During the totalitarian socialist period in recent Bulgarian history many translations of Italian authors gave reasons to recognize the translators’ activity as a heroic and complicated game of deceiving the official criteria for “acceptable” foreign infiltration. The period itself is not uniform and includes various phases during which the choices, the languages and the policies in translation from Italian changed subtly. That is why the Bulgarian destiny of authors such as Salvatore Quasimodo, Gianni Rodari or Umberto Eco suffered the consequences of an intransigent publishing system. Even before this period there were significant episodes like the translation of Mario Mariani’s short stories. Each case is unique; the present contribution attempts a journey through the difficult years of activity of a brave generation and the conclusions confirm the dissident role of translators within the network of otherwise-thinking intellectuals.
 

During the totalitarian socialist period in recent Bulgarian history many translations of Italian authors gave reasons to recognize the translators’ activity as a heroic and complicated game of deceiving the official criteria for “acceptable” foreign infiltration. The period itself is not uniform and includes various phases during which the choices, the languages and the policies in translation from Italian changed subtly. That is why the Bulgarian destiny of authors such as Salvatore Quasimodo, Gianni Rodari or Umberto Eco suffered the consequences of an intransigent publishing system. Even before this period there were significant episodes like the translation of Mario Mariani’s short stories. Each case is unique; the present contribution attempts a journey through the difficult years of activity of a brave generation and the conclusions confirm the dissident role of translators within the network of otherwise-thinking intellectuals.