Considering the volumes, they report many historical events related to the origin of each particular Venetian celebration, all told in a very emphatic tone, which gets melodramatic quite often. Even though she usually mentions the au- thors she challenged, it is ordinarily quite dificult to ind references to her sources. Every now and then she mentions contemporary Venetian scholars, like Morelli vol.
Of course she had already said she would not mention her sources all the time in order to have a more lively narration. But certainly, by doing so, it is quite dificult to ascertain the truth of the events, particularly in reference to many anecdotes she loves to refer to. What is soon evident is the heroic feature of the protagonists of the events she tells, with the Venetian people playing the part of the good ones and the opposite party depicted as cruel and cowardly. But apart from the evident factiousness in the relation of the facts, what is really interesting and specially connected with her previous translation work, is again her special concern for women.
It is quite surprising to notice how many women she mentioned in her essay, particularly if we consider that it is a historical essay. Since the very beginning, she loves lingering over the description of attitudes and manners of her countrywomen, always giving some details about dresses and ornaments. She regrets the simplicity of the past in com- parison to the dependency over fashions that seemed to be the main concern of the women of her time. A complaint which she had already expressed in a note to her translation.
But apart from the unordinary presence of women in the middle of historical battles and subsequent celebrations, it is also interesting to note the reference to female schol- ars and female heroines which quite often appear to take their part of glory in the actions narrated. I refer in particular to her mention of Cassandra Fedeli vol. II, and to the heroine Marula vol. The irst one has been particularly praised by Renier for her knowledge of Greek and Latin. As she usually does, she relates an anecdote linked to this lady which tends to point out her love for Venice. Her appreciation of Venetian ladies, not to forget her fellow country women, is also interesting.
On the subject of Marula, the pres- ence of a female hero, is not the only point of interest but most of all, the narration of another anecdote, this time connected to a wedding. Praised by her general because of her great courage displayed, she is offered to choose one of the most valorous soldiers to be her husband. If it does not appear to be the main topic in Coriolanus, even though present in the couple Coriolanus - Virgilia, marriage is a topic of some importance in Othello and Macbeth.
But it is not just the presence of women in her text that shows her concerns. Actually, scattered in all the volumes there are hints suggesting the author to be a woman. In this regard, what is par- ticularly interesting is her consideration of female writing in the third volume. She recollected the documentations and wrote an account of them that she sent to the prince. She also apologizes to her readers because of the possible repetitions they will ind in it, the events she told being for the most part considered in her essay vol. What it is of interests here, is not just the presence of women again in the narra- tion, as with the anecdote about Caterina Quirini vol.
III, — , but what she wrote in the letter to the prince attached to her short essay. She justiies the presence of the letter with her desire of re- porting the one the prince wrote in answer to her. In fact, she refers to that and due to the questions the prince addressed to her, she asked for help from a friend, the count Carli Rubbi. It is thanks to her assumed humility that she can offer her reasons for writing.
With a botanical metaphor, she associates scholars to imposing oaks and sensible women to humble violets. She goes on explaining: Would it be audacity, if, under the appearance of a slender lower, I aspire to awake sweet sensations in the heart of such a great Prince, through the reading of a report completely different in its kind from the irst one?
III, As a matter of fact, she knows she cannot put herself in competi- tion with male scholars due to the difference in education imparted to men and women. Notwithstanding this, she asserts her right to write as a single and unique person, as a woman, particularly, whose writing must be different from the one of any other writer and of a male writer. It is the difference she considers, and the difference in reading too. A difference that she feels worthy of being noticed and which can actually allow every woman to write and every text to be read as unique.
To conclude, it is important to notice the presence of a few little translations inside the very essay. As noted, the Italian text is already a translation from French and a very literal one3. Writing irst in a foreign language, she used a quite simple style which she adopted also in translation, to avoid possible confusion. But what must be stressed is the presence of a few passages translated from Latin that make their appearance every now and then. It is impossible to state with absolute certainty her knowledge of Latin.
Actually, at the time of her Shakespearian translations, it was the very presence of quotations from Plutarch that cast a shadow over the authorship of the texts. On that occasion, it was possible to clear her from the accusation of not being the translator, thanks to one of her notes where she stated she read Plutarch in translation.
This time she presents different passages from Latin, in different parts of her essay, stating only on one occasion that she was quoting the Italian translation of one of her friends. In particular, the irst translation is a letter by Petrarch, in the irst volume. The other translated passages appear in the second volume, where again she says she is offering a literal translation from Latin.
Finally the last translation is in the ifth volume. Alessandra Calvani 25 Firstly, it could be argued from these translated passages, that she is addressing herself to a female public, as the knowledge of Latin was taken for granted as far as men were concerned. This inference is conirmed by her last translation, offered to her public with the certainty they will be especially welcomed by women vol. But they would need too many pages. I hope that the examples offered here illustrated the point clearly enough. Calvani, Translating in a female voice, in Translation Jour- nal, vol.
Cesarotti , Epistolario scelto, Venezia: Cesarotti , Saggi sulla ilosoia delle lingue e del gusto, Pisa: Tipograia di Giuseppe Staide. Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura. Stabilimento Tipograico di P. Montagu , Saggio sugli scritti e sul genio di Shakespeare paragonato ai poeti drammatici greci e francesi con alcune considera- zioni intorno alle false critiche del Sig. Calvani, Translating in a female voice, in Translation Journal, vol.
But am I other or thyself? Her main research interests focus on literary translation from English into Italian , the translation of language varieties, the literature of the American South. She has published a number of translations in Italian journals and magazines. This paper focuses on two different tendencies in the Italian translations of African American English, namely stereotypical rendering and standardization of language varieties.
Even if they start from different perspectives and eventually come to opposite conclusions, both scholars testify to the impossibility of creating a stylistically accurate and not stereotypical Italian translation of African American Language and implicitly suggest normalization of language varieties as the only possible alternative to stereotypes. A broader overview of the theoretical debate on the translation of dialects also highlights the limits of standardizing language varieties and casts doubt on the alleged beneicial effects of the normalizing practices.
African American English in Italy: Many Italian scholars acknowledge that there are stereotypi- cal linguistic features in early Italian translations and dubbing of AAE -- such as the use of ininitive verb forms for conjugated ones and the replacement of unvoiced consonants with voiced ones. Most linguistic features employed in early Italian translations of AAE implicitly stand for the incorrect expressions of those who cannot speak properly. An example is the overuse of ininitive verbs—a feature associated by Italian linguists with second-lan- guage acquisition2.
Yet AAE, as it has been clearly shown by many different scholars, is a language variety that has its own grammar and can successfully fulill any communicative purpose Labov; Rickford; Green; Wolfram; Smitherman. Thus, translating AAE into Italian by means of this feature assimilates it erroneously to the language of North African second-language learners. Italian dubbing strategies have changed over the years follow- ing the changing status of African American characters in movies.
