«In this essay on the translation of the poetic text the author places himself at the opposite end of the spectrum from any corseted theory, any peremptory manifesto: he simply exposes, in a fluid, elegant language, with multiple resonances, the fruit of readings and reflections extending over several years and having nourished his own practice of translation. His position is based on two essential facts in his eyes: translation is in itself an act of writing; translation is the best interpretation one can give of a text. Both creation and exegesis, it possesses the virtues of hospitality, of listening, of imitation, of musicality, of imagination, of the capacity to transpose and metamorphose, which will give rise not to a pale copy of the original language, not to a betrayal of its author, but to a new text written in another language». (Danièle Robert).

According to Antonio Prete – who passionately enlists in this essay his skills as a comparatist, translator and poet – to translate means in fact to act in the 'shadow zone' that lies between the language of origin and the language of landing, lending voice, inflection and inventive energy to forms of the world other than our own.