Showing posts with label Italian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Italian. Show all posts

Saturday, June 14, 2014

Forza Azzurri


Forza Azzurri! Best dressed. Who needs actual football attire when you can just play in a Dolce & Gabbana suit.

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Master of Couture

Valentino Exhibition in London on Euromaxx, Deustche Welle
'Master of Couture is the name of an exhibition in London's Somerset House that is dedicated to Italian fashion designer Valentino.'

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Procession

An hilarious video on Corriere della Sera featuring a driver from Cardito, a province of Naples, who cannot park. Blocking traffic on both sides, a small crowd gathers; other cars, bikers, a church procession.

Monday, January 21, 2013

La Partenza dei Bersaglieri da Napoli

La Domenica del Corriere
13 December 1914

La Partenza dei Bersaglieri da Napoli: Partenza dell'eroico 11° bersaglieri da Napoli per Ancona: signore e popolane infiorano i soldati nel piazzale della stazione.

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Santa Lucia

Santa Lucia is the patron saint of Syracuse, Sicilia, where she was born. On the 13th of December, her feast day is celebrated. It is celebrated in many countries such as Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Finland, Hungary, Malta, Bosnia, Bavaria, Croatia, Slovakia, Spain, and of course, Italy. She is a popular saint particularly with children throughout Italy, particularly Trentino, East Lombardy, parts of Veneto such as Verona, parts of Emilia-Romagna such as Piacenza, Parma, and Reggio Emilia. Tradition tells that she arrives with her donkey and an escort, Castaldo, to bring gifts to good children and coal to bad children, on the night between 12th and 13th December. As children in the western world leave out milk and cookies for Santa Claus, Italian children leave coffee for Lucia, a carrot for the donkey, and a glass of wine for Castaldo. It is forbidden to watch Santa Lucia delivering the gifts, and if one was to do so, legend has it that she would throw ashes in your eyes, blinding you temporarily. With a name derived from Lux, Lucis meaning 'light', she became the patron saint of the blind.

It is not exactly clear as to what the story of Santa Lucia is, but many believe that she was a Sicilian saint who was martyred in Syracus, Sicilia, around 310AD. The Guilte Legend, a Middle Age compendium of saints' biographies says she went to the shrine of Saint Agatha, patron saint of Catania, to find help for her ailing mother, Eutychia, when an angel appeared to her in a dream. Because of this, Lucia became a devout Christian and refused to compromise her virginity in marriage to a non-Christian. Her fiance denounced her to the Roman authorities, who then threatened to give her to a brothel if she did not denounce Christianity. However, when she refused, myth has it that they were not able to move her, not even with a thousand men and fifty oxen. So they stacked firewood around her and set it alight, but she would not stop speaking about her beliefs. One of the soldiers speared her throat, but she kept talking. 

Though lacking evidence, some stories go on to say that, unable to move or burn Santa Lucia, the guards then took out her eyes, others saying she tore out her own eyes and gave them to her ex-fiance who had admired them. In medieval accounts, her eyes were removed before her execution; and in art they sometimes appear on a tray that she is holding. Some end her story with God's restoration of her eyes, others with her death.

Another legend has Santa Lucia working against the Roman Emperor Diocletian to hide Christians in the catacombs; and in order to bring as many supplies with her as possible, she made available both her hands by attaching candles to a wreath on her head.

In Sicilia, the Catholic feast day of Santa Lucia is celebrated with feasts of pasta and a special dessert of wheat and sugar named cuccìa; the large grains of soft wheat representative of her eyes, and only eaten once a year. The dish commemorates the unexpected arrival of wheat to Palermo's port on Santa Lucia's Feast Day in 1646, at the end of a Sicilian food shortage. Tradition does not allow bread to be eaten on 13th December, and it is to be the cuccìa which is the main wheat source for the day.