Chiara Martini 29 Starting from the Sixties, stereotypical features began to disappear, especially in movies that focus on racial issues: In Roberto De Leonardis was appointed as director for a new version of Via col vento dubbing, which eliminated all grammatical stereotypes in African American speech but received very little attention from the public; the same had happened four years before in the Disney movie Song of the South I racconti dello zio Tom, irst Italian dubbing in , second version in , both directed by Roberto de Leonardis which was re-dubbed in by the same De Leonardis because of similar concerns about the rendering of African American English.
In recent years Italian scholars Taylor; Malinverno; Pavesi; Zanotti have pointed out an opposite tendency toward normalization of linguistic variation in dubbing. Literary translations of AAE seem to have followed a less lin- ear path. Despite well-grounded objections, the overuse of ininitive verb forms and replacement of unvoiced vowels with voiced ones appear even in recent translations of African American English.
It is possible to hypothesize that Cesare Pavese used these features in his translation of Moby Dick because at that time writers were not fully aware of the sociolinguistic implications of this grammatical choice. Sembra, lo so, una parodia del Broken English, rotto, spezzato, informe, elementare. As I have previously pointed out, similar strategies are frequently employed also in Italian dubbing.
Chiara Martini 31 2. Theory and Practice of Translating Dialects5: From a theoretical standpoint some scholars underline the limitations that such a task necessarily imposes and consequently deny any real relevance to the topic: Halliday, or translation scholars like Peter Newmark, as underlined by Federici in his introduction to Translating Dialects and Languages of Minorities.
For most translators, the standard variety becomes a language, a sort of sociolinguistic dogma, which puts them in the hierarchies of language and social success. Given that the standard variety is a property which has passed the market test, any translator may be left with no choice but to conform to the belief that the standard variety is the crucial medium of survival in the publishing market and for personal success When translators do not attempt to force the norms, they are conservative in respecting the target language expectations and avoid challenging it with non-standard variants […].
When trans- lators try to reveal the differences in the source language, such as in The Simpsons dubbed into Italian, which uses target language dialects ad absurdum see Dore , they are experimental. An idiom characterizes a society, and when you ignore the idiom, you are very likely ignoring the whole social fabric that could make a meaningful character. Language is one of the most powerful tools the author masters in order to represent social differences.
All of her characters show linguistic features that can be ascribed either to Southern American English or to AAE or to both: Problems in relations between different classes are represented through dialogues illed with misunderstandings, especially between white and black people: Words are seldom able to establish a real relation among human beings who belong to dif- ferent social classes; rather different ways of speaking symbolize separated worlds and identities that cannot meet.
The following examples show some of the corrections that the editor makes to the translation of African American speech: Tutti Rac- conti 4 Restoring of correct syntactical structures in place of sub- standard or only uncommon ones: If this is the case, a problematic lexical choice still remains unaccounted for. In this regard the edition does not show any difference from the one and preserves the identical vocabulary of ethnicity, as in the following examples: The Negro had stopped what he was doing and watched him.
Complete Stories Il negro aveva smesso di lavorare ed era rimasto a guardarlo. Vita Tutti Racconti […] and eventually she had to stay in bed […], with only a colored woman to wait on her. Scholars like Schiavi propose the existence of such standardization paradigm in Italian literary translation from English Not only did prestigious translations show it -- such as the Mondadori edition of the Sound and the Fury translated by Vincenzo Mantovani, later repub- lished by Einaudi — but also innumerable recent ones: These examples show once more how grammar — through lexicon in this case — can convey inadequate translations and representations of a different culture.
As we have tried to show so far, Italian translations of African American language display many erroneous linguistic habits, which are still dificult to eradicate. Armstrong, Nigel and Federico M. Translating Voices Translating Regions. Anna Giacalone Ramat, and Giuliano Bernini. Conside- razioni sulla nozione di standard in linguistica e sociolinguistica. Standard e non standard tra scelta e norma: Woolard, and Paul V. Oxford University Press, The case of Turkish translations. Translating Dialects and Languages of Minori- ties: Challenges and Solutions, Bern: La rappresentazione del diverso in italiano e nei dialetti.
Federici, Federico M, ed. Translating Dialects and Languages of Minorities: Fitzgerald Sally, and Woods Ralph C. Print Green, Lisa J. Cambridge University Press, Linguistic Studies of Text and Discourse. London and New York: Language in the Inner City: Studies in the Black English Vernacular. University of Pennsylvania Press, Il fascino nel tradurre: The Tusks of the Tran- slator in a China Shop. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Njegosh, Tatiana Petrovich, and Anna Scacchi, eds.
La lingua del colore tra Stati uniti e Italia. Ombre corte Edizioni, African American Vernacular English: Features, Evolution, Educational Implications. Le traduzioni italiane di William Faulkner: Istituto Veneto di Scienza, Lettere ed Arti: Word from the Mother: Language and African Americans. Giuliano Bernini, and Vermondo Brugnatelli. Questions regarding Translation and Dubbing. Wolfram, Wolt, and Natalie Schilling-Estes.
Eerdmans Publishing Company, A History of Translation. Challenges for the 21st th Century: Papers from the 24 AIA Conference. For an analysis of the overuse of Italian ininitive verbs among second-language learners see Bani. Yet I had to resort at that time, and I would do the same today, to the overused stereotype of those who speak in inini- tives and mangle sounds and words.
I chose the stereotype in order to preserve the contrast, rather than leveling and losing the distance between the two languages. The second one, entitled Tutti i racconti and published in , collects all the short stories belonging to the American edition The Complete stories My citations from Tutti racconti refer to the edition.
Omboni refers to this choice in an undated letter addressed to one of her editors Guido Davico Bonino at Einaudi publishing house. A general amnesty allowed him to return to Italy in where he began a career as a journalist and political commentator. Giulio Camber Barni Born in Trieste, he studied law and philosophy in Vienna before being drafted into the Austrian army on the outbreak of war. Along with a friend, he deserted and volunteered for the Italian infantry. He rose through the ranks to become a captain, was twice decorated for gallantry and survived a gas attack. After a career as a lawyer, he was called up again in and served as a major in the Frontier Guard in Albania, only to die there after falling from a horse.
He then studied law, but very soon became a popular and proliic novelist, journalist and essayist. He wrote one novel based on his war experiences Giorni di guerra and published two collections of poetry, Poesie and Bassa marea Clemente Rebora Having studied for a degree in literature at the Accademia scientiico-letterario in Milan, he became a teacher and began con- tributing poems to the leading Florentine literary journal La Voce. Having already done his national military service, at the outbreak of war he was called up as an infantry lieutenant and suffered a serious head injury from an Austrian shell.
He spent the next three years in military hospitals recovering from the physical and psychological shock, but was able to resume his teaching career until a religious crisis in He destroyed all his books and papers in the following year and eventually took holy orders as a Rosminian priest. He continued writing poetry in a religious vein and two editions of his collected works Le poesie were published in and In he irst joined the Italian Red Cross, then served as an infantryman from Alongside of his work as a classics teacher and translator of the classics, he was a noted amateur botanist, especially of lichens.
