Translating italia.it

February 24, 2007 Deirdre Straughan Leave a comment

The Italian government (just before it fell) launched with great fanfare italia.it, the country’s new tourism portal, along with a logo which:

looks like the winner from an elementary school drawing competition
is uncomfortably similar to the logo of Logitech
in no way represents Italy
includes a slogan ("Italy leaves a mark") which reminds me of the tourism campaign Spain has been running for years (that one with people sporting Dali’ mustaches) – didn’t it have exactly the same slogan?

As for the website… oh, dear god. They reportedly spent 45 MILLION euros for a site that lacks basic features (such as an RSS feed) that we have come to expect from a modern website. It has technical problems which anyone in Italy who knows anything about the web (and that’s a lot of us) is gleefully (and ruefully – our tax euros wasted!) tearing to bits.

Given my own skills and biases, what I first noticed was the English translation. Here’s a sample paragraph which I did not have to look hard to find:

For having more precise vision click on “+”: in this way it will be visualized an historical period in the detail.
For having, instead, one vision of entirety click on “-” and the period will be visualized a large historical period contain more events. The period comes shown in the Timeline to the right of the zoom: the blue bar will increase or decrease the dimension based on your choice.

This kind of laughably bad translation, like the manuals we so often see with Chinese electronics, gives the consumer no reassurance that there is anyone competent standing behind the product (the product, in this case, being Italy).

^ Someone else in need of a good translation service. The title on this clip in YouTube is "Rutelli inglese maccheronico" – Rutelli’s maccaronic English. Maccheronico (maccaroni-like) is the term Italians themselves use for heavily Italianized English (or other language).

Until a few weeks ago, I might have said that my Italian was good enough that I could translate an English text into decent Italian – not quickly, but I could do it, in fact had been asked to do it several times at the office (we have an office full of Italians, why ask me?).

Then we put this supposed skill of mine to the test. Ross is applying to attend Woodstock School next year. The application form includes recommendations to be done by various teachers and other people at her current school, none of whom (except the English teacher) reads or writes comfortably in English. So the form needed to be translated into Italian.

I took a first cut at it, and thought I had done a reasonably creditable job. Then Ross took it in hand, and came out with something completely different. I realized that my translation had been understandable, and grammatically fairly correct, but probably about as funny to a native Italian speaker as the text above is to a native English speaker.

Around the same time, Antonio, one of the delightful people I met at barCamp Roma, commented about me on his blog: Cavolo l’ho sentita zittire e mettere in riga decine di uomini con un italiano corretto, ma inglesissimo! – "Cavolo! I heard her shut up and straighten out dozens of men in very correct – but very English – Italian." Okay, I’m slightly embarassed about the shutting up and straightening out (not exactly my intention, but definitely my character). But the very correct and very English Italian… hmm.

I stand before you now, chastened and humbled: my Italian is good, but I sure as hell don’t speak or write like a native.

And this is a lesson that many Italians have yet to learn. Just because you can read and understand another language well, and maybe even translate well from that into your mother tongue, does not mean that you can translate in the other direction with comparable competence. If you need a text to sound professional and persuasive, leave it to an expert.

So… I’m looking for someone to translate my resumé into Italian…

Italian songs

Learn Italian in Song: Una Donna per Amico

February 24, 2007 Deirdre Straughan 2 Comments

A Woman for a Friend

The late, great Lucio Battisti again, with lyrics by Mogol. This song was played as the Italian athletes entered the stadium during the opening ceremonies of the Torino Winter Olympics.

The title means “A Woman for a Friend,” but you need to pay attention to the subtleties: amico is the masculine form of the noun (a female friend should be amica), so title seems to say that the singer chose a woman rather than a man as his best buddy. The song is about the consequences of that choice.

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Italian language, Italian songs

Aggiungi un Posto a Tavola: Consolazione

February 23, 2007 Deirdre Straughan Leave a comment

All this God-inspired romance is interrupted by the arrival of a travelling prostitute named Consolazione –

Consolation – with that name, she could be a denizen of Dogpatch! – who distracts all the men from their wives, apparently because it’s their last chance for an extramarital fling.
Uomini, eccomi!		Men, here I am!
Eâ€™ arrivata Consolazione		Consolation has arrived.
Consolazione di nome e di fatto		“Consolation” by name and in fact
Per consolarvi ho certi argomenti		I have certain ways to console you
Prova per credere		Try it to believe it
Facciamo un patto		Let’s make a deal:
Se dopo voi non restate contenti		If afterwards you aren’t content,
Sulla parola di Consolazione vi rimborso la consumazione!		On the word of Consolation, your money back!

Mando il mondo in visibilio, tutti chiedono di me		I cause the world to …, everyone asks for me
Lâ€™avventura a domicilio		“Adventure at home”
Lâ€™ho inventata e sai perchÃ©		I invented it, and you know why
Ãˆ una vera vocazione		It’s a true vocation
A nessuno dico no		I don’t say no to anyone
E se vuoi consolazione		and if you want consolation
Me la chiedi		You ask me –
Te la do*		and I give it.

