Am L1 English speaker (PhD from University of Wollongong Australia) and a NAATI accredited Advanced Translator with 20+ years experience recognised by Australian and Italian government authorities.
I have also published novels translated from Italian to English. The latest is R. Cappiello "Oh Lucky Country", Sydney University Press, 2009 (see their website).
Sample:
The sun was already burning. I walked quickly to the pool and lay down
on the Luna Park jetty to watch the boys fish. Flat sea. Pure flat silence.
Statuesque silence as in a picture-postcard landscape. You wouldn’t have
said it was normal. Nor was I normal. I had a screw loose somewhere.
What was I doing here? Why stay? Should I go away? Remain? I was sure
of one thing. Even though I often thought of my home, my real home in
the old country, of going back there to Viale Agrelli, dusty and provincial,
wrapped in nostalgia and an illusion of growth, I also wanted to die here
surrounded by beauty and harmony. Here or elsewhere, nothing was as
beautiful as this, in a nightmare of perfection and nullity. The spires of
the Opera House, white, beautiful. The little miniature islands, beautiful.
Sea. Sails. Hypochondriac poetry. Lord preserve me. Pain makes chickens
and poets cry out. Thus spoke that unhappy man long ago. As a young
man he used to render inspired readings of the bible before his fellows.
Then he lost his faith in God and made himself God. The breeze carried
to me the sound of hooting from Circular Quay. Less than ten minutes
and the ferry was at the jetty disgorging its few passengers.