He continued to write poetry and also published a many works of prose. Ardengo Sofici After studying painting at the Florence Academy, Sofici spent seven years in Paris , mixing with the artists and writers of the day, including Picasso, Braque and Apollinaire. Called up in , Sofici served in the infantry and wrote about his experiences not only in his poetry but in two memoirs Kobilek and La ritirata del Friuli Carlo Stuparich Born in Trieste, then still part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Stuparich was an irredentista who believed that the great port should return to Italy. Although he had moved to Florence to study in and joined the literary circle around La Voce, he quickly volunteered for military service against the Habsburgs and was commissioned as a lieutenant in the famous Sardinian Grenadiers.
Unfortunately cut off during an attack, and having lost all his men, he took his own life rather than surrender to the enemy as an Austrian citizen, he would have been condemned to death as a traitor. He was thus receptive to Futurism, which he tried to introduce to Sicily with his own short lived literary journal, La Balza. Like many other young Italians, he was inluenced by patri- otism to volunteer for active service against Austria-Hungary and served as an infantry lieutenant. He was wounded and on conva- lescence in Syracuse wrote a prose-poetry diary in French. At the end of the war, he lost interest in the avant-garde and turned to dialect poetry and the study of Sicilian culture.
After many years as a schoolteacher he became a professor of Sicilian culture and language at the University of Messina. Giuseppe Ungaretti Born — like Marinetti — in Alexandria, Egypt, and educated in French there, he went to Paris in intending to study law at the Sorbonne. He met the leading French and Italian writers and painters in Paris and also the Florentine Futurists, who invited him to contribute to Lacerba. On the outbreak of war he moved to Milan and was drafted into the infantry as a private, ighting on the Austrian and later French fronts.
The poetry he wrote in the trenches was irst published as Il porto sepolto and later ampliied in Allegria di naufragi in In it he proclaimed a new dawn in aesthetics for the new century, praising the virtues of the technological age, which he saw as a potential for spiritual renewal.
It caused a sensa- tion throughout Europe. Marinetti was perhaps a little late in his praise of machines, which had been around for well over a century, but it was the irst time an aesthetic movement had lauded the speed, mobility and sheer power of the very latest in industrial in- novations and proclaimed them almost as moral virtues to enhance the soul of man and save it from its comfortable bourgeois sloth. This idealism had a darker side. Marinetti also saw war as a source of renewal: Noi vogliamo gloriicare la guerra — sola igiene del mondo We want to glorify war — the only source of health in the world.
In ive years time the poet was able to see for himself what a healthy effect war had on the world. But Marinetti was an un- daunted and enthusiastic combatant, twice decorated for bravery.
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Unfortunately, after the war his militarism and patriotism led him into Fascism. Many Italians had gone to war against Austria-Hungary because of Hab- sburg rule over Italian speaking territories on the Adriatic coast, which they thought should be under Italian rule. Like Marinetti, Ungaretti had been born in Egypt, educated in French there, and was drawn to Paris as an ar- tistic centre before the war broke out. This too was a familiar model for young Italian writers and artists who were ardent promoters of the latest French movements, most notably Cubism.
In Florence, Giuseppe Prezzolini had founded the cultural and political review La Voce in order to disseminate the latest movements from Paris, although not — at irst — the Futurism of Marinetti. Sofici later joined with writer Giovanni Papini to found the more radical Lacerba which was ultimately to champion Futurism, although it was wary of and contested the theatrical antics of Marinetti and his follow- ers in Milan. This was the situation then in These were granted Italy by the Treaty of London the following year, inducing it to declare war on Austro- Hungary and a wave of patriotic idealism swept many young men into combat.
Austro-Hungarian forces held the higher ground and for the Italians it was literally an uphill battle. That is, when movement was possible. The many fronts in this war Asiago, Carso, Isonzo saw the stalemate of trench warfare very much the same as in France and Flanders, with the exception that trenches in the mountains had to be hewn out of stone and ice and armaments hauled up by mule or manpower alone. It will subvert syntax, use surreal imagery and manipulate voice as some of these poems show. But the experience of war tempered many poets to react against avant-gardism.
The selection offered here is taken from shorter works and showcases poets who may be less familiar than the famous names of Ungaretti, Umberto Saba and Eugenio Montale, the latter two also writing poetry during the war. Antologia dei poeti italiani nella Prima guerra mondiale a cura di Andrea Cortellessa Mondadori, which gives details of irst publication and irst collections of the poems.
Nei boschi di freschi nocciuoli La mitragliatrice canta, Le pallottole che siorano la nostra guancia Hanno il suono di un bacio lungo e ine che voli. A machine gun sings in the neighbouring woods of fresh hazelnuts. The bullets that graze our cheeks have the sound of a long delicate kiss lying by. Were it not for the appalling overwhelming stench of these enemy corpses we could light up our cigarettes and pipes in the this trench turning to mush in the sun and, as soldiers more than brothers to each other, calmly wait for death, which perhaps will not dare to touch [us, young and good looking as we are.
The air is as riddled as a piece of lace with the gunshots of men withdrawn into the trenches like snails in their shells. It seems that a whole host of breathless stone-cutters is striking the basalt pavement of my streets and I listen to them half asleep seeing nothing. Have mercy on us survivors who hear your death rattle and still the hour never comes, the death throes quicken, but you can let go and comfort be yours in the madness that leaves no one insane.
Meanwhile the moment brings pause, the brain sleeps and you leave us in peace — thank you, brother. In that soft whiteness of broidery and lace the pupils become animated by dreams: Ed i soldati scrutarono le stelle e il irmamento, pesarono respirando il fremito del vento. But on the 9th you could see a ring gleaming around the moon: The soldiers and the oficers who had waited 30 days for the offensive looked at one another and wanted to embrace. At dawn on the 10th it began to rain. Nei campi vi sono segnati ventagli, dove spuntano le piumetti del grano.
Gli uomini accanto hanno orecchi di ma- dreperla. Una fanfara, e i cavalli vanno a passo di musica come portassero le cavallerizze per la sabbia del circo. La strada galoppa il mio passo. Dovunque sono nate le violette. Intravvedo la dolcezza della sua carne rosa- celeste. In the ields patches sprout with little feathers of grain. On the ground, light is relected from the mirror of the sun in waves that break up on the last snows left on the moun- tains.
The men nearby have ears of mother of pearl. A peak opens up in the distance, the air rings with the C note of the earth. The road gal- lops to my steps. Everywhere violets are born. I glimpse the sweetness of its rose and sky blue lesh. This spring is all the more gentle seen through a shattered wall.
The gap frames me with its harsh jagged edges of stone, the soft colour of nascent things. Quasi a credere stenti che vivi. I boschi, le quote della vittoria, gli urli, il sole, il sangue dei [morti, Io stesso, il mondo, E questi gialli limoni Che guardo amorosamente risplendere Sul mio comodino di ferro, vicino al guanciale. It is hard to believe they Are still alive in the breeze. Rain sounds like the lullaby Of a sad little girl; And the earth is a cradle Where I see a body curl.
