Virtual Rome - Language and Poetry - "The Discovery Of America" by C.Pascarella

	CESARE PASCARELLA LA SCOPERTA DE L'AMERICA (THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA) page 4	other pages: page 1 . . . I - V page 2 . . . VI - X page 3 . . . XI - XV page 5 . . . XXI - XXV page 6 . . . XXVI - XXX page 7 . . . XXXI - XXXV page 8 . . . XXXVI - XL page 9 . . . XLI - XLV page 10 . . XLVI - L

XVI	XVII	XVIII	XIX	XX

XVI
Ché lì mica te giova esse sapiente;
Nun giova avecce testa o ritintiva,
Cor mare, si nun ci hai immaginativa,
Te l'immagini sempre diferente.

Ché lì tu hai da rifrette co' la mente,
Che quello che tu vedi da la riva,
Lontano, insin che l'occhio te ci arriva,
Pare chissà che cosa, e invece è gnente.

Ché lì pòi camminà quanto te pare:
Più cammini e più trovi l'infinito,
Più giri e più ricaschi in arto mare.

Séguiti a camminà mijara d'ora...
Dove c'è er cèlo te pare finito,
Invece arrivi lì... comincia allora!

XVI
Because there you don't need knowledge;
It's no use being intelligent or having good memory,
Without imagination, you will always picture sea
As something different from what it is.

Because you have to think
That what you see from the shore,
Far away, up to where sight may reach,
Might seem something to you, but nothing's there.

Because there you can travel as much as you want:
The more you travel, the more you reach infinite space,
The more you go, the more you remain in high seas.

You keep travelling for thousands of hours...
Where is the sky, you may think there's the end,
Instead, you reach that far... There it starts again!

XVII
E figurete quelli che ce staveno,
Figurete che straccio d'allegria!
Avanti! Sempre avanti! ...Tribolaveno:
E l'America? Si! Vattela a pïa!

E poi, co' tante bocche che magnaveno,
Magna, magna, se sa, per quanto sia,
Le proviste più stava e più calaveno.
Per cui, qui, dice, è mejo a venì via.

E defatti, capischi, un po' per vorta
Cominciaveno a dì: - Ma dove annamo?
Ma s'accidente qui, dove ce porta? -

E abbotta abbotta; arfine venne er giorno
Che fecero: - Percristo, ma che famo? -
J'agnedero davanti, e je parlorno.

XVII
Just imagine the people who were there,
Just imagine how happy they felt!
Straight on! Keep going! ...They struggled:
And America? Ah, who knows?

And with so many mouths to feed,
The more they eat, you know,
The more they travelled, the more food decreased.
So, they thought, it's better to get away from here.

In fact, you can imagine, little by little
They started asking: - Where are we going?
Where is this wretch taking us? -

This feeling grew more and more; so the day came
When they said: - By Christ, what are we doing? - [1]
They walked up to him, and they spoke.

[1] · In the last edition of the poem, published before
the author's death, Pascarella modified a few verses, such as
this one, which originally contained the exclamation by Christ,
in order to avoid any allegation of blasphemy.
The new version, also found in most modern editions, is:
When they said: - Well, what are we doing? -.

XVIII
- Eh... je fecero, dice, ce dispiace;
Ce dispiace de dijelo davanti,
Ma qui, chi più chi meno, a tutti quanti
'Sta buggiarata qui poco ce piace.

Così lei pure, fatevi capace,
Qui nun ce so' né angeli né santi,
Qui 'gni giorno de più che se va avanti
Se va da la padella ne la brace.

«Avanti, avanti!» So' parole belle;
Ma qui, non ce so' tanti sagramenti,
Caro lei, qui se tratta de la pelle!

Già, speramo che lei sia persuasa;
Si no, dice, nun facci complimenti,
Vadi pure... Ma noi tornamo a casa.

XVIII
- Oh... they said, we are sorry;
We are sorry we have to tell you,
But more or less each of us
Doesn't really like how things are going.

Therefore, try to understand us,
We are no angels nor saints,
Here each day that goes by
We jump out of the frying-pan into the fire.

«Let's go... let's go! »; they are nice words;
But here, there's no doubt about it,
We are risking our own lives!

So, we hope we have persuaded you;
Otherwise, feel free of going...
But we are returning home.

XIX
- Eh, fece lui, si avevio st'intenzione,
Potevio fà de meno de fà er viaggio!
Rifrèttece ar momento de l'ingaggio,
No mo' che stamo qui in agitazione.

Che nun se sa? Quanno ch'uno s'espone,
Ha da stà cor vantaggio e lo svantaggio...
Armeno accusì fa chi ci ha coraggio. -
Eh, je lo disse bene, e co' ragione;

Perché quann'uno, caro mio, se vanta
D'esse un omo d'onore, quanno ha dato
La parola, dev'esse sacrosanta.

E sia longa la strada, o brutta o bella,
Magara Cristo ha da morì ammazzato,
Ma la parola sua dev'esse quella.

XIX
- Ah, he said, if this was your intention,
You could have avoided setting out on the journey!
You could have made up you minds at the beginning,
Not now that we are right in the middle of action.

Don't you know? When one exposes himself,
He ought to accept positive and negative aspects...
At least, courageous people do so. -
Ah, he told them well, and he told them right.

Because, dear friend, when one claims
To be a honourable man, if he gives
His word, it must be firm.

And however long the road may be, pleasant or not,
No matter what it costs [1] ,
His word must never change.

[1] · Literally: "should this even cost the killing of Christ...".

XX
Ma d'antra parte, quelli ciurcinati,
Pure loro bisogna compatilli:
Lì, soli, in mezzo ar mare, abbandonati,
Se dice presto, rimané tranquilli!

Capisco, dichi tu: ce séte annati,
Dunque è inutile a fà tutti 'sti strilli:
Ma, dimme un po', dov'ereno 'rivati?
Che faceveno lì? Qui sta er busilli.

E 'gni giorno era come er giorno appresso:
Oggi era brutto... Speravi domani...
Te svejavi domani, era lo stesso.

E senza mai sapé dov'uno annasse!
Cristogesumaria! Manco li cani!
Dev'esse stato un gran brutto trovasse!

XX
But on the other hand, those poor guys
Should be pitied too:
There, alone, in the middle of the sea, abandoned,
It's easy to say they had to keep calm!

I know your thought: you have accepted,
Therefore it's no use making all this fuss:
But, tell me, where had they got to?
What were they doing there? That's the problem.

And each day was like the ones yet to come:
Today was bad... They placed hope in the next one...
They woke up, and the following day was just the same.

And without ever knowing where they were going!
Jesus! Not even dogs would be treated that way!
It must have really been a terrible situation!