This paper deals with the comparison based on Turcisms in the Italian translation of the novel Derviš i smrt by Meša Selimović. The novel was published in 1966 and Lionello Costantini did the translation from the then Serbo-Croatian to Italian (Il derviscio e la morte) in 1983. This paper focuses on the issue of translation equivalents, as some of the most important elements in the translation process, and on the process of translation itself, as well. A comparative analysis of the culturally

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... ecific elements in the original text and their translation in the target language was made, primarily of the examples of comparison based on Turcisms. We attempted to explain the motives behind these translation choices, and then tried to establish how close these choices are t Italian readers and whether they affect the process of understanding the translated text as much as the original text affects the readers of Serbo-Croatian. This paper aims to show which of the two processes suggested by the German theologist and philosopher Friedrich Schleiermacher (and then adopted by Venuti, Berman, and others) prevails between the original and the translated text. In other words, this paper is aimed at establishing whether the Italian translation of the novel Death and the Dervish enables the reader to fully grasp the linguistic and cultural universe of the period in which Selimović placed his work, or whether the translator had to reshape the original text so to fit the scope of understanding and cultural peculiarities of Italian readers.