You can sleep for weeks on end; The body we had demobbed Still inds it hard to believe in this happiness: Clear pause, melting pot of multiple senses, Here everything converges in an inexpressible oneness; Mysteriously I feel a golden time start to low Where everything is equal: The woods, the odds on victory, the cries, the sun, the blood [of the corpses, Myself, the world, And these yellow lemons I look at lovingly, gleaming On the black iron bedside locker beside my pillow. It cheats the earth. Although out of my mind, I cannot weep.
Perhaps someone can do it, or the mud. But, man, if you return, Do not speak of war To those who do not know; Do not speak of it where men And life still understand it. And if you can return, Take hold of a woman And one night, after being seized by kisses, Whisper to her that nothing in the world Can redeem what is lost Here of us, the putrefying corpses. Bring a lump to her throat so that it chokes her: And if she loves you, You will come to learn this Later in life, or may be never.
Povere le mosche senza fortuna! E ognuno guarda sereno come se fosse straniero al giuoco. Everything seems like summer, life crouching in the sun waiting for dusk. Still many soldiers in line behind the embankment. Contemplation of the still air, and within it the stillness of appearances. It leaves men thinking: The six poems translated here are from a new work in progress: Hahn, a poet, essayist, and translator, has published ive volumes of his own poetry, most recently All Clear South Carolina and No Messages Notre Dame.
La fantasia e la voce Maledetta, luttuosa fantasia che esige un cuore mite e anche feroce Fingi di averlo e levamela via: Cretino E mi fai saltellare sui ginocchi dicendo: Trotta, trotta cavallino; poi mani nelle mani, occhi negli occhi… Ti siedo sopra il cazzo. Cetriolo Prendilo in mano. Mettitelo sopra, struscialo come fosse un cetriolo; usa me solo, lascia che ti copra tutta la vita in un minuto solo. Parole Ora lo sai: Devi imparare a amarmi a modo mio. Fantasy and Voice This is a doomed and mournful fantasy, seeking a heart both ierce and sweet. Then fake the feeling—free me from the dream: I want your voice to enwrap me.
Moron You make me hop up on your lap, you say, Giddy-up, giddy-up little horsy, gazing in my eyes and clutching my hands. Sit on my stick, you say. Cucumber Hold it up, squeeze it in your hand, rub it like a cucumber; lose yourself in me, and let this instant be all you ever remember. Words I need words: Learn to love me my way. The sick mind insists on it. He holds a Ph. Giancarlo Pontiggia Milano, ha pubblicato due raccolte poetiche Con parole remote, ; Bosco del tempo, , tre volumi di saggi Contro il Romanticismo.
Esercizi di resistenza e di passione, ; Selve letterarie, ; Lo stadio di Nemea, e un testo tea- trale Stazioni, Note on the translation Anne Schmid, a classical singer based in Switzerland, contacted me in the summer of to ask if I might be interested in help- ing her with a recording project she was working on at the time.
Her aim was to craft an "Arcadian soundscape" by incorporating baroque cantatas, for instance, with other musical forms and poetic texts. The "Arcadian" poems were provided by Giancarlo Pontig- gia, who also wrote a sort of poetic essay regarding the presence of Arcadian themes in his works and practice, "La mia Arcadia. To build the brief essay and accompanying translation into a fuller segment for Journal of Italian Translation, I contacted Pontiggia to ask if I might translate some of his poems properly-so-called as well, texts that might comfortably reside with his essay.
He very generously passed along a suite of poems that had never before been published, gathered under the title Le muraglie del mondo.
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If my translations are sonorous at all, or incisive at all, or illu- mined at all, or even remotely worthy of Arcadia-infused pursuits, it is because my source materials and primary purposes of transla- tion were so inspiring and inspired, enlightening and enlightened. La suggestione del mito arcadico nasce da questa intuizione: Se devo restare alla pura presenza del termine, tre volte: He knows quite well that poetry is something that requires places of secrecy and suspense, gardens of the soul where common percep- tions are inverted through lipped perspectives.
The locus of the Arcadian myth is one of poetic autonomasia, an interior landscape where every word deines its own metaphorical parameters, its own imaginable cor- respondences, its own initiatory rites. Every poet has a personal Arcadia, one that is likely, if not necessarily informed by places of origin and primary encounters with the world—a place that can be both fascinating and disturb- ing, that can stun and surprise with the force of an unexpected apparition.
Within such a fantastic yet very real world, we need not do anything more than write down the words that most clearly evoke how we experienced it, words that acted almost as mes- senger gods to convey intuited truths, and that continue to work within us as remembrances of things greater than we are. Con parole remote With Remote Words is the book in which I tried to draw a map of such secrets buried deep in a primitive, ancestral world: To what extent is Arcadia present in my poetry?
Regarding the term itself, it appears three times. I protagonisti, un vi- andante e un musico, dibattono sulla forma del tempo e sul senso della vita, mentre il vecchio millennio cede il passo al nuovo: Come nella prima ecloga virgiliana, due uomini si confrontano sui temi del destino e della storia da due fronti opposti, ma egualmente veri. Here the protagonists, a wayfarer and a musician, engage in a lively discussion of time and the meaning of life as the old millennium gives way to the new one: Thus does Arcadia reveal itself to be, once more, that which it has always been: His verse translations, mainly from Italian and Latin, have appeared in his books and in journals such as Prairie Schooner, The Formalist, and the new renaissance.
Ezra Pound was born in Hailey, Idaho, but grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia and became an early expatriate, living for extended periods in London, Paris, Rapallo, and Venice. One of the greatest twentieth-century poets, he was also a wide- ranging translator, theorist of Imagism and Vorticism, impresario of Modernism, trenchant literary critic, and indefatigable trumpeter of the genius of friends such as James Joyce and T.
A series of speeches he made over Rome Radio during the war set the stage for his outdoor coninement in a steel cage at a U. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, DC, from which he was released in Pound believed this portion of the epic, sometimes styled the Nekuia, or Book of the Dead, was the oldest stratum of the poem and thus con- stituted a it opening to his own long poem on the vicissitudes of human civilization.
Just as Divus and the Cretan brought the riches of ancient Greek literature to Renaissance readers who knew Latin but needed a handy trot to puzzle out the Greek, so in his introductory canto Pound makes accessible to modern readers of English a slice of cultural history that now must almost always be approached via translation or not all—and this, with varying degrees of success, is the chief project of the page museum- and anthology-like poem that follows. A Note on the Translation Pound translated the bulk of Canto I into an English exhibit- ing an archaic cast in vocabulary and diction.
The ocean lowing backward, came we then to the place Aforesaid by Circe. Here did they rites, Perimedes and Eurylochus, And drawing sword from my hip I dug the ell-square pitkin; Poured we libations unto each the dead, First mead and then sweet wine, water mixed with [white lour. Qui eseguirono riti, Perimede ed Euriloco, E sguainando la spada dal ianco Scavai il fossetto di un cubito quadro; Libagioni versammo ad ognun dei morti, Idromele e poi vino dolce, acqua mista con farina [bianca.
