998 French 
translation
2002/2004 Italian 
translations
2012 Italian 
translation
O, Mirko Godina 
je bil nedvomno 
za gospo Amalio 
svobodomislec, toda 
ironičen in prijazen 
svobodomislec, ki 
skoraj ni dal prilike 
za spopad; hkrati pa 
je bil prijatelj njene 
hčerke Carmen in 
Sandrov prijatelj. 
(p. 13) […] 
O, nedvomno je 
za gospo Amalio 
svobodomislec, a 
zgovoren in prijazen 
svobodomislec, 
ki skoraj ne da 
priložnosti za spopad; 
hkrati pa znanec 
njene hčerke Carmen 
in Enricov prijatelj. 
[…] 
Pour la signora 
Amalia, il n’est sans 
doute qu’un libre-
penseur éloquent et 
gentil qui donne peu 
prise à l’affrontement ; 
il est aussi un ami de 
sa fille Carmen et un 
ami d’Enrico. 
(p. 17) […] 
O, per la signora 
Amalia egli è 
indubbiamente un 
libero pensatore, ma 
un libero pensatore 
loquace e gentile che 
dà poche occasioni 
di scontro; ed è pure 
un amico di suo figlio 
Bruno ed un amico di 
Enrico. (Nicolodi, p. 
18; Editoriale FVG, p. 
17) […] 
Certo, per la signora 
Amalia lui è senza 
dubbio un libero 
pensatore, ma un 
libero pensatore 
loquace e gentile che 
dà poche occasioni 
di scontro; ed è pure 
un amico di suo figlio 
Bruno e un amico di 
Enrico. […] 
Carmen? Seveda je 
ponosna nanjo, je 
učiteljica34 in zato je 
nekaj več v človeški 
družbi, je spoštovana, 
seveda, a kaj, ko pa 
lahko pride domov 
samo ob večjih 
praznikih! (p. 14)
Carmen? Seveda je 
ponosna nanjo, ki 
je uradnica35 in je 
spoštovana, a kaj, ko 
pa lahko pride domov 
samo ob večjih 
praznikih! (p. 11) 
Carmen ? Sûr qu’elle 
en est fière, c’est une 
employée36 respectée, 
mais elle ne revient 
ici que pour les 
grandes fêtes ! (p. 18)
Bruno? Certo che 
ne va fiera, fa 
l’impiegato37 ed è 
rispettato, ma può 
venire a casa solo 
per le feste più 
importanti! (Nicolodi, 
p. 19; Editoriale FVG, 
p. 17)
Bruno? Certo che ne 
va fiera, fa l’impiegato38 
e si fa rispettare, ma 
può tornare a casa 
solo per le feste più 
importanti! (p. 15) 
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the 1993 Slovenian text is more oriented towards the 
Slovenian readership. 
The use of footnotes is a matter of preference and 
need. They should be brief and used sporadically, 
otherwise they complicate the reading. In terms of 
translation, Newmark (1988, 92) recommends insert-
ing the additional information into the text whenever 
possible because “this does not interrupt the reader’s 
flow of attention […]. However, its disadvantage is 
that it blurs the distinction between the text and the 
translator’s contribution, and it cannot be used for 
lengthy additions.”
According to our analysis, significant differences 
can be observed between the source and target texts in 
this respect, as only about half of the notes are retained 
in Nicolodi’s 2002 translation (seven, one of which 
does not appear in the source text; seven notes have 
40 “Servus, prijateljček!” seems a rather bizarre translation of an Italian phrase that Slovenians would understand perfectly well anyway.
been omitted) and in the French translation (six, three 
of which do not appear in the source text and two of 
which do not appear in the 2002 Italian translation; ten 
notes have been omitted), and only one in Zandonai’s 
2012 Italian edition. In the Italian translations, we can 
observe a justified omission of notes explaining Ital-
ian place names and vocabulary, while in the French, 
Italian words or phrases are either retained within the 
text if they are relatively easy for the target readers to 
understand (e.g. Ciao, bello), or translated into French 
and retained in the text itself (see Table 4). In this way, 
the text becomes more fluent, but the foreign (Italian) 
feel is sometimes lost in the French translation. 
