ABSTRACT
In the mid-1960s Italian poet Giovanna Sandri begins using dry-transfer lettering to create abstract graphic compositions that would come to be features in exhibitions of visual and concrete poetry internationally. She also wrote purely verbal poems, her entire body of work is characterized by an exploration of the graphic qualities of written signs and a preoccupation with the formal composition of the poetic text, traits that interesting challenges for the translator. Sandri’s books range from strictly visual poetry, to strictly verbal poetry, to a hybrid of the two. In all cases, the poetic text is like a drawing or painting in that its unique shape and position on the page are integral parts of its overall composition. Given her suggested revisions in each of the cases, for the purposes of translation it seems that Sandri considered the original versions of her poems latent works that could be altered and manipulated as desired as they are rendered in another language.