Se per colpa degli eventi		If because of [by fault of] events
sei piÃ¹ triste di un cipresso		you are sadder than a cypress
e la sera tu ti senti		And in the evening you feel
malinconico e depresso		melancholy and depressed
se per questa depressione		If because of this depression
il morale tuo sta giÃ¹		Your morale is down
tu vieni da tu vieni da Consolazione		You come to, you come to Consolation
e lei te lo ritira su!		And she’ll pull it back up for you!

Un due tre		One, two, three
UOMINI Prima a me		MEN: Me first!
Quattro cinque sei		Four, five, six
UOMINI Comincia da me		MEN: Start with me
sei sette otto, chi Ã¨ senza biglietto		Six, seven, eight. Who doesn’t have a ticket?
UOMINI io io io!		MEN: Me me me!

Si faccia pure sotto**, sotto sopra in qualsiasi posizione		Step right up [it’s done below], below, above, in any position
Lâ€™importante Ã¨ non dire mai di no		The important thing is never to say no
E se vuoi Consolazione		and if you want Consolation
UOMINI La vogliamo		MEN: We want it/her!
Aho ve la do!		Oh, and I’ll give it to you!
		dialog: Toto’ asks what she’s selling. “This!” she says, showing her breasts. “I only see a pair of zinne,” he responds. “What did you expect me to have – four?”
Mi vuoi esotica o nostrana		Do you want me exotic or local
turca greca russa o indÃ¹		Turk, Greek, Russian or Hindu
Preferisci lâ€™egiziana		Do you prefer the Egyptian
Faccio tutto, scegli tu!		I do everything, you choose!
E per te Consolazione egiziana diverrÃ		And for you Consolation will become Egyptian
TutankÃ tutankÃ tutankamera veniteme a trovÃ !		Tutan[khamen]… [everything in the room] – come up and see me!

UOMINI Consolazione ConsolaziÃ²-Ã²-Ã²		men: Consolation
Tu sei lâ€™ultima occasione		You’re the last chance/last sale
Non possiamo dire no		We can’t say no
Voglio la Consolazione		I want Consolation!

La volete?		You want it?

UOMINI Si!		Yes!

Io ve la dooooooooo, siiii		I’ll give it to you, yes!

UOMINI Consolazione consolazione, dammi tutto tutto dammi consolazione!		Consolation, give me everything, give me consolation.

* Te la do – “I’ll give it to you” – to give “it” is used as a euphemism for a woman to give sex. God, however, has something up his sleeve to take care of this little setback. Toto, the (unmarried) village idiot, has been hanging about the sidelines of this scene, too dense to know what to do with a woman. God suddenly gives him the necessary knowledge, and he shoulders aside the other villagers to reach Consolation, who takes one look at his, er, talents, and closes the door on everyone else, leaving them to go back to their wives. next: Notte Per Non Dormire 2

media

Fun in a Photography Studio

February 20, 2007 Deirdre Straughan Leave a comment

Family portraits have been on my mind because, during our January visit to my dad and Ruth, I received an unusual birthday gift: a photo session at Venture “New Generation Portraits,” a UK-based franchise with a new approach to the photo studio business. Dad and Ruth had had their portraits done a year ago, and had so much fun doing it that they gifted sessions to Ruth’s sister and brother-in-law, and now to me and Ross. I had seen Dad and Ruth’s pictures, and knew that we were in for something different from the usual stiffly-posed studio portrait.

Before we left the house, Ross did an excellent makeup job on me (as well as herself). I ordinarily never wear that much makeup – wouldn’t have time or patience to put it on every morning even if I knew how – but it looked great.

We were told to choose clothing that we felt comfortable and looked good in. There’s a dressing room at the studio and you can change as many times as you want during a session, but in the end we didn’t bother: we chose one outfit each and didn’t bring any extras (to the photographer’s surprise – she said girls usually bring lots of changes).

Once in the studio, the photographer (an energetic young woman named Lucy) asked us (and Ruth) questions about ourselves, our relationship (“are you cuddly?”), and what we wanted to get out of the session. We didn’t really know, mainly just wanted to see what it was like and have fun, and let Ross see how a (different kind of) professional portrait photographer works. I looked forward to having a nice photo of myself for a change: Ross rarely photographs badly, but I am not nearly so photogenic or comfortable in front of the camera.

The business end of the studio was a big white space with studio lights. We took our shoes off, then Lucy had us get physical: sitting on the floor and pushing our backs against each other, tickling, and combat-crawling on our elbows towards the camera (Ross won that race by miles, which isn’t surprising – that’s how she always crawled as a baby):

Lucy asked if we would dance, but Ross wouldn’t dream of dancing in front of her mother and a camera, and the music wasn’t sufficiently inspiring (we could and should have brought our own).

Lucy did things with the lighting: red, purple, and blue bounced off the wall behind us. We did some individual shots. For me, she set up the lights to halo my head from the back so you could get the full effect of my hair which, when it’s behaving the way my hairdresser intended, fluffs up like a dandelion – so we did one with me “tearing” my hair, which came out very funny.

