Translating mind and desires: physiology of passions in Peletier's and Wyatt's translations of Petrarch's Fragmenta

Abstract

This article compares two poet-translators of Petrarch’s Rerum Vul-garium Fragmenta, who have never been compared or interlinked. We have no evidence about a close connection between Jacques Peletier (1517-1582) and Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542), but they seem to share a similar translative imaginary by highlighting the most passionate –even erotic – features of Petrarchan poetry. The comparative analysis in this context will thus constitutes the very first attempt to test the full potential of the theory of translation imaginaries from a transnational and synchronic standpoint.