Through a dense and lively correspondence between Turin and Cesena, Pavese, who didn’t know the translator in person, pushes her to translate Homer into a faithful but modern Italian, aiming at a less archaic, plainer language. Reading with close attention, meticulously comparing the translation with the original text, examining all of it with care, Pavese reacts to every book, every line, every image, every word. His letters are full of suggestions, amendments, opinions. He intervenes frankly but always in a respectful, cordial way. Among the proposals in a long list: “I would insist on bellissima [very beautiful] rather than eletta per bellezza [outstanding in beauty] which gives a needlessly ‘sublime’ tone”; “Assassino [murderer] seems to me better than uccisore d’uomini [killer of men]”; “Del mare [of the sea] I would make marino [marine].” Sometimes he fully approves a decision that Calzecchi Onesti has made; regarding the classic Homeric epithet “wine-dark sea,”