The photo session took an energetic hour, and we knew we’d gotten some good shots. We had an appointment to come back two days later to see the results – Ruth had begged them to schedule it in quickly so we’d be in time to choose our photo before we headed back to Italy on Monday. They gave us a price list to study at home, which only confirmed what Ruth had already told me: all I can afford right now is the 8×10″ that comes with the gift voucher. Prices after that start at 169 pounds for a 5×7″! And go up well into the thousands for the poster-sized and multiple jobbies encased in lucite – which is clearly where Venture make their money.

So we knew we would have to choose only one picture. (For now: they keep the photos on file for two years, during which time you can always go back and order more prints, though I winced to hear that they store them on CDs, a medium with which I have long experience and very little trust.)

The photo viewing was an emotional experience, complete with a box of tissues ready to hand. Out of about 80 photos that had been shot, we looked at 40, projected onto a wall. In the first pass we were unusually ruthless and got it down to about 20, by discarding the ones in which either looked less than perfect.

None were standard studio portraits – all had been manipulated in some way with Photoshop, for example adjusting the colors to blue- or violet-toned black & white, or bleaching out features to emphasize the eyes (Ross complained that in one shot her nose almost disappeared). They were shot and/or rotated to unusual angles, and some were designed to be printed in a widescreen format.

I liked the combat crawl shot, with me far in the background as Ross lunges towards the camera. I felt it was symbolic of my supporting role in her life: I’m there to stand behind her, whatever she wants to do. But it wasn’t so great as a portrait of us both.

There was an outstanding model shot of Ross, but then, it’s easy to get outstanding shots of Ross.

Ross liked one in which I stand skeptically looking on while she jumps in the air, kicking up her heels. Again lots of fun and very symbolic, but it would be better as part of a tableau with one or two more serious shots.

The one we ended up with is shown at the top of this article.

(The intrusion in the lower left corner is a ceramic tile from Castelli that is propping up the picture on a bookshelf til we figure out where it will live permanently.)

funny signs

Funny Italian Street Names

February 16, 2007 Deirdre Straughan 6 Comments

above: “Wild man alley” – with a shop called Angel Devil on the corner. Chiavenna

The US is full of streets named after trees, or simply called “Main,” or given numbers or letters. Washington DC is built on a grid of numbers and letters of the alphabet. I won’t even attempt to explain Salt Lake City. These two schemes reflect an extreme tidiness of mind, but have the disadvantage that they’re easy to mix up or mis-type, no doubt causing the postal service all kinds of headaches.

Italian street names can be repetitive, but at least they’re not boring. They generally fall into two major categories: history and geography. Geographic names can be of towns or geographic features in Italy or in other countries; Milan has a Corso Buenos Aires and a Piazza Lima, every town in Italy has a via Roma and probably a via Milano. There are also streets named after important dates, such as Piazza XXV Aprile, commemorating the official day that Italy was liberated from the Nazis. (In these cases, the date is always given in Roman numerals, which are also used in print to refer to centuries.)

Don’t look for Italian street signs stuck up on a pole on the corner, as you see in the US. In the cities, street signs are marble plaques cemented to the corners of buildings. When the street is named for a person, the plaque often includes his dates of birth and death and what he was famous for, so you can have a history lesson just walking around. Somehow it had never occurred to me that the Falloppian tubes were named for somebody, until I saw a street sign with the name Antonio Falloppio and the tag “anatomist.”

The historical figures named run the gamut from ancient Rome to Aldo Moro, but most of them are men. The few women I’ve noticed are queens, saints, and Maria Montessori (whose image was also on the last 1000-lire note).

The older streets nearer the city centers are generally named for older historic figures. The further you get out into the suburbs, the more modern the names, including some non-Italians. There is a via Washington in Milan, and I have seen several via Kennedys in various towns, and even a via Fratelli Kennedy (Kennedy brothers). Still further out in expanding city suburbs, recently-created streets have been named for Gandhi and Salvatore Allende.

Some streets are named for items of strictly local importance. Lecco’s most famous son was Alessandro Manzoni, author of I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed), considered the first modern Italian novel. So in Lecco proper we have a Piazza Manzoni and Ospedale Manzoni, and every town in the province of Lecco seems to have streets named for his characters: Renzo, Lucia, i Bravi, Don Abbondio…

Funny Italian Street Signs

This piazzetta in Bellagio honors a former mayor, whose name”Bifolco” literally means “peasant”, but also carries the connotation of “yokel” or “bumpkin.” Evidently the man outshone his name, being named a Cavaliere (knight, an honorific title nowadays), as well as elected mayor.

I’ve found unusual street names in the historical parts of some towns:

Viterbo

^ “Mane,” in the sense of a big head of hair.

“Kiss(es) Women”

Pitigliano

“Street of the Lost Maidservants.” ???

“Slippery Lane”

Volterra

“Narrow Alley of the Gypsy Women.” I was misled by this at first, because in modern Italian chiasso means “noise,” but a reader corrected me.

Pienza

And here’s an interesting sequence (yes, these streets actually are adjacent to each other).

First comes love..

…then a kiss…

…and over the rest we draw a veil of darkness…

What’s the funniest street name you’ve ever seen (anywhere)?