Gadda’s Quer pasticciaccio brutto di via Merulana (1946-1947) is the story of a sordid murder related from police inspector Ciccio Ingravallo’s point of view. The use of slang an vernacular becomes a stylistic choice that transcends the mere replication of regional voices: it is an author’s symbolic nuances. This paper describes the processes in Juan Ramón Massoliver’s and LouisBonalumi’s translations, analyzing the different ways in which both translators deal with dialects, regional variations, and paralinguistic elements, by focusing on the spoken discourse represented in written language .An interdisciplinary method of study is suggested, giving outlines of functional, textual, pragmatic, and other translation strategies (House, Chesterman, Venuti).