“Die Weiber” di Wolfgang Hilbig

This contribution examines two significant challenges faced in the Italian translation of Wolfgang Hilbig’s short story “Die Weiber”; The first challenge involves the ambiguous temporal structure of Hilbig’s narrative, highlighting the Italian imperfect tense as a critical resource for translators. The second challenge pertains to lexical considerations, illustrating through a specific example how the translation process may result in unavoidable losses.