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

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

XLVI	XLVII	XLVIII	XLIX	L

XLVI
Basta, adesso bevémese un goccetto
Ché questo ce rimette in allegria.
Ah, questo te ne pòi scolà un carretto
Ché questo mica dice la bucìa.

- E poi der resto, già, l'ho sempre detto
Che ar monno, se nun ci hai filosofia,
La vita, te lo pòi tenello stretto,
La vita che diventa? Un'angonìa.

Ah, er monno, se capisce, er monno è brutto.
Bévete 'n'antro goccio. Bè che fai?
Vacce piano, nun te lo beve tutto.

Ma piuttosto de beve a 'sta maniera;
Ma dico, dimme un po', ma tu lo sai,
Si lui, Colombo, proprio de dov'era?

XLVI
This is enough, now let's have a drink,
This will make us smile again.
Ah, you could drink a whole cart of this one,
Because this is not a deceptive wine. [1]

- After all, I have always said that
Without seeing things philosophically,
Take this for sure,
What does life turn out to be? Agony.

Ah, the world, of course, the world is evil.
Have another drop. Hey, what are you doing?
Slow down, don't drink it all.

Instead of drinking so immoderately,
Tell me, do you know
Where Columbus was precisely from?

[1] · Wines that are unexpectedly strong, and give
a sense of drowsyness only after having been drinking
them for quite a while, are said to be 'deceptive'.

XLVII
- De dov'era? Lo vedi com'è er monno?
Quann'era vivo, ch'era un disgraziato,
Se pò dì che nessuno ci ha badato,
E mo' che nun c'è più, tutti lo vonno.

Nun fa gnente? Ma intanto te risponno.
Li Francesi ci aveveno provato:
E si loro nun se lo sò rubato,
È proprio, caro mio, perché nun ponno.

Eh, quelli, già, sò sempre d'un paese!
E tutto, poi, perché? Pe la gran boria
De poté dì che quello era francese.

Ma la storia de tutto er monno sano...
Eh, la storia, percristo, è sempre storia!
Cristofero Colombo era italiano.

XLVII
- Where was he from? You see how the world goes?
When he was alive, and was a poor man,
You can say that nobody really cared,
And now that he's gone, everybody claims him.

It doesn't matter? I want to give you a reply.
The French had tried to do so: [1]
And if they have not stolen him,
My friend, it's only because they really can't.

Yes, they have only one country on their mind!
And why all this? Only for the vane sake [2]
Of saying that he was French.

But history of the whole world... [3]
Ah, history is history, by Christ!
Christopher Columbus was Italian.

[1] · The French had tried to claim his origin.

[2] · The French grandeur.

[3] · The usual history textbook, see sonnet IV, note 2.

XLVIII
E l'italiano è stato sempre quello!
E si viè 'n forestiere da lontano,
Sibbè ch'ha visto tutto er monno sano
Si arriva qui s'ha da cavà er cappello.

Qui Tasso, Metastasio, Raffaello,
Fontan de Trevi, er Pincio, er Laterano,
La Rotonna, San Pietro in Vaticano,
Michelangelo, er Dante, Machiavello...

Ma poi nun serve mo' che t'incomincio
A dilli tutti, tu, si te l'aggusti
Tutti st'omini qui, vattene ar Pincio.

E lì, mica hai da fà tanti misteri:
Ché quelli busti, prima d'esse busti,
Sò stati tutti quanti òmini veri.

XLVIII
Italians have always been the same! [1]
If a foreigner comes from afar,
He might have seen the whole world,
But arriving here he has to tip his hat.

Here are Tasso, Metastasio, Raphael,
Trevi Fountain, the Pincio, the Lateran,
The Pantheon, Saint Peter's in the Vatican,
Michelangelo, Dante, Machiavelli...

But right now there's no need
To make a full list, if you care about
All these men, go to the Pincian Hill. [2]

There's no mystery about this:
Because all those busts, before being busts,
Have once all been actual men.

[1] · This comment is a sort of recurrent expression,
used by Pascarella on several occasions and for different
characters (the priest, the evil man, the Italian).

[2] · The Pincian Hill, in Rome's historical centre, is a public park
whose avenues are decorated with over 200 marble busts
featuring Italian heroes, statesmen, writers, artists, scientists.

XLIX
E che òmini! Sopra ar naturale.
Che er monno ce l'invidia e ce l'ammira!
E l'italiano ci ha quer naturale
Che er talentaccio suo se lo rigira.

Pe 'n'ipotise; vede uno che tira
Su 'na làmpena? Fà mente locale
E te dice: sapé, la terra gira.
Ce ripensa e te scopre er canocchiale.

E quell'antro? Te vede 'na ranocchia
Ch'era morta; la tocca co' 'n zeppetto
E s'accorge che move le ginocchia.

Che fa? Te ce congegna un meccanismo;
A un antro nu' j'avrebbe fatto effetto,
L'italiano t'inventa er letricismo.

XLIX
And what kind of men! Well over the average.
Envied and admired by the whole world!
Italians are able, by nature,
Of exploiting well their talent.

For instance; one sees somebody
Pulling up a lamp? He thinks about it
And says: you know, the earth revolves.
He thinks of it again, and he invents the telescope. [1]

And what about the other one? He sees
A dead frog; he touches it with a twig
And he realizes that it moves its legs. [2]

What does he do? He conceives a machine;
Anybody else wouldn't have cared,
The Italian instead invents electricity. [3]

[1] · Reference to Galileo Galilei's studies and experiments.

[2] · Reference to Giovanni Galvani's studies on muscular contraction.

[3] · Reference to Alessandro Volta's studies on the battery,
though quite muddled up with the previous one.

L
Cusì Colombo. Lui cor suo volere,
Seppe convince l'ignoranza artrui.
E come ce 'rivò! Cor suo pensiere!
Ècchela si com'è... Dunque, percui

Risemo sempre lì... Famme er piacere:
Lui perchè la scoprì? Perché era lui.
Si invece fosse stato un forestiere
Che ce scopriva? Li mortacci sui!

Quello invece t'inventa l'incredibile:
Che si poi quello avesse avuto appoggi,
Ma quello avrebbe fatto l'impossibile.

Si ci aveva l'ordegni de marina
Che se troveno adesso ar giorno d'oggi,
Ma quello ne scopriva 'na ventina!

L
And so did Columbus. With his will
He succeeded in convincing others' ignorance.
And how did he get by! With his mind!
This is how things went... So then,

It's the same old story... Come on:
Why did he discover it? Because it was him.
Had he been a foreigner
What would he have discovered? A fuckin' nothing!

Instead he [1] discovered the incredible:
And if he had been given help,
He would have really achieved the impossible.

If he had been equipped with the sailing devices
Which are available nowadays,
He would have discovered a bunch of them! [2]

[1] · Columbus

[2] · He would have discovered a bunch of Americas.