Since the end of the 19th Century, Shakespeare’s poems have been entirely translated into Italian; the first translation is by Angelo Olivieri (1890), and the last one is authored by Elio Chinol (1996). In order to give an overview of different styles of translation, sonnet LXXIII will be used, as it is considered by critics to be amongst the best ones written by Shakespeare. The sonnet’s theme is the advancing of old age and the approaching of death, expressed by using three metaphors: the winter, the dusk, and the quenching of a fire. The nine chosen translations are not discussed in chronological order; they are divided into three groups depending on their underlying translation style.