Pahor sometimes uses German and French in his text 
and explains these parts in footnotes to bring the text 
closer to the Slovenian reader. In the Italian translation, 
the French sentences have been retained and explained 
Table 2: An example of the use of place names in the Italian and French translations.
1993 Slovenian text 2002 Italian translation 1998 French translation
Takrat je oživel pred njim prav tako 
stopničasti svet pod Kontovelom, pod 
staro cesto in pri Mokolanih […].
Gli si sparò davanti quel terreno, 
anch’esso a terrazzi, sotto Contovello, 
sotto la strada vecchia e nei pressi di 
Moncolano […].
Il eut la vision de cet autre terrain, 
également en terrasses, au-dessous de 
Kontovel, et au-dessous de la vieille 
route aux environs de Moncolano […].
Table 3: An example of a mistranslation of a toponym in French.
1993 Slovenian text 2002 Italian translation 1998 French translation
Bila je namreč ura, ko težaki 
postavljajo branjevkam stojnice ob 
Kanalu in sonce še ne ozarja njegove 
vode […].
Era infatti l’ora in cui gli operai 
collocano, alle fruttivendole, le 
bancarelle lungo il Canale ed in cui 
il sole non ne tinge ancora di rosa le 
acque […].
C’était l’heure où les vendeurs 
installent leurs étals de fruits le long du 
canal et où le soleil ne rosit pas encore 
l’eau […].
Table 4: An example of the omission of a footnote in Italian and French.
1993 Slovenian text 2002 Italian translation 1998 French translation
Potem je dekle, ki je imela sklonjeno 
glavo, rekla: „To je tisti z ’Latnika’”. 
[…]
„Ciao bello!” *
[…]
„Vieni, ti rimorchiamo!” ** so vzkliknile 
v zboru. 
* Ciao, bello! – Servus, prijateljček!40 
** Vieni, ti rimorchiamo! – Pridi, da 
te povlečemo!
Poi la ragazza che teneva chino il capo 
disse: “Questo è quello della ‘Pergola’”. 
[…]
“Ciao, bello!”. 
[…]
“Vieni, ti rimorchiamo!” 
esclamarono in coro.
La fille à la tête baissée dit : 
– C’est celui de la « La Pergola ». 
[…]
– Ciao, bello !
[…]
– Viens, on va te remorquer ! 
s’écrièrent-elles.
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in a footnote, while in the French translation a footnote 
would be superfluous (Table 5, Example 1). In the case 
of a book title by Thomas Mann in German (Mario und 
der Zauberer/Mario and the Magician), the German title 
is retained in the Italian translation with only additional 
quotation marks and no annotation, and is thus more 
foreignizing, while in Merlino’s version (without an-
notation) the title is translated into French, which has a 
domesticating effect (Table 5, Example 2).44
41 In the French translation we can see that the adverb comme (how) has been added to emphasize joy, slightly altering Pahor’s source text.
42 It should be noted that the male speaker’s concern (‘zaskrbljeno’ or ‘preoccupato’) is not reflected in the French version.
43 Our English translation of the French note: The italicized phrases are French in the text (translator’s note).
44 The same is true of the English title The Fountain by Charles Morgan, retained in Italian and translated in the French edition (Fontaine). 
45 Personal communication.
Some footnotes are found in French, although 
they do not appear in the Italian translation. Since the 
French translation corresponds to the Slovenian text and 
Merlino admitted that he never consulted it,45 we can 
conclude that Marija Kacin kept the footnote in Italian 
and that it was later omitted by the publisher, probably 
because it was superfluous (Table 6).
The footnotes explaining the historical context of the 
novel were for the most part faithful to the original in 
Table 5: Examples of strategies used in relation to the foreign language.