Poi pregai molte preghiere ai teschi infermi: Che tornato in Itaca, dei buoi migliori Sacriicherei, cumulando beni sulla pira, Una pecora solo per Tiresia, nera e da campano. But irst Elpenor came, our friend Elpenor, Unburied, cast on the wide earth, Limbs that we left in the house of Circe, Unwept, unwrapped in sepulchre, since toils urged other. And I cried in hurried speech: And he sailed, by Sirens and thence outward and away And unto Circe.
E gridai con parole precipiti: Dormii nella magione di [Circe. Paolo Valesio is the author, among various other works, of seventeen books of poetry. He is currently engaged in the parallel writing of a trilogy of journal-novels whose text by now runs to more than 20, manuscript pages. The poems of Spoleto, though sustained by description and narrative and set on the very real stage of the Umbrian city, seem nonetheless to take place in the mind. A walking exegesis, of sorts — at every encounter, every scene and object, the poet cocks his head and considers its symbolic resonance.
And where all is performance, all is interpretable. How will the exactitude be preserved? Which meanings will be sacriiced in the exchange? I thank Paolo Valesio for the challenge, and for his careful sugges- tions and explanations in the course of translating these works. A Spoleto non passeggiavano, ma si trasferivano: Queste che nelle pagine verranno sono le scene di Spoleto su cui ancora medita, che ancora non ha afferrato.
A suicide he witnessed without trying to stop her. The stillness of body and spirit seems to him like the right kind of weapon agaist the dangerous softness of the present world. Yet nothing stays still for very long, and nobody can be alone forever. All it takes is a brave postwoman who, in spite of the terrible snowstorm, delivers to him a telegram from Italy; all it takes is a half-sister, the obscure object of incestuous desire, who begs him to go back home; all it takes is the news that his father is terminally ill to break his stillness and make him return to his old family home.
He is ready to make come true the omen that followed him during his voyage home: Alberto Gaffi for the second time. The presentation is taking place in Udine, at the Tarantola bookshop, and the editor, Alessandro Lutman a poet , Nicola Skert a writer and Roberto Mete are going to discuss with the author. When he was a boy, Peter felt for his sister Celeste something that brothers are not supposed to feel. It was to escape these feelings that he moved to the solitary banks of Dawn Lake, Canada. Everything changed when his father was involved in an accident and Peter was forced to cross those boundaries that had kept him away for so long.
Saturday 4th November, at 18 pm, our Mauro Casiraghi is presenting his new novel, Estate indiana ed. Alberto Gaffi , for the very first time. The presentation is taking place in Monterotondo Rome , at the Ubik bookshop and Dario De Cristofaro, an editor, and Anna Mittone, an Italian writer, are going to discuss with the author. Our Marilena Renda , whose book Regali ai fantasmi has been longlisted for the Biblioteche di Roma Award , is presenting her novel in two occasions.
The second meeting is taking place in Catania, during the SabirFest , on the 6th of October at 6pm at palazzo Platamone. The Italian version, called Fascial release per il riequilibrio funzionale , has been published by Edi. This thoroughly revised edition of the authoritative reference Fascial Release for Structural Balance brings the book up to date with all of the most current research on the role of fascia and myofascia in the body, and how treatment affects it. This edition takes advantage of more sophisticated testing to explore in greater detail the relationship between anatomical structure and function, making it an even more essential guide.
Fascia, the soft tissue surrounding muscles, bones, and organs, plays a crucial role in supporting the body. Ancora sesso, droga e calci in bocca , published by Giunti and written by our Renzo Stefanel , is out at last. This dazzling book, a sequel of Sesso, droga e calci in bocca published by Giunti in , is in fact a collection of peculiar stories: Read an excerpt in Italian here. Carlo Vanin , an author of our agency, took part in a very interesting project for Neo Edizioni: This book, which is a collection of short stories written by many Italian authors, is surprising and moving at the same time.
All the authors involved agreed to donate the money earned with their rights for this book to an Italian NGO fighting for freedom in scientific research: Anna Mioni from our agency is debating on translation of books about rock music at Turin International Bookfair. In bocca al lupo! One of our Italian authors, Marilena Renda , has just published a book with the Italian publishing house Mesogea. An intriguing story, told in a very poetic and resonant prose, about two orphaned sisters from Sicily.
They lost their parents in a plane accident and Lena, who moved to Northern Italy as a teacher, goes back to Palermo in order to take care of her younger sister Vittoria who is deaf and lives with their aunt. Lena goes to a school to learn sign language, and Vittoria is the main character of their little world, with her antics and her unconscious grace.
Palermo is an eerie city teeming with strange characters, where the two sisters used to live in an enchanted atmosphere when they were children, but now it looks more like something unreal. In school Lena makes some friends, young unemployed people like her.
When Giacomo, the teacher, decides to stage a play, he choses Vittoria as the leading actress. Again, Lena is in the backdrop. We are thrilled to announce that Roy Jacobsen , who we represent in Italy on behalf of Cappelen Damm Agency, has been shortlisted to the prestigious Man Booker International Prize for his novel The Unseen — Congratulations to this wonderful author!
The Unseen will be published in Italy by Bompiani in the first months of It is quite the achievement, being shortlisted along with authors like Dorthe Nors and Amos Oz. Roy Jacobsens down to earth and ultimately touching novel has really impressed readers in many countries — and there are more to come….
The family seems to accept these vicious tempests as necessary rituals. Read more about the prize and the other nominees here. Sex, drugs and kicks in the teeth by Renzo Stefanel is being reprinted for the 2nd time in a new copies batch. Il sogno di Keribe , fantasy novel by Ilaria de Togni, is out today for Gargoyle. Erinke awakens inside the Orlog, at the same time a sea that no one can cross, and a powerful and obscure deity. Erinke is considered a mistake of Nature that can unleash the wrath of the gods and is destined to a future of prosecution and escape, like her peers; she is forced to quickly learn how to survive in a world oppressed by fear and devoured by injustice.
The result is an extraordinary heroine, whose inner strength and proactivity, along with lucky encounters and unexpected alliances, keeo her alive until her ability to cope with hardships exceeds expectations, to the extent that she understand she is able not only to change her fate, but that of her people as well. Meanwhile, in the West, the awakened Selah is enlisting followers to declare war on humans and bring back his race to the glory it once had. As soon as he hears of the recent reawakening of four new souls, after years in which the breeding ability of the Borders had been declared inactive, he instructs many hunters to find them for him.
Among them is Brant, that will convince Erinke to follow him, out of loyalty to an ideal of reunification that, unbeknownst to her, will send Keribe on the brink of a disastrous war between worlds. In the difficult path they will have to face together, the love soon to be born will change everything, even the harsh laws of a world that is, beautiful and scary at the same time, and will hinder their union until the end. A great love story, the depiction of a world and an adventure novel.
The Beatles who work like slaves at the Cavern and are expelled from Germany because they do not comply with work permits; their audition with Decca on 1st January they are rejected! In queste pagine ripercorriamo le biografie di dieci donne che hanno fatto la storia del Veneto passando da personaggi quali Caterina Cornaro e Tina Merlin. Figure diverse per epoca, astrazione sociale e fama,dando prova di come tutte abbiano trovato una forma di riscatto attraverso la cultura, in particolare la scrittura.
