St. Petersburg – Russian translation of Basile’s Pentamerone to be unveiled

The Russian translation of Giambattista Basile’s Pentamerone, “The Tale of Tales, or Entertainment for Little Ones”, will be presented at St. Petersburg’s House of Books on Saturday, January 9. The Italian poet’s work was translated with the contribution of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs  and Development Cooperation (Directorate General Country System). Interpreter Pyotr Epifanov will narrate Basile’s adult fairy tales and mythological and philosophical tales from Neapolitan culture. A theatrical reading of one of the fairy tales will also take place during the day. The works of Basile (1566-1632) influenced all European fairy tale writers, with traces evident in the writings of Pushkin, Erhsov’s “The Hunchback Horse”, and “Fairy Tales of the Urals” by Bazhov. Four centuries on, “The Tale of Tales” has now been translated into Russian. Pyotr Epifanov has previously translated literary documents of Byzantine hymnals from Ancient Greek, philosophical works by Simone Veil from French, and the poems of Giuseppe Ungaretti, Dino Campana, Antonio Pozzi, Vittorio Sereni and Pier Paolo Pasolini from Italian.