41
Hampshire Street, Cambridge, MA 02139 Phone: (617) 876-5160 Fax: (617) 661-3797- Italians in Literature
- Giambattista Basile
- Vittoria Colonna
Giovanni Pascoli
Giambattista Basile (1565-1632)
Zezolla or the Neapolitan Cinderella
In a November1998 issue of Newsweek, a review of the
recent multiethnic television remake of Hammerstein’s Ciderella mentions that
variations of this story have been around since the ninth century. However they emphasize
that the first ever European Cinderella goes by the name of "Zezolla, heroine of a
1634 Neapolitan tale..." in which "a governess advises her to murder her cruel
stepmother, which Zezolla promptly does".
The story behind he story is that this is not simply a
‘Neapolitan tale’, but it is part of the first collection of fables (although
not intended for children) written in the west. They written by Giambattista Basile
(1565-1632) and published posthumously during 1634-36 by the sister of the author Adriana,
a famous singer of the time. The complete title of the collection is Lo cunto de li
cunti o vero lo trattenemiento de’ peccerille. It consists of 49 stories told in
Neapolitan by ten women during five days. If this has familiar echoes and reminds one of
the framing of the tales of the Decameron by Boccaccio, but there lies the only
resemblance. In fact Basile wanted to make the connection, and the book was eventually
called Pentamerone, that is five days as opposed to the Decameron that refers to
ten days during which the stories are told.
While this is the work for which Basile is best known, he really
wanted to be remembered for his serious poetry Odes and Madrigals written in
Italian. To continue with the irony, his next best known work is his Muse napolitane,
also in Neapolitan, poems in dialog form for each of the nine muses. Below is an excerpt
form the poem on Calliope, the muse of music in which the author decries the state of
music at that time and recalls wistfully the time of Gian Leonardo dell’Arpa from the
late 1500’s when music sweet as honey would be able to conquer even Orpheus.
We will give the original Neapolitan, the Italian, and then the
English.
O Bello tiempo antico,
o canzune massicce,
o parole chiantute,
o concierte a doi sole,
o museca de truono,
mo tu non siente mai cosa de buono!
E dove so’ sporchiate
chelle che componeva
Giallonardo dell’Arpa,
che ne ncacava Arfeo,
dove se conservava
doce come a lo mele
la mammoria de Napole ientile?
Dov’è iuto lo nomme
vuostro, dove la famma,
o villanelle napolitane?
Camo cantate tutte ntoscanese,
coll’airo a scherecesse,
contrarie de la belle antichetate,
che sempre cose nove hanno nmentate!
In itlaliano: O bel tempo antico,/o canzoni sode,/o parole ben piantate,/o concerti a doppia suola,/o musica strepitosa,/ora tu non ascolti mai qualcosa di buono!/E dove si son ficcate quelle che componeva Gian Leonardo dell’Arpa,/che vinceva Orfeo,/dove si serbava dolce come il miele la memoria di Napoli gentile?/Dov’è andato il nome vostro,/dove la fama,/o villanelle mie napoletane?/Perché ora tutti cantate in toscano/con la musica a vanvera/al contrario del bel tempo antico,/quando sempre cose nuove hanno inventato!
In English: Oh the olden times when songs were solid and full of meaning, oh concerts and overwhelming music, now you don’t hear anything good anymore! Where are those songs of Gian Leonardo dell’Arpa that would even conquer Orpheus, and which still kept alive and sweet the memory of the old aristocratic Naples? Where has it all gone, the name and the popularity of those great Neapolitan songs. Why do you all sing in Tuscan, with that haphazard music, as opposed to the olden times when everything was fresh and new!
Vittoria Colonna
(c. 1492–1547)
Italian noblewoman and poetess. Many of her Petrarchan sonnets idealize her
husband, the marquis of Pescara, who was killed at theBattle of Pavia in 1525. She was a
friend of the artist Michelangelo, who addressed some of his finest sonnets to her.
Vittoria Colonna was born in Marino, southeast of Rome, into a well-known Roman family,
and married in 1509. She was acquainted with many of the important literary figures of the
day. After being widowed she lived in retirement, often in convents. The Rime
spirituali/Spiritual Poems are the most characteristic of her poems.