Nata per essere assediata. Della band Senza Strumenti fanno parte anche il colonnello Mustafa Setka, mago del basso, e il gigantesco ballerino di kolo , Masne, alle percussioni. Il sogno di Keribe The dream of Keribe , a fantasy new adult novel by our author Ilaria de Togni , will be published this autumn by Gargoyle books. Kamasutra Kevin by Alessandro Berselli, Pendragon. Non ci sono dei oltre il tempo by Davide del Popolo Riolo, Kipple ebook e cartaceo. Ecco gli appuntamenti con i nostri autori al Salone del Libro di Torino:. Firmacopie de Un tango per Victor Edicola Ediciones http: Sesso, droga, calci in bocca.
This book is a selection of 40 terrifying and disturbing stories, brilliantly told by the author: The novel Bloodbusters by our author Francesco Verso already published in English with Livid wins the Urania Mondadori prize and will be published in november in thousands of copies in Italian newskiosks. Steampunk and sci-fi novel set in 1st century Rome. Set in an ancient Rome that is very different from the one we know: Basically it is the beginning of an industrial revolution like in 18th century England.
All this progress has developed thanks to Caesar, who, sent into exile by Sulla, fled to Alexandria where he met the scientist Heron and became an able and astute scientist and entrepreneur himself. These events are the setting for the story but are not narrated directly because in the year in which the story is set, 49 BC, they have already for the most part become the norm: The main characters are therefore Caesar, Pompey, Cato, Cicero, Brutus, Mark Antony, and Catullus who often say things recorded in the history books though in a different context.
There are two narrative threads: There is a dog in the garden. There is the dog in the garden. This applies also a third type of article, the partitive article. A partitive article can also be used in the singular, indicating a quantity of uncountable things, people or abstract concepts: Ho visto della gente che correva. Definite article The form of the definite article varies according to the number and gender of the noun it accompanies, but also on whether the noun begins with a vowel, a consonant or certain letters or groups of letters, as seen in the table below:.
In the plural, they take the article le, which is never abbreviated. A particular, clearly identified thing or things, known or visible to the speaker and to the person s addressed: Give me the toothpicks. Referring to any toothpicks, without reference to a particular or known set: Give me some toothpicks. Flavia wants to take her friend to the party. I would like the room we had last year. Flavia vuole portare un amico alla festa. Flavia wants to take a friend to the party. I would like a room for tonight. The dolphin is a mammal. I like American films. There is a dolphin! Ho visto un bel film americano alla televisione.
These are only general guidelines. In many cases the use or omission of the articles depends on different linguistic habits. Some particular uses of the definite article In Italian we always use the definite article with the proper names of geographical features such as mountains, rivers, etc.: Brazil is world champion.
One lives better in southern Italy. But we do sometimes use it to refer to masculine or plural countries: Vivo negli Stati Uniti. I live in the USA. For the forms of the definite article with prepositions in, a, etc. We can summarise these patterns in the following way: What is an adjective? An adjective is a word that qualifies the meaning of a noun by adding some specification or description to it. There are many different categories of adjective including demonstrative questo, quello , interrogative quale , possessive mio, tuo , indefinite alcuni, qualche and negative nessun. But in this chapter we only cover the use of aggettivi qualificativi: The other types of adjectives will be shown in Chapter 3, together with the corresponding pronouns.
Almost all descriptive adjectives follow the same basic patterns as the nouns see 1. In the second group, the ending is the same for both masculine and feminine: The gender and number of the adjective must agree with the noun to which it refers see 1. Only a few descriptive adjectives have a different pattern from those shown above. Adjectives with singular -a for both masculine and feminine have masculine plural in -i and feminine plural in -e. Many of these have endings such as -ista, -asta, -ita, -ida, -ota for nouns with similar endings, see 1.
Invariable adjectives have the same ending, whatever their gender and number, and retain the same form whatever noun they are referring to. The most common invariable adjectives are: Colours indicated by two words: Position of adjectives Unlike English, and many other languages, the most common position for the adjective in the Italian noun group is after the noun.
This is the usual non-emphatic position occupied by the adjective, when it expresses a basic, intrinsic characteristic of the noun: Adjectives of shape, colour and nationality almost always come after the noun. Note that adjectives of nationality never have a capital letter in Italian: Adjectives qualified, for example, by an adverb or a prepositional phrase, also come after: Although Italian descriptive adjectives, particularly the most common e. Dammi il cacciavite piccolo.
Give me the small screwdriver.
There was a small screwdriver on the table. Sandra is a beautiful girl.
La carezza del destino: Touched
Sandra is a really beautiful girl. Ho comprato una macchina nuova. I bought a new car. Paola put on a new dress. Ci sono molti studenti poveri There are many poor students Poveri studenti! The exam will be hard! Note that bello, when positioned before the noun see example above, un bel problema changes its endings in the same way as the definite article il, la, lo, etc.
One way of making a comparison between two different people, objects or other elements, is to use a comparative adjective. My car is as fast as yours.
My car is faster than yours. My car is less fast than yours. My new office is as comfortable as the one I had before. My colleague is as pretty as she is efficient. Qui le melanzane non sono care come in Inghilterra. Here aubergines are not as dear as in England. Sandro is better than Angelo at bridge. It was less easy than I expected. Sara is prettier than she is intelligent.
The choice of di or che depends on what part of speech the second element of the comparison is, and on its position in the sentence: Special forms of comparative Four very common adjectives have a special form of comparative: The regular form of comparative shown in brackets is also possible. La maggiore si chiama Diana. I have two sisters.
The elder is called Diana. We have a greater responsibility than you. Il mio fratello minore frequenta la scuola elementare. My little younger brother goes to elementary school. He works with less commitment since he got married. This is called the relative superlative: Silvia is the best student in our class.
Pavarotti is the most famous Italian tenor in the world. The Po is the longest Italian river. Again, a few common adjectives have a special form of relative superlative, as well as the regular one: In my opinion, the greatest problem in our time is that of drugs. Absolute superlatives Absolute superlatives indicate the greatest possible degree of a quality, but without any comparison being made. Superlative adjectives are formed in Italian by adding the suffix -issimo to the end of the adjective: As seen above, when modified by any adverb molto, poco, troppo, abbastanza, piuttosto the adjective generally follows the noun: Adjective in the first group Adjective in the second group.
The common adjectives buono, cattivo, grande, piccolo, mentioned above, also have two forms of absolute superlative: Agreement of noun, article and adjective Nearly all Italian descriptive adjectives have the same pattern of endings as the nouns the two patterns are shown above ; only a few are invariable see 1.
Nouns, adjectives and articles used together in a noun group must agree in number and gender. Il vestito rosso La borsa rossa. Noun and adjective of same pattern When noun and adjective belong to the same pattern of endings, the agreement will be obvious: On the table there is a round dish. Noun and adjective of different patterns It is more difficult to remember how to make the agreement when the noun and adjective belong to different patterns and therefore have different endings: Ho conosciuto due ragazze inglesi. Il programma era noioso. La radio era rotta.