1993 Slovenian text 2002 Italian translation 1998 French translation
Example 1
„Marie, c’est ravissant!” * 
„Oui,” ** je odsotno rekla.
„Tu ne trouves pas?!” *** je 
zaskrbljeno, karajoče in hkrati 
začudeno vzkliknil.
„Oui, c’est beau,” **** je 
prizanesljivo pritrdila […].
* Marie, c’est ravissant – Marija, kako 
je čudovito!
** Oui – Da 
*** Tu ne trouves pas? – Se ti ne zdi?
**** Oui, c’est beau – Da, lepo
“Marie, c’est ravissant !”.2
“Oui”,3 disse lei, assente.
“Tu ne trouves pas?!”4 esclamò 
preoccupato in un tono di rimprovero 
e di sorpresa insieme. 
“Oui, c’est beau”,5 annuì 
condiscendente […].
2. Maria, che stupendo.
3. Sì.
4. Non trovi?
5. Sì, è bello.
– Marie, comme41 c’est ravissant !
– Oui, répondait-elle, l’air absent.
– Tu ne trouves pas ? exclama-t-
il42 sur un ton de reproche mêlé 
d’étonnement.
– Oui, c’est beau1, acquiesçait-elle, 
condescendante […].
1. Les phrases en italique sont en 
français dans le texte. (N.D.T.)43 
Example 2
[…] bila je to majhna brošura 
nove zbirke kratkih del Thomasa 
Manna Mario und der Zauberer* v 
italijanskem prevodu.
* Mario und der Zauberer – 
Mario in čarodej
[…] era la traduzione italiana 
di “Mario und der Zauberer”, 
nell’edizione economica della nuova 
raccolta di opere brevi di Thomas 
Mann.
[…] c’était la traduction italienne de 
Mario et le magicien, dans une édition 
bon marché du nouveau recueil de 
nouvelles de Thomas Mann.
Table 6: An example of a footnote omitted in Italian and retained in French.
1993 Slovenian text 2002 Italian translation 1998 French translation
[…] danes oblaki, ki plovejo hkrati iz 
Verone in Brescie ter neutrudno hitijo, 
a se obenem vendarle zbirajo, tako 
da so že zarana skrili sneg na tilniku 
Monte Balda.*
* Monte Baldo je 2218 metrov 
visok hrib, ki zaslanja vzhodni breg 
Gardskega jezera.
[…] oggi un navigare di nubi che 
trascorrono al contempo da Verona e 
da Brescia, instancabili e frettolose, 
ma s’assembrano alfine sì d’aver 
celato già di buon mattino la neve 
sulle pendici del Monte Baldo. 
[…] aujourd’hui, un va-et-vient de 
nuages arrivant en même temps de 
Vérone et de Brescia, infatigables et 
pressés, et s’unissant afin de cacher 
dès le matin la neige des pentes du 
mont Baldo1.
1. Le mont Baldo, 2 218 mètres 
d’altitude, se trouve sur la rive 
orientale du lac de Garde. (N.D.A.)
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both translated languages, but we can also note some 
differences. For example, as we can see in the Italian 
translation in Table 7, nine (and not eight) people were 
sentenced to death, of whom four (and not three) were 
pardoned. We cannot tell whether this inconsistency 
is intentional or a simple error.47 However, errors were 
also found in the French translation.48
This brief analysis shows that different strategies 
were used quite inconsistently regarding footnotes in 
Pahor’s 1993 version of the novel Vila ob jezeru: About 
half were omitted in both target languages (with the 
exception of the 2012 Italian translation, where only 
one footnote was retained), some were integrated 
into the text itself, and others were either retained or 
added. The footnotes that were retained were for the 
most part faithfully translated into the target languages. 
The results thus refute our hypothesis that all of Pahor’s 
footnotes would be retained and faithfully translated 
into Italian and French. The Italian translation seems 
to be slightly more foreignizing than the French one, 
where domestication stands out. The strategies seem 
to depend on the translator’s or editor’s decision as to 
whether or not a particular footnote would be neces-
sary for a particular readership. 
