Tradurre \"Infinite Jest\" – Giulia Bocchio intervista Edoardo Nesi

TL;DR

A 2022 interview with Edoardo Nesi, the first Italian translator of Infinite Jest (Fandango, 2000) and himself a Strega-winning novelist, given for what would have been Wallace's sixtieth birthday. Its rarest content is biographical: while translating, Nesi corresponded with Wallace by fax, always through Wallace's agent, to settle how to handle certain terms and quotations — and when he asked whether he could add translator's notes on top of the novel's hundred-plus pages of endnotes, Wallace's answer was that he liked the idea of a reader stopping at an unfamiliar word to go look it up in an encyclopedia or dictionary. Around that firsthand datum the interview is a translator's appreciation: a year and a half of daily work as if it were a book of his own, Wallace's prose moving at double speed, the endnote placement of the wheelchair-terrorist episode as a lesson in craft, tennis as a translation asset, and the essays as the Wallace Nesi loves most.

Key claims

• Nesi found Wallace before Infinite Jest. In the 1990s the Bompiani literary magazine Panta ran an issue on American writers; between its pages was a story, Per sempre lassù (Forever Overhead), translated by Edoardo Albinati, by a young author Nesi did not know. He was thunderstruck (Rimasi folgorato), the more so because at the time American literature was being sold to Italians as essentially Bret Easton Ellis — and this was something very different. Later he read in L'Espresso that a novel of Wallace's had appeared, beloved of university students; he bought and read the whole of it. That novel was Infinite Jest.
• The translation was a year and a half of daily work — as if it were, in his phrase, a book of his own. Nesi calls Infinite Jest a job he is very proud of, because translating is always an extraordinary lesson in writing (his phrase, quoted below): you see the work wholly open in front of you, and it teaches you the functionality of the text — why a chapter sits where it sits (in IJ, chapters that could seemingly change places yet work exactly where they are). The mass of the book demanded great energy, even physical energy.
• He corresponded with Wallace by fax, via the agent, over specific terms. Nesi says he had, at the time, a correspondence with Wallace by fax, always mediated by Wallace's agent, because he needed to understand how to manage certain terms and quotations — for example the citation of American products or TV programs.
• Wallace's own stance on annotation (drawn out by fax). Nesi could not add further notes, because there was already an apparatus of notes over a hundred pages long; when he asked how to handle it, Wallace replied (per Nesi's report) that he liked the idea of a reader who, meeting a term unknown to him, would stop, suspend the reading a moment, and go directly look it up in an encyclopedia or dictionary. Nesi calls this a genuinely interesting vision. (Wallace's words here are Nesi's Italian rendering of an English fax; we report them at second hand rather than quote them.)
• Endnote placement as craft — the wheelchair-terrorist episode. Asked about IJ's physical unwieldiness (over a thousand pages; the back-and-forth to the notes), Nesi answers that the book resembles no other for structure and variety of inspiration. Where most writers cut potential material that would slow the narrative, Wallace does not: the wonderful story (his words, quoted below) of the Québécois terrorists in wheelchairs who blow up is a stroke of genius one appreciates more through a note — an episode that, set in the main text, would barely have changed the page count or the plot, yet Wallace knew exactly where to place each thing so the reader could better enjoy it.
• Wallace's prose moves at double speed. Nesi says Wallace goes at double the velocity of human beings, but with his literary solutions gives you back a great deal; his style demands attention but is never difficult. In the very long dialogues you always know perfectly who is speaking, because his characters are so strongly made you recognize them.
• Infinite Jest is basically a book about desire (his phrase, quoted below) — and about the addictions, and how they reveal themselves in all their consequences. Translating it taught Nesi much about tolerance, through the characters themselves.
• Tennis was a translation asset. Nesi played tennis, especially in his youth; it helped him with the recurring theme. In Wallace, he says, tennis is truly a metaphor for existence — the paranoias and disturbances of the kids who play it in IJ reflect their lives — and it is a sport that itself requires a certain dose of paranoia to be played well.
• The essays are the Wallace he loves most — the McCain essay, Consider the Lobster (Considera l’aragosta), A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again (Una cosa divertente che non farò mai più). Wallace was marvelous in the essays.
• A closing appreciation. Wallace left, Nesi says, at the moment his books would have been most needed; his last works are the most anguished; his was a difficult existence. What is incredible is the great, immense underlying humanity that emerged ever more from his writing as the years passed — reading him is like having a friend, an older brother who makes you feel less alone.