Friday, December 7, 2012

Un Matrimonio Movimentato

La Domenica del Corriere
18 maggio 1958

UN MATRIMONIO MOVIMENTATO: Un giovane di parola. Alla vigilia delle nozze Francesco D., abitante in una borgata della Valle Imagna, scese a Bergamo per ritirare il braccialetto che doveva offrire alla fidanzata. Sulla via del ritorno fu investito da un camion. Raggiunse la propria casa. Il mattino dopo, abbondantemente bendato, il giovane, per non mancare alla parola data, si presentò in chiesa. E qui attese la propria sposa. Questa, vedendolo così conciato, svenne. Quando riprese i sensi, la cerimonia ebbe luogo. Il sacerdote benedisse le nozze e si compiacque con Francesco per la forza d'animo.

AN EVENTFUL WEDDING: A young man of his word. On the eve of the wedding of Francesco D., living in a township of the Imagna Valley, went to Italy to pick up the bracelet to be offered to his girlfriend. On the way back he was hit by a truck. He reached his home. The next morning, heavily bandaged, the youth, not to break his word, went to church. And here was waiting his own wife. This, seeing the state he was in, she fainted. When he recovered consciousness, the ceremony took place. The priest blessed the wedding and was pleased with Francesco's fortitude.

Please excuse the TERRIBLE translation, my Italian is still not very good! But I thought the story was too great not to share in English.

Sunday, December 2, 2012

Aiax


An Italian advertisement for Aiax Detergent from 1988

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Ventisettesima

È la ventisettesima nuovamente. Undici mesi fa. E quasi un anno. Hai preso parte del mio cuore con te.

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Ravensburger

An Italian advertisement for Ravensburger puzzles from 1995.

Saturday, November 24, 2012

Luna Rossa





This morning, before heading in to uni, I chatted with a friend who lives in Germany for over an hour online; was lovely to catch up after not having really talked to him for a year. We talked about travel, food, and language; three of the most wonderful things in the world. I think experience is what creates life; more than possessions or even knowledge, it is experiencing things, no matter how big or small, how seemingly monumental or trivial, that is important. It is about moments.

As the bus drove over the Harbour Bridge, the sun reflected off the 72-foot Prada Luna Rossa catamaran, the Italian flag waving in the breeze, the ocean glittering. At the time, I had no idea what the beautiful catamaran was here in Auckland for; but I just read that it is one of the yachts that will be in the America's Cup 2013 race. The Italians plan to stay in New Zealand until March, heading to the Louis Vuitton Cup challengers' race in June, in San Francisco. The winner of that will compete against the Oracle, current holders of the America's Cup. Sometimes I wish I had kept up sailing, it looks like so much fun.

Photos from Vogue

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Arcobaleno (Rainbow)

Inzuppa 7 pennelli nel tuo cuore di 36 anni finiti ieri 7 aprile
E rallumina il viso disfatto delle antiche stagioni

Tu hai cavalvato la vita come le sirene nichelate dei caroselli da fiera
In giro
Da una città all'altra di filosofia in delirio
D'amore in passione di regalità in miseria
Non c'è chiesa cinematografo redazione o taverna che tu non conosca
Tu hai dormito nel letto d'ogni famiglia

Ci sarebbe da fare un carnavale
Di tutti i dolori
Dimenticati con l'ombrello nei caffè d'Europa
Partiti tra il fumo coi fazzoletti negli sleeping-cars diretti al nord al sud

Paesi ore
Ci sono voci che accompagnan pertutto come la luna e i cani
Ma anche il fischio di una ciminiera
Che rimescola i colori del mattino
E dei sogni
Non si dimentica né il profumo di certe notti affogate nelle ascelle di topazio
Queste fredde giunchiglie che ho sulla tavola accanto all'inchiostro
Eran dipinte sui muri della camera n. 19 nell'Hotel des Anglais a Rouen

Un treno passessiava sul quai notturno
Sotto la nostra finestra
Decapitando i riflessi delle lanterne versicolori
Tra le botti del vino di Sicilia
E le Senna era un giardino di bandiere infiammate

Non c'è più tempo
Lo spazio
È un verme