ABSTRACT
The process of translation, as a way of bridging the gap, of shortening the distance, displays a similar dynamics, since by seeking proximity it inevitably engenders new distances. Translation is a transformation not only because something conceived in a particular semiotic system is transferred into another, for translation always transforms its source, the translandum, at least for the beneficiaries of the translated version. Antonio Tabucchi not only employs heterolingual and translational strategies within his works of fiction but he is also an exophonic writer la Beckett and Nabokov. One of Tabucchi's main works, Requiem, was in fact originally written in Portuguese a language familiar to the Tuscan writer and professor of Portuguese literature, but still an adopted language; that is, something he had to learn and practice as an adult. Ladino is a sort of 'Judeo-Spanish calque' into which the Hebrew Bible has been translated for liturgical and pedagogical reasons by Spanish rabbis.