46 All numbers in the three footnotes are underlined by the authors of the article.
47 Perhaps the Italian publisher even researched the case and found the correct number was nine, but this hypothesis would need further testing. 
48 For example, in a footnote about the Blackshirts, retained in Italian and French, the village of Bazovica becomes ‘Barovica’ in the French 
translation.
STYLISTICALLY MARKED VOCABULARY
Boris Pahor comes from a diglossic reality and 
expresses himself in his novels not only in Slovenian, 
but also uses Italian expressions, hybrid expressions 
(Italo-Slovenian), Triestinian and sometimes Venetian 
dialects. Even though the standard Slovenian language 
predominates, dialectal and colloquial expressions 
form an important part of Pahor’s style. They pose a 
real translation challenge, as they are often considered 
untranslatable or difficult to translate faithfully into a 
target language, which is why they are often replaced 
by more neutral language (Newmark, 1988, 195). We 
therefore hypothesized that dialectal and colloquial 
expressions, especially those that are archaic, would be 
mostly neutralized in the Italian and French translations 
of Vila ob jezeru. Since a thorough analysis of all expres-
sions used in the novel and its translations is beyond the 
scope of this article, we will consider only some of the 
most interesting examples of interjections and verbs.
One of the most frequent interjections used by Pahor in 
dialogues is nu (21 occurrences), an archaic form of no (well). 
It is usually translated as beh in Italian and bah in French (see 
Table 8), both colloquial but without archaic connotation. 
Table 7: An example of a retained footnote and an inconsistency in Italian.
1993 Slovenian text 2002 Italian translation 1998 French translation
[…] ko je bil tukaj vojak in so ga v 
gostilni spraševali, ali je obtoženec 
na tržaškem procesu, ki ima isti 
priimek kot on, njegov sorodnik.*
* Fašistično sodišče za zaščito države 
je 1941. leta obsodilo na smrt osem46 
obtožencev, od teh so tri pomilostili, 
pet pa je bilo ustreljenih na Opčinah 
pri Trstu.
[…] allorquando egli si trovava qui 
a fare il soldato e nella trattoria 
gli andavano chiedendo se 
quell’imputato al processo di Trieste 
che portava il suo stesso cognome, 
fosse un suo parente.1
1. Nel 1941 il tribunale speciale per 
la difesa dello Stato fascista condannò 
a morte nove imputati di cui quattro 
vennero graziati e cinque fucilati nel 
poligono di tiro ad Opicina presso 
Trieste.
[…] à l’auberge on lui demanda si 
cet accusé au procès de Trieste, qui 
portait le même nom que lui, était de 
sa famille1.
1. En 1941, le tribunal spécial pour la 
défense de l’Etat fasciste condamna 
à mort huit accusés dont trois furent 
graciés et cinq fusillées sur le polygone 
de tire à Opicina près de Trieste. 
(N.D.A.)
Table 8: An example of stylistically marked vocabulary.
1993 Slovenian text 2002 Italian translation 1998 French translation
„Nu, viš, ljubezen pa je lepa, če ni 
organizirana z mislijo na poroko.”
“Beh, vedi, l’amore è bello se 
non è condizionato dall’idea del 
matrimonio.”
– Bah, tu vois, l’amour est beau s’il 
n’est pas conditionné par l’idée du 
mariage.
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Adriana MEZEG & Anna Maria GREGO: BORIS PAHOR’S PROSE IN ITALIAN AND FRENCH: THE CASE OF THE VILLA BY THE LAKE, 39–52
In dialogues, Pahor’s characters use other discourse 
markers to start a conversation, such as the colloquial 
verbal forms viš (look, you see; 14 occurrences) or 
čuj/-te (listen; 3 occurrences), which function as 
interjections. They are translated by standard neutral 
forms into Italian (viš as vedi (see Table 8) and čuj as 
sai (čujte as senta)) and consequently into French (viš 
as tu vois and čuj/-te as écoute/-ez). Moreover, the 
translation of viš is often omitted in French.
