An empirical investigation into readers’ reception of figurative language in translated poetry

Abstract This article offers an empirical investigation into readers’ reception of figurative language in translated poetry, using a selection of translations from the nineteenth-century Italian poet Giacomo Leopardi as a case study. The objective of the study was twofold: (a) to assess contemporary readers’ expectancy norms in relation to the translation approaches employed in rendering figurative language; (b) to investigate how impressions of translations are shaped by factors such as readers’ professional background and linguistic competence. Verbal data were collected from three different categories of participants (students, academics, and translators) through questionnaires and qualitatively analysed. The findings revealed that (a) readers’ level of expertise significantly influences how they engage with the text, shaping their reading approach, (b) responses to figurative language in translated poetry are more likely to be shaped by readers’ personal cognitive frameworks than by the specific translation solution adopted, and (c) publishing formats impact reception due to the influence of personal cognitive associations when translations are received as stand-alone texts.