From Ninni Puf to Uini il Puh: translations of a classic in the making

Since its publication in 1926, Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne has been a never-ending source of rewritings. The aim of this paper is to analyze its two first Italian translations, so as to get a sense of how translations can reveal how a book of children's literature establishes itself as a classic. The first Italian translation of Winnie-the-Pooh is dated 1936 and was issued by the publishing house Il Genio (Rome). The translator is Lila Jahn and the title is L'orsachiotto Ninni il Puf. The second translation in chronological order was issued by the same publishing house 13 years later, in a translation by Elda Zuccaro, under the title Uini il Puh. By focusing particularly on proper names, wordplays and other elements typical of children's books, a plausible hypothesis can be formulated: the second translation seems to be a sort of philological rectification of the first one, after the book had achieved huge popularity around the world and was on the verge of being recognized as a classic of children's literature.