Finally, while reading Vila ob jezeru, we also came 
across some archaic verbs, such as jeti (to begin), 
oštrcati se (to shake) and žmikati (to wring out). All 
these verbs are replaced by standard neutral verbs in 
Italian (prendere, rassettare and strizzare respectively) 
and consequently in French (commencer, s’ébrouer 
and tordre respectively). The archaic connotation is 
thus lost in both target languages, and both transla-
tions are, as assumed, more domesticating, i.e. target-
oriented. The results of our analysis thus prove that 
with regard to literary translation, indirect translation 
“is typically seen as detrimental to the quality of the 
text” (Kavalir & Chudoba, 2020, 548). 
CONCLUDING REMARKS
After a brief overview of Boris Pahor’s life and 
an insight into his language and style, this paper fo-
cused on the translation of his works into French and 
Italian. Although he was first discovered in France, 
he is now also known in Italy, where he has been 
translated to the same extent as in France. Given the 
very close relations between Italians and Slovenians 
throughout history, we would expect more transla-
tions from Slovenian into Italian than into French, but 
Boris Pahor is a special case, as due to the content of 
his works he first had to gain recognition elsewhere, 
and in fact did so in France—where the readership 
is traditionally more interested in the literature of 
rebellion (Ožbot, 2012, 49)—, and was only later to 
attract interest in Italy.
Special attention was paid to Pahor’s novel Vila ob 
jezeru, which is the only one translated from Italian 
into French and not directly from Slovenian. We also 
found that there are two quite different Slovenian ver-
sions of the novel, published in 1955 and 1993. The 
latter edition does not inform the reader that it is a 
revised version, which could be a problem if a con-
trastive analysis were based on the wrong source text, 
highlighting the methodological principle that one 
should always first make sure which edition served as 
the source text of a translation. 
49 In a personal message on LinkedIn, Merlino said he received the manuscript in an “awkward Italian”. If true, that might justify some linguis-
tic changes, but not, for example, the change from Carmen to Bruno, which was not made in the French translation. However, since Marija 
Kacin could not provide us with the manuscript she gave to Nicolodi, we cannot comment on the other possible changes to her translation.
50 If the French translation had been made on the basis of the published Italian translation, there would probably be even more changes 
and inconsistencies compared to the Slovenian text. 
The analysis revealed that the Italian translation was 
based on the 1993 Slovenian text, but many important 
deviations were discovered, such as the change of 
names, the omission of footnotes, and the neutraliza-
tion/standardization of stylistically marked vocabulary. 
As Marija Kacin and Boris Pahor themselves explained, 
the translation Kacin gave to the Italian publisher was 
faithful to the source text. Since we have been unable 
to obtain either the manuscript from Kacin or a clarifica-
tion from the publisher, who is no longer in business, we 
cannot say for sure what the publisher actually changed. 
It is interesting to note, however, that the French transla-
tion was published four years before the 2002 Italian 
translation. We have not been able to clarify this delay, 
but considering the changes made to Marija Kacin’s 
manuscript, it seems that the Italian publisher took their 
time to prepare it for publication. 
This study clearly shows that Merlino translated into 
French based on Marija Kacin’s Italian manuscript.49 
It is interesting to ask why the French publisher com-
missioned the translation from Italian and not directly 
from Slovenian, even though there existed translators 
from Slovenian into French and two books by Pahor 
had previously been translated directly from Slovenian 
into French. As Pahor himself explained in a personal 
communication, an editor at Bartillat who had read the 
Italian manuscript and liked the story contacted him to 
ask if he would agree to the translation being made from 
Italian into French. As Pahor was very touched by the 
interest in publishing his novel in France, he agreed. It 
is possible that the French publisher chose this direction 
of translation because he knew Italian (as opposed to 
Slovenian) and had contacts with translators from Italian 
into French. Moreover, according to Marija Kacin, Pahor 
guaranteed Bartillat that the Italian translation submitted 
to Nicolodi was identical to the original Slovenian text. 
