A New Yorker and a Roman team up to solve some of the problems that arise when a book on English grammar is translated into Italian.
First hurdle: the title. In English, Between You and Me is both a grammar lesson and an idiom for a confidential conversation, and it has no precise equivalent in Italian. What is the point of a paragraph about the so-called Oxford comma in a culture where it is not taught? What is the relative weight of a hyphen in English as opposed to Italian? Mary Norris and Costanza Rizzacasa-d’Orsogna became friends after Rizzacasa reviewed Norris’s book for the Corriere della Sera (in Italian). The attempted translation leads to insights into both languages.
Speakers
Mary Norris
