The subject of this article is the translation work of the Italian writer Cristina Campo (born Vittoria Guerrini), one of the most prominent Italian writers of the 20th century, poet, translator, and essayist, analysed in a biographical key. The aim is to look more closely at Cristina Campo’s biography – described so far in the only biography book (De Stefano 2002), but also recorded in the voluminous correspondence the writer left behind – through the framework of her translation activity. Of interest from this point of view become both her translation choices and reading choices (“the lovely kinsmen of the shelf,” as the writer called her favourite books) – related to a large extent to Campo’s literary temperament, her experiences in her private life, and her friends – as well as her choice of translation activity itself, largely conditioned by the need to spend a large part of her life in seclusion due to the incurable heart disease that Campo suffered from since her birth. An attempt will be made to answer the question of how illness and other life circumstances influenced her choice of translation activity, the selection of texts to be translated and the translator’s actual working conditions.
