The Prisoner and the Warden. Erri De Luca, Jonah, and the Hebrew Bible

Resumo

Erri De Luca (1950-) is a prolific writer of contemporary Italian literature. Besides his fictional work, De Luca has authored a significant number of translations from the Hebrew Bible. This article focuses on his 1995 translation of Jonah where De Luca inserts two introductions, two translations, one rich apparatus of notes, and a brief theatrical adaptation of Jonah’s story. The article highlights the gap between the strict hyperliteralism of the translation (which De Luca himself describes as “calque”) and the copious commentary that accompanies it, which is characterized by a densely idiosyncratic voice. The difference between the two moments is indicative of De Luca’s ambivalent approach to the Scriptures: secular and philological, but at the same time meditative and very personal. A final look at the author’s later rewritings of Jonah proves that for De Luca translator and writer cannot be fully severed, as both are essential in the dialogue with the source text.