Our analysis confirms that the French publisher did in-
deed receive the unrevised Italian translation. However, 
even if the French version is closer to the source text in 
some aspects (e.g. Carmen’s name),50 indirectness has 
proved to be a disadvantage at least as far as the transla-
tion of stylistically marked vocabulary is concerned. We 
therefore agree with Markič (2006, 136) “that second-
hand translation often fails, i.e. that mistakes made in 
the first translation carry over to all other translations 
made on the basis of the first translation”. Direct transla-
tion should therefore be preferred to indirect translation 
when suitable translators are available, and the direction 
of translation should not depend on the linguistic skills 
of the editor, as was the case with the translation of Vila 
ob jezeru into French.
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PROZA BORISA PAHORJA V ITALIJANŠČINI IN FRANCOŠČINI: PRIMER VILE OB JEZERU
Adriana MEZEG
Univerza v Ljubljani, Filozofska fakulteta, Oddelek za prevajalstvo, Aškerčeva 2, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenija
e-mail: adriana.mezeg@ff.uni-lj.si
Anna Maria GREGO
Padna 14, 6333 Sečovlje, Slovenija
e-mail: annamaria.grego@gmail.com
POVZETEK
Članek obravnava roman Vila ob jezeru in njegove prevode v italijanščino in francoščino. Gre za manj poznano 
delo Borisa Pahorja, ki pa je izredno zanimivo s prevajalskega stališča, tudi zato, ker je bil francoski prevod narejen 
na osnovi italijanskega. V teoretičnem delu orišemo pisateljev jezik in slog, čemur sledi pregled Pahorjevih del, do 
sedaj prevedenih v francoščino in italijanščino. V osrednjem delu najprej primerjamo obe slovenski izdaji romana 
(1955 in 1993) in ugotovimo, da se precej razlikujeta, čeprav v verziji iz leta 1993 to nikjer ni omenjeno. Poznavanje 
tega dejstva je nujno za prevodno analizo, saj bi prevodne odmike sicer po pomoti lahko pripisali prevajalcu in ne 
temu, da je bil prevod narejen na osnovi druge različice izhodiščnega besedila. Razlike se pokažejo tudi med tremi 
izdajami prevoda v italijanščini. Kontrastivna analiza, ki temelji na romanu iz leta 1993, na italijanskem prevodu iz 
leta 2002 in posrednem francoskem prevodu iz leta 1998, pod drobnogled vzame prevajanje lastnih imen, opomb 
in slogovno zaznamovanega besedišča. V italijanskem prevodu odkrijemo spremembo imena in spola enega od likov 
in s pomočjo intervjujev s Pahorjem in prevajalko v italijanščino zaključimo, da je italijanska založba pomembno 
posegla v prevod. V francoskem prevodu, ki je bil narejen na osnovi italijanskega, te spremembe ni, saj temelji na 
prvotnem rokopisu, ki ga je prevajalka oddala založbi. Precejšnje razlike v primerjavi z izvirnikom smo opazili tudi 
pri prevodih opomb, in sicer v obeh jezikih. Pri prevajanju zemljepisnih imen pričakovano izstopa podomačitvena 
strategija v italijanščini, medtem ko se v francoščini mešata podomačitvena in potujitvena strategija. Slogovno za-
znamovano besedišče je v italijanščini in posledično v francoščini nadomeščeno z nezaznamovanim, zaradi česar se 
nekatere posebnosti Pahorjevega izražanja v prevodih izgubijo.
Ključne besede: Boris Pahor, Vila ob jezeru, prevajanje, lastna imena, opombe, dialekt, pogovorni izrazi, 
italijanščina, francoščina
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