Theories & evidence

THEORY: Wallace's endnote apparatus is deliberate architecture, not excess — its placement is a craft decision, and Wallace himself defended non-glossing so a reader would stop and look an unfamiliar term up

• Crux: endnotes-function
• Stance: endorses
• Evidence:
  • [author] The fax-drawn author statement (Nesi's report): faced with whether to add translator's notes atop the existing hundred-plus pages of endnotes, Wallace replied that “gli piaceva l’idea di un lettore che davanti a un termine a lui sconosciuto si fermasse, sospendesse un attimo la lettura, per andarlo direttamente a cercare su un’enciclopedia o vocabolario” (he liked the idea of a reader who, faced with a term unknown to him, would stop, suspend the reading a moment, and go look it up directly in an encyclopedia or dictionary — gloss ours). BACK-TRANSLATION of an English fax — paraphrase-only for Wallace's voice; the Italian is Nesi's firsthand report, quotable as his words. [reply on the translation; correspondence via the agent]
  • [S — IT] Nesi's own craft reading: the wheelchair-terrorist episode is “la storia meravigliosa dei terroristi quebechiani in sedia a rotelle che saltano in aria” (the wonderful story of the Québécois terrorists in wheelchairs who blow up — gloss ours), a stroke one appreciates more through a note; set in the main text it “non avrebbe cambiato di molto il numero delle pagine o la vicenda in sé” (would not have much changed the page count or the plot itself — gloss ours), yet Wallace knew where to place each thing so the reader could better enjoy it. [reply on the book's unwieldiness]
• Notes: The strongest datum in the interview and the reason it matters: a translator-drew-author-statement on annotation, obtained by fax during the Fandango translation. Register-critical — the Wallace stance is a BACK-TRANSLATION (Nesi's Italian for Wallace's English fax; the original English is not held), so it is paraphrase-only for Wallace's voice and must never be quoted as Wallace. The archive's endnotes-function lane already holds author-anchored design statements (the dtmax April-1994 pitch; the Lipsky two-ways-to-read design statement); this is a fresh, independently-sourced author sighting on the SAME design intent (don't gloss the term; make the reader work / look it up), carried through a translator. Nesi's own wheelchair-terrorist reading is firsthand critic voice (quotable). The “saltano in aria” characterization is Nesi's loose memory of the A.F.R. material — cite-as-written (see Accuracy notes).

CONNECTION: The translator's firsthand testimony to Infinite Jest's dense, term-loaded, encyclopedic construction — American products and TV programs, a hundred-plus pages of notes, terms sending the reader to reference works

• Crux: encyclopedic-design
• Stance: endorses
• Evidence:
  • [S — IT] Nesi had to stay attentive “a ogni passo, come la citazione di prodotti o programmi televisivi americani” (at every step, such as the citation of American products or TV programs — gloss ours), the reason for the fax correspondence on handling specific terms and quotations. [reply on the translation]
  • [author] The reference-work stance (same fax datum as the endnotes-function block): Wallace liked the idea of a reader stopping at an unknown term to look it up in “un’enciclopedia o vocabolario” (an encyclopedia or dictionary — gloss ours) — the encyclopedic reading experience defended by the author. BACK- TRANSLATION, paraphrase-only for Wallace. [same reply]
• Notes: Reception/craft-scoped support for the encyclopedic-design reading, attested from the translator's desk. The literal encyclopedia-and-dictionary image is the neatest expression in the archive of the encyclopedic-reading intent as the author framed it, though it arrives back-translated. The 100+-pages-of-notes figure is Nesi's, convergent with the general accounts (Blumenbach's 28 jargons; the acknowledgments counts) held in the German notes.

CONNECTION: Wallace's prose runs at double speed yet stays legible — long dialogues in which the speaker is always identifiable — the maximal sentence as controlled design, not accident

• Crux: prose-tempo-design
• Stance: mentions
• Evidence:
  • [S — IT] Nesi: Wallace “va a una velocità doppia rispetto agli esseri umani” (goes at double the speed relative to human beings — gloss ours), a style that demands attention but is never difficult. [opening reply]
  • [S — IT] In the very long dialogues that are part of his style, “sai sempre benissimo chi sta parlando” (you always know perfectly well who is speaking — gloss ours), because the characters are so strongly made you recognize them. [reply on the characters]
• Notes: A mentions-grade sighting: Nesi praises the speed and density of the prose and the legibility of the long dialogues, but does not argue the maximal sentence as a designed tempo (the crux's actual question) — reception texture, not an argument. Consonant with the positive-pole prose-tempo-design data in the Blumenbach note (the complex-periods praise). A mention-level sighting only.

CONNECTION: Beneath the difficulty, Wallace's work is carried by an enormous underlying humanity — the warmth/earnestness read against the difficult-postmodernist framing

• Crux: sincerity-definition
• Stance: mentions
• Evidence:
  • [S — IT] Nesi's closing appreciation: what emerged ever more from Wallace's writing is “questa grande, immensa, umanità di fondo” (this great, immense underlying humanity — gloss ours), so that reading him is like having a friend, an older brother who makes you feel less alone. [closing reply]
• Notes: Oeuvre-scoped, mentions-grade affective reading — the friend-who-makes-you-feel-less-alone register, consonant with the archive's large sincerity-definition lane (the earnest/empathetic Wallace against the ironist framing) and with the Blumenbach note's separate always-moral and enormous-empathy points, but Nesi advances no argument, so it is a sighting only.

Themes

Translation as craft and its lessons (the extraordinary-lesson-in-writing credo; the functionality of the text; a year and a half of daily work); the author-translator fax correspondence (via the agent; handling American products and TV-program citations); the endnote apparatus and Wallace's own annotation philosophy (don't gloss; let the reader stop and look it up; the wheelchair-terrorist episode as endnote-placement craft); the density and speed of the prose (double speed; legible long dialogues); Infinite Jest as a book about desire and about addiction; tennis as metaphor for existence and as a translation asset; the essays as Wallace's most-loved mode; Wallace's death and the great, immense underlying humanity of the work.

Cross-references

• blumenbach-trashpool-2011 — the German translator's long interview. It is the direct counterpart to this one on the single question that most divides the two: Ulrich Blumenbach reports no contact with Wallace at all and worked a fan newsgroup instead, whereas Nesi corresponded with Wallace by fax and drew a direct statement on annotation out of him. The two translators' craft testimony otherwise converges (the term-density, the long afternoons, the encyclopedic construction).
• blumenbach-spiegel-2009 — the other German Blumenbach primary; convergent on the translation's demands and the term-hunting.
• esposito-ij-around-the-world — the English round-up of IJ's translators; the natural companion for the cross-language translation-reception picture.
• The endnote apparatus — Nesi's fax-drawn Wallace statement (don't gloss; let the reader stop and look a term up) sits beside the archive's other author-anchored design statements about what the endnotes are for.

Notable passages

Nesi's words unless marked (Bocchio = the interviewer). Italian is the verbatim anchor; the English in parentheses is our gloss (paraphrase). Curly Italian typography reproduced as printed. The reader in the annotation passage is Nesi reporting Wallace's fax reply — Wallace's own words are not quoted (back-translation); the Italian sentence is Nesi's.

• “un lavoro di cui vado molto fiero” (a work I am very proud of — gloss ours) — on translating Infinite Jest; “tradurre è sempre una straordinaria lezione di scrittura” (translating is always an extraordinary lesson in writing — gloss ours).
• “Ebbi all’epoca una corrispondenza con lui, via fax, mediata sempre dalla sua agente” (I had at the time a correspondence with him, by fax, always mediated by his agent — gloss ours).
• The annotation exchange (Nesi reporting Wallace's fax reply — back-translation, Wallace not quoted): with an apparatus of notes already over a hundred pages, when Nesi asked how to handle it, “gli piaceva l’idea di un lettore che davanti a un termine a lui sconosciuto si fermasse, sospendesse un attimo la lettura, per andarlo direttamente a cercare su un’enciclopedia o vocabolario” (he liked the idea of a reader who, faced with a term unknown to him, would stop, suspend the reading a moment, and go look it up directly in an encyclopedia or dictionary — gloss ours).
• “un anno mezzo di lavoro quotidiano” (a year and a half of daily work — gloss ours; “anno mezzo” as printed, missing e), “come se fosse un libro mio” (as if it were a book of my own — gloss ours).
• “dei terroristi quebechiani in sedia a rotelle che saltano in aria” (of the Québécois terrorists in wheelchairs who blow up — gloss ours) — the episode Wallace placed in a note.
• “sostanzialmente è un libro sul desiderio” (it is basically a book about desire — gloss ours).
• “va a una velocità doppia rispetto agli esseri umani” (he goes at double the speed relative to human beings — gloss ours) — on Wallace's prose.
• “In Wallace il tennis è davvero una metafora dell’esistenza” (in Wallace tennis is truly a metaphor for existence — gloss ours).
• On the essays: the mode “io amo di più di Wallace” (I love most in Wallace — gloss ours).
• “questa grande, immensa, umanità di fondo” (this great, immense underlying humanity — gloss ours) — the closing appreciation.
• Bocchio: Wallace “ha una relazione quasi erotica con il linguaggio, ma di un erotismo disperato” (has an almost erotic relationship with language, but a desperate eroticism — gloss ours).

Accuracy notes

• “Davis Foster Wallace”. At line 178 the interviewer writes “Davis Foster Wallace” — a typo for David, reproduced as printed (cite-as-written).
• “saltano in aria” for the A.F.R. Nesi frames the wheelchair terrorists as ones who “saltano in aria” (blow up / leap into the air). In the novel the Assassins des Fauteuils Rollents are a separatist cell whose signature is not self-detonation; this is Nesi's loose recollection of the material, reproduced as spoken (cite-as-written), and it is offered to illustrate endnote placement, not as a plot claim.
• “un anno mezzo”. Standard Italian is un anno e mezzo; the printed text drops the e. Reproduced byte-true, not silently corrected.
• OCR/print defect at line 211. “ci sarebbe stato p ù bisogno” — “p ù” is a broken rendering of più (a space-split in the blog text). A source defect, NOT ours; do not re-key it as our error.
• Byline. The piece is by-lined “di Giulia Bocchio” (line 44) and titled as her interview; the page's footer “Autore” block, however, shows the account of Vanni Santoni (a WordPress author-account artifact, with his own bio and email). The interviewer/author is Giulia Bocchio; Santoni is not a party to the interview. Recorded so the driver does not mis-attribute.
• First Italian translator, with collaborators. Bocchio calls Nesi “il primo a tradurre” Infinite Jest; the Fandango 2000 Italian edition credits Nesi with collaborators (Grazia Giua / Annalisa Villoresi, per the archive's Italian source-hunt) — Bocchio's framing simplifies, reproduced as written.