This is a translation of Luigi Pirandello’s short story Prudenza. The translation is by Patricia Santos, a student in Tullio Pagano’s 2022 Senior Seminar at Dickinson College. Santos wrote the brief introduction in English, which is followed by the translation and original text.

Tullio Pagano is a professor of Italian at Dickinson College.

Introduction in English (by the translator):
In 1901 Luigi Pirandello wrote Prudenza (Prudence), an autobiographical short story recounting an existential crisis in the author’s mid-30s. Pirandello was a Nobel Prize winning Italian author and has produced an array of critically acclaimed literary work. Prudenza (Prudence) is a humorous bildungsroman whose title is an allusion to Prudentia, a Roman goddess who represents the concepts of virtue, transience of beauty, and appearance. Titian’s painting the Allegory of Prudence illustrates aging through the concepts of past, present, and future, which Pirandello also confronts in his personal story. Pirandello connects his aging body and graying hair to his identity and goes on a transformative journey to get a haircut. The climax of the story is Pirandello’s traumatic haircut and its resolution is his shame at seeing himself “between looking old or looking ugly.” Pirandello concludes the story by expressing his lover’s repulsion at the sight of his new appearance.

“This translation was submitted in May 2022 for publication in the digital edition Stories for a Year, eds. Lisa Sarti and Michael Subialka: https://www.pirandellointranslation.org/”

Pirandello, Luigi. Prudenza. Translated by Patricia Santos. Tullio Pagano's 2022 Senior Seminar, Dickinson College.

Citazioni

Miniatura	Titolo	Data di caricamento	Visibilità	Azioni
	Prudenza_Patricia_Santos_finale.docx	2022-06-15	Pubblico	Scarica