Pascoli is remebered by many a school boy in Italy as the author of the homely poems that they were made to memorize in school. Yet Giovanni Pascoli’s life had been that of a professor of the classics. It was not until 1891 that he dared publish his first poems Myricae. He taught Greek and Latin until he was named to the post of Professor of Italian Lierature at the University of Bologna at the death of Giosuè Carducci (1835-1907). Pascoli was also a linguist and a philologist. He was the last poet in Italy to compose poetry in Latin. This unusual endeavor won him international fame by winning repeatedly over several years the annual competion in Latin poetry held in Amsterdam.
It is from this highly literate poet that we have a new kind of poem composed to capture the immediacy of the moment. The most trivial event serves as inspiration for this poet who gives it importance and imbues it with a greater meaning. In addition, his use of some italo-american language foreshadows the later flowering of poetry in this language in the United States.
The poem Italy is a poem dealing with a modern topic "emigration". It is part of the collection called Primi poemetti. Pascoli depicts a scene of local folks from the region of Garfagnana (nortwesetrn Tuscany near Lucca) who have come back from Cincinnati and are now going back there. It is in the form of a conversation that we are listening to as we come upon the scene. Note the appropriate use of the dialect from the region and italo-american neologisms, as well as words in English thrown in, typical of a person who has lived abroad too long. Even the girl’s name, Molly, is no longer Italian, and the birds seem to echo the new American idiom. Their chirping sounds like "Sweet seeet" to the poet’s ears. The last verse is full of poignancy as the Italian children who have just met Molly ask her if she is coming back: "Will you come back, Molly?". She answered: -Yes!- With the truncated rhyme we sense that this answer is given more as a formality that an actual affirmative ‘Yes’. We know that many emigrants lost touch with their relatives, and in many cases also with their families.
Also note the following terminology that Pascoli has obviously heard from returning emigrantsand reproduces faithfully, aware of this new language: Cianza for fortuna (luck), tichetta for biglietto (ticket); Ioe is really Joe. In Italian the ‘j’ has the sound of an ‘I’, hence Pascoli wrote the letter I thinking that was what was meant here.
ITALY
"Ioe, bona cianza!...". "Ghita state bene!...".
"Good bye". "L’avete presa la tichetta?".
"Oh yes". "Che barco?". "Il Prinzessin Irene".
L’un dopo l’altro dava a Ioe la stretta
lunga di mano. "Salutate il tale".
"Yes servirò". "Come partite in fretta!".
Scendean le donne in zoccoli le scale
per veder Ghita. Sopra il suo cappello
c’era una fifa con aperte l’ale.
"Se vedete il mi’ babbo ... il mi fratello ...
il mi’ cognato ...". "Oh yes". "Un bel passaggio
vi tocca, o Ghita. Il tempo è fermo al bello".
"Oh yes". Facea pur bello! Ogni villaggio
ridea nel sole sopra le colline.
Sfiorian le rose da’ rosai di maggio.
Seet sweet ... era un sussurro senza fine
nel cielo azzurro. Rosea, bionda, e mesta,
Molly era in mezzo ai bimbi e alle bambine.
Il nonno, solo, in là volgea la testa
bianca. Sonava intorno al mezzodì.
Chiedeano i bimbi con vocio di festa:
"Tornerai Molly?". Rispondea: - Sì ! -
ITALY
"Joe, good luck!...". "Ghita keep well!...".
"Good bye". "Do you have your tickets?".
"Oh yes". "Which ship?". "The Prinzessin Irene".
One after another shook Joe’s hand
fo a long while. "Give our regards to such and such".
"Yes I’ll do that". "You’re leaving so quickly!".
With their clogs the women came down
the stairs to see Ghita off. On her hat
she wore a turltedove with open wings.
"If you should see my dad ... or my brother ...
my brother-in-law ...". "Oh yes". "You’ll surely have
a nice trip, Ghita. The good weather is going to hold".
"Oh yes".It was indeed a beautiful day! Every village
shone in the sun over the hills.
The roses of May were beginning to fade.
Seet sweet ... was the neverending whisper
in the blue sky. Molly, rosy cheeks,
blond and sad was there among the children.
The grandfather, alone, turned his hoary
head. The bells were ringing the noon hour.
The chlidren asked with festive voices:
"Will you come back Molly?". She answered: - Yes ! -
| | Back | |