There is a large dish on the table. I met two English girls. The programme was boring. The radio was broken. More than one noun same gender If an adjective refers to more than one noun of the same gender, it will be plural and have the same gender as the nouns: Ho comprato un libro e un vocabolario tedeschi. I bought a German book and German dictionary. I bought a German grammar and a German diary. More than one noun different genders If the two nouns are of different genders then the adjective is generally masculine plural: Ho comprato un vocabolario e una grammatica tedeschi.
I bought a German dictionary and a German grammar. However if the second of the two nouns — the one nearest to the adjective — is feminine plural, the adjective may sometimes agree with it: Ho comprato un vocabolario e due grammatiche tedesche. I bought a German dictionary and two German grammars. Introduction Actions, events and situations are expressed by the use of verbs. Italian has a complex system of different verb forms. In the first section of this chapter we shall introduce the general features of Italian verbs, both regular and irregular, with a brief explanation of basic grammatical terminology, which will help you to understand these features.
In the second section, the different verb forms are illustrated in table form for the regular and the most common irregular verbs and also for the passive forms of the four regular verb types. Finally, in the third section, we look at the different verb moods and tenses individually with brief explanations on their use. Part B of the book illustrates usage more fully. We leave for America.
Franco and Teresa leave for America. Sometimes we talk of facts rather than actions. Questo film dura due ore. This film lasts two hours. However the grammatical subject of the verb may be different from the real subject or agent of the action. This is the case with passive constructions see Persons of the verb The different forms of the verb, determined by its grammatical subject, are called the persons this is a purely grammatical term, not necessarily referring to human beings:. In each tense, Italian verbs have six different endings, depending on who or what is carrying out the action.
How old are you? Using a subject pronoun to refer to the third person is often unnecessary where the person or thing has already been mentioned: Quanti anni ha Maria? How old is Maria? Verb conjugations The fact that Italian verbs have a pattern of six distinct verb endings in each of the tenses creates a large number of different forms of the same verb almost a hundred!
Fortunately, most verbs follow common patterns of change known as conjugations. The regular conjugation patterns are shown in the verb tables below 2. Traditionally we distinguish three conjugations defined by the form that the verb takes in the infinitive the infinitive is the form used in dictionary entries: Both patterns, however, are considered as belonging to the same conjugation, because of the -ire ending of the infinitive.
Moods and tenses Moods The different forms and uses of Italian verbs are traditionally grouped in seven moods. These convey the different characteristics of the actions or facts that the speaker or writer wants to communicate: The different verb forms for each verb mood will be listed below in the tables of regular and irregular conjugations and then described in separate paragraphs.
The ways in which moods are used to express distinct communicative functions and meanings are illustrated in Part B. Tenses The word tense denotes the different verb forms that indicate the relationship between the action or event referred to and the time of speaking or writing or other reference point in time. There is a range of different tenses for each mood of verbs except the imperative. In Italian, different tenses are sometimes used to distinguish features of verbs other than time relationships. For example, perfect and imperfect tenses can express the aspect of the action see Chapter 13 , while different subjunctive and conditional tenses can express different degrees of doubt, possibility, politeness, etc.
Simple and compound tenses Many tenses of Italian verbs are formed using the past participle of the main verb along with either avere or essere as the auxiliary verb. These are called compound tenses. One major area of difficulty for students of Italian is knowing which verbs use avere in compound tenses and which use essere.
In order to be able to do this, it is useful to understand the difference between transitive and intransitive verbs see 2. All passive forms of verbs see 2. There may be a direct object as in: Lucia scrive una lettera. Here the action of the verb can be completed by answering the question che cosa? The direct object of the verb is the noun that can answer this question without the use of a preposition in this case una lettera and una casa: Che cosa scrive Lucia?
What is Lucia writing? Lucia is writing a letter. What are we looking for? If we can ask and answer the question che cosa? Lucia ha scritto una lettera. Abbiamo cercato una casa. But some Italian verbs cannot be completed by a direct object and the question che cosa? Andiamo in ufficio alle 9. Il treno per Napoli parte alle 6. Siamo andate in ufficio alle 9. We go to the office at 9. The train to Naples leaves at 6. We went to the office at 9. The train to Naples left at 6. Because it determines their different uses, especially in the compound tenses, knowing whether verbs are transitive or intransitive is very important.
Check by either looking in a dictionary or seeing whether you can ask and answer the question che cosa? In dictionaries all verb entries carry the following indications: Problems arise also from the fact that many English verbs used transitively and intransitively have an Italian counterpart that can only be used intransitively.
Below we show some examples of English phrases that cannot be translated directly into Italian, since the verbs camminare, volare, guidare and viaggiare are not generally used transitively: Can you drive me home? Travel the world with Airmiles! Verbs that can be used both transitively and intransitively Some verbs can be used both transitively with a direct object and intransitively without a direct object , for example aumentare, cambiare, cominciare, crescere, diminuire, finire and passare. Il professore comincia la lezione alle The teacher begins the lesson at Finiamo le vacanze in agosto.
We finish our holidays in August. La lezione comincia alle The lesson begins at Le vacanze finiscono in agosto. The holidays finish in August. In simple tenses, the forms of the verbs are identical, whether transitive or intransitive. But the compound tenses, such as the past, vary according to whether they are used transitively or intransitively: Il professore ha cominciato la lezione.
The teacher began the lesson. The lesson began at Abbiamo finito le vacanze in agosto. We finished the holidays in August. Le vacanze sono finite in agosto. The holidays finished in August. Hanno corso un grosso rischio. They ran a great risk. Oggi ho saltato il pranzo. Today I skipped lunch. I have lived a life of hell.
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I lived in London for 10 years. The children jumped down from the bed. Verbs like these are marked in dictionaries as v. Verbs using the auxiliary avere even when used intransitively Generally Italian transitive verbs use the auxiliary avere, while intransitive verbs use the auxiliary essere in the compound tenses. However, there are quite a few verbs that use the auxiliary avere even when used intransitively. Here are the most common: The different voices or relationships are: Il meccanico ripara la macchina. The mechanic repairs the car. Luisa is watched by Gianni. The car is repaired by the mechanic.
In the second example, the agent of the action is clearly the mechanic the one who repairs the car , but the grammatical subject of the passive verb is the car. Gianni si guarda allo specchio. Gianni looks at himself in the mirror. There are other verb forms that are not strictly speaking reflexive but are similar in form. The passive form The passive of Italian verbs is formed by the use of the past participle and the auxiliary essere, using the same tense as the corresponding active form.
The passive conjugation of verbs is shown in the verb tables in 2. The passive can also be formed using venire or andare as auxiliary instead of essere see Only transitive verbs can have a passive form see 2. Passive sentences sentences based on a passive verb are used when we want to focus on the action itself or the object of an action, rather than on the agent of an action. For more examples on the use of the passive, see The reflexive and pronominal form Reflexive verb forms Reflexive verbs are active verb forms accompanied by a reflexive pronoun see 3.
Look at these two examples: Franchi sta lavando la macchina. Mr Franchi is washing the car. Franchi si sta lavando. Mr Franchi is washing himself. In the first example above, the direct object of the action of washing is the car. It is separate from the person who is doing it the subject of the action. In the second example, the subject and the object of the action are the same person Il Sig. This is the reflexive form, in which the reflexive pronoun refers to the person carrying out the action, but at the same time is also the object of it.
The position of the reflexive pronoun is the same as that of all other unstressed personal pronouns see 3. Please, have a seat make yourself comfortable. In genere i giovani italiani si vestono alla moda. In general young people in Italy dress fashionably. Dovete prepararvi ad uscire.
You must prepare yourselves to go out. Get yourself ready to go out! In the compound tenses, reflexive verbs are conjugated with the verb essere, even though the verbs are transitive cf. The past participle has to agree with the subject: Stamattina i bambini si sono alzati alle 6. This morning the children got themselves up at 6. Mi sono vestita con calma. I got dressed slowly. Pronominal verb forms Pronominal verb forms are verb forms which use the reflexive pronoun.
In Italian they are used much more frequently than in English because we can use them not only in a true reflexive pattern, but also in many other ways. In true reflexives see above , the subject and object of the verb are one and the same. The different uses of the pronominal verb form will become clear from the examples below. Note the use of the auxiliary essere in the compound tenses: Giulio si lava le mani. Giulio washes his hands. Mi metto la giacca. I put on my jacket. Stamattina non mi sono fatto la barba.
In the examples above, the actions are not truly reflexive, since the subjects and the objects of the actions are not exactly identical: In the last example, the participle can also agree with the object: Stamattina non mi sono fatta la barba. The reflexive pronoun can also be omitted in which case the construction no longer takes essere in the compound tenses: Giulio lava le mani. Non ho fatto la barba. Mario e Nicoletta si sposano domani. Mario and Nicoletta are getting married tomorrow.
Two presentations of Marilena Renda’s new novel this October
Dove vi siete conosciuti tu e Maria? Where did you and Maria meet each other? Ci siamo incontrati in Spagna. We met each other in Spain. Note how in the examples above the reflexive pronoun marks an event or action taking place within the subject; the two people are at the same time the subject and the object of a reciprocal action. The same actions can be expressed by the active form, in which case one person is the subject and the other is the object: Domani Mario sposa Nicoletta. Tomorrow Mario will marry Nicoletta.
Dove tu hai conosciuto Maria? Where did you meet Maria? Ho incontrato il Dott. I met Dr Rossi in Spain. Stasera ci vediamo un bel film. Voglio mangiarmi una pizza! I really want a pizza! Mi sono dimenticata le chiavi! I forgot the keys! In the examples above, the objects of the verbs are totally separate from, and not part of, the subjects. However the use of the reflexive pronoun shows the intensity felt by the people carrying out these actions. The same sentences can be expressed without using the reflexive pronouns, but then the statements will sound much less emotional, more objective: Stasera vediamo un bel film.
Voglio mangiare una pizza. Ho dimenticato le chiavi. Vi siete divertiti a Roma? Did you have a good time in Rome? Giulia regretted having accepted that job. Nella mia famiglia si parlano tre lingue. In my family three languages are spoken. From the terrace the roofs of the city can be seen one can see the roofs.
Impersonal si The pronoun si is also used to express the impersonal form of verbs see also Si lavora meglio con il fresco. One works better in cool weather. Stasera si va a ballare. Tonight everybody is going to dance. A tavola non si invecchia. Popular saying, meant to discourage people from hurrying when eating Notice that the impersonal form is always formed with si and the third person singular of the verb. Verb tables All the examples shown in the tables in 2.
Certain verbs use essere instead see 2. The simplified tables in 2. We call these patterns regular because the stems of these verbs remain constantly the same or invariable throughout the whole system of moods and tenses. Understanding the way the endings the variable part of the verb change, will allow us to learn all the possible forms of most Italian verbs. Notice the two patterns of the 3rd conjugation, and remember that the pattern in -isco is the most frequent. Present Presente 1st sing. Compound perfect Passato prossimo ho parlato ho creduto hai parlato hai creduto ha parlato ha creduto abbiamo parlato abbiamo creduto avete parlato avete creduto hanno parlato hanno creduto.
Pluperfect Trapassato prossimo avevo parlato avevi parlato aveva parlato avevamo parlato avevate parlato avevano parlato. Pluperfect Trapassato avessi parlato avessi parlato avessi parlato avessimo parlato aveste parlato avessero parlato. Conditional Condizionale Present Presente parl-erei parl-eresti parl-erebbe parl-eremmo parl-ereste parl-erebbero Past Passato avrei parlato avresti parlato avrebbe parlato avremmo parlato avreste parlato avrebbero parlato Imperative Imperativo tu parl-a lui parl-i noi parl-iamo voi parl-ate loro parl-ino Participle Participio Present Presente parl-ante Past Passato parl-ato Gerund Gerundio Present Presente parl-ando Past Passato avendo parlato.
Notice how each passive tense is formed by the corresponding tense of the auxiliary essere see below 2. In this table the participle is masculine singular, but in actual use it agrees with gender and number of the subject see below , as do all compound forms of verbs using essere. Remember that only transitive verbs see 2. Italian has a large number of irregular verbs, most of them in the 2nd conjugation, including many verbs frequently used in everyday language. Sometimes the irregular changes of the stem are unique to one verb as in the case of avere and essere. The complete conjugations of five irregular verbs are shown below 2.
These verbs have been chosen not only because of their frequency of use, but also because in some cases their patterns are followed by several other irregular verbs. A complete list of irregular verbs in alphabetical order is in Appendix II. These five verbs are among the most frequently used in Italian, and also among the most irregular. They share a common feature: I had to lock the office, yesterday. Quando potremo incontrare il Dott. When can we meet Dr Salvi? Voglio tornare a casa presto stasera. I want to go home early tonight. The verb essere is highly irregular, with varied stems in almost all tenses.
In the tables below, note how the compound tenses of essere take essere as their auxiliary, and the participle has to agree in number and gender. Infinitive Infinito Present Presente av-ere ess-ere. Pluperfect Trapassato prossimo avevo avuto ero stato avevi avuto eri stato aveva avuto era stato avevamo avuto eravamo stati avevate avuto eravate stati avevano avuto erano stati.
Past anterior Trapassato remoto ebbi avuto fui stato avesti avuto fosti stato ebbe avuto fu stato avemmo avuto fummo stati aveste avuto foste stati ebbero avuto furono stati. Imperfect Imperfetto av-essi fo-ssi av-essi fo-ssi av-esse fo-sse av-essimo fo-ssimo av-este fo-ste av-essero fo-ssero. Pluperfect Trapassato avessi avuto fossi stato avessi avuto fossi stato avessi avuto fossi stato avessimo avuto fossimo stati aveste avuto foste stati avessero avuto fossero stati Conditional Condizionale.