Italians love to make full use of their adjectives when describing the beauty and elegance of the many Made in Italy products and luxury goods of which they are so proud. I’m talking about words like prezioso, ricercato and pregiato. These are harnessed in myriad ways in Italian, and can sometimes be tricky to render in English, not least because we don’t tend to use terms like precious or cherished very often in our own language, or at least not in marketing-type texts or in reference to objects, rather than, say, people.
Here are a few thoughts on a few terms that I often come across in my daily work. Let’s start with prezioso, which is quite commonly used in Italian, whether in reference to particular items – dettagli preziosi- or even appearance – un look prezioso – while we wouldn’t generally talk about precious details or a garment that guarantees its wearer a precious look. The English use of precious tends to be used in limited circumstances, namely when referring to precious stones/metals, something or someone that is dear (ie. precious) to us, or a person who is somewhat affected or pretentious in manner. And so, in contexts other than these, we must look to more appropriate translations, something along the lines of select or choice details, and a high-end, refined, polished, or expensive look.
Similarly, objects are often described as being ricercato/raffinato/pregiato in Italian, the terms fairly interchangeable in usage. Depending on the context, and the object in question – considering this can be anything from a piece of furniture, a garment or a motorcycle part – I tend to opt for terms such as sophisticated, refined, high-end or elegant.
Another one that sometimes sees me reaching for a less ‘obvious’ translation is affascinante. If we’re simply referring to a person, then a fairly straightforward charming might do the trick, but I am more likely to come across the term when used in reference to a town, a restaurant, or even a motorcycle. While a restaurant might be enchanting or glamorous, it can’t really be seductive, just as a motorcycle could in fact be described as seductive or attractive, but not fascinating.
Meanwhile, a town might be any or all of these things, so it is for the translator to try and glean the intended meaning from the source text.
Even a seemingly simple adjective like bello or grande can cause the translator to pause for thought. Rather than beautiful, perhaps wonderful, amazing, great, terrific, glorious, or top-notch might be a better fit for bello, depending on subject, context and tone of voice. With grande, and once it is established as to whether we’re talking great as in large, great as in extensive, or great as in excellent, the translator has significant wiggle room, the thesaurus offering up a number of workable alternatives.
As you can see, the translator can often find themselves second-guessing even the most innocent looking constructions. It is not enough to simply understand the terms then, we must also consider the sense of the words and the context in which they are combined, as well as the tone of voice of the original text.
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