Linda Del Sarto, translator of the book “Piccole Poesie di Famiglia” (by Michał Rusinek, illustrated by Joanna Rusinek, with poetic advice and afterword by Chiara Carminati) recounts her experience of translating what she herself defines as “two centimetres from the text”, echoing the words of Anna Wasilewska, who invites us to translate “one millimetre from the text”. But with poetry this is not always possible and often the translator becomes co-author of the book.
To find out more, watch the video and don’t forget to buy the book, which includes the translator’s note entitled “Two centimetres from the text”.

THE BOOK

“My family, seen from the outside, is a bit like any other… But do you think there really is a normal family? I am convinced that in each of us there is some strangeness, each of us has had some adventure, each of us can tell some bizarre anecdote. And the same goes for families! Here you have the complete and extravagant catalogue of my family (of ours, actually, since my sister is the book’s illustrator), told through 50 little poems inspired by our ancestors: there are the kidnappers (which one is the real culprit?), the flight attendant, the tailor, the prisoner and many others!”

A collection of poems written and illustrated in an ironic, fresh and hilarious tone, inviting young readers to look at those around them with different eyes and try their hand at drawing the family tree of their own family.

The ironic and brilliant style of Nobel Prize-winning poet Wisława Szymborska is reborn in the poems of her most trusted friend: Michał Rusinek