Abstract

Di Giura’s Italian translation of Pu Songling (1640-1715)’s Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio (Liaozhai zhiyi) published in 1955, is one of the best early translations of classical Chinese tales into Italian and provided a great contribution to the popularization of Chinese culture in Italy. In the light of translation theories formulated by Venuti and other scholars, this article analyses Di Giura’s translation of two tales from this collection, namely La scelta del protettore della città and Dio della grandine, with a particular focus on words and expressions related to Chinese culture, mostly belonging to the categories of traditional units of measure, religious words, official positions, customs and traditions, everyday objects and utensils. In doing so, Di Giura’s translation approaches and attitude towards Chinese culture will be observed in their oscillation between domestication and foreignization strategies.