~ language and poetry ~
- 7 -

Cesare Pascarella

LA SCOPERTA DE L'AMERICA
("The Discovery of America")


altre pagine:
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

- page 10 -

INDEX

XLVIXLVIIXLVIIIXLVIXL




XLVI

Basta, adesso bevémese un goccetto
Ché questo ce rimette in allegria.
Ah, questo te ne pôi 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 pôi 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

That's enough, now let's have a drink,
It will make us smile again.
Ah, you could drink a whole cartful 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 up.

Instead of drinking like a fish,
Tell me, do you know
Where was Columbus from precisely?

1. - Wines that are unexpectedly strong, and cause a sense of drowsyness only some time after having drunk them, are said to be 'deceptive'.


XLVII

- De dov'era? Lo vedi com'è er monno?
Quann'era vivo, ch'era un disgraziato,
Se pô 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, everyone claims him.

Doesn't this matter? I'll tell you all the same.
The French had tried to do so: 1
And if they did not grab him,
My friend, it's only because they really can't.

Yes, they have only one country on their mind!
And why this? Only for the vanity 2
Of claiming that he was French.

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

✱ - 1939 edition:
Eh, la storia der monno è sempre storia!
Ah, the world's history is history!

1. - The French had tried to claim his origin.
2. - The French grandeur.
3. - Likely referring to the history textbook mentioned in 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 when he's here he must tip his hat.

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

But there's no need
To mention all of them right now; if you care about
All these men, go to the Pincian Hill. 2

There's no mystery about this:
Because those busts, before being busts,
Have once been all real 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. - This refers to the over 200 busts of Italian personalities in the Pincian Hill gardens (for further details, see Curious and Unusual).


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 great men they were! Well over the average.
Envied and admired by the whole world!
Italians are able, by nature,
To exploit well their talent.

For instance; one sees someone
Putting 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 someone else? 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,
Instead an Italian invented electricity. 3

1. - A rather jumbled 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 reference.


L

Cusì Colombo. Lui cór suo volere,
Seppe convince l'ignoranza artrui.
E come ce 'rivò! Cór 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 was Columbus. With his will
He was able to convince other ignorants.
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? Goddamnit! 2

He,1 instead, discovered the incredible:
And if he had been helped,
He would have really achieved the impossible.

If he had been equipped with the sailing devices
That are available nowadays,
He would have discovered a bunch of them! 3
3. - He would have discovered a bunch of Americas.

1. - Columbus.
2. - According to the intonation in speaking this expression, it can be understood either as an imprecation with whom the foreigner is addressed, or as "A fuckin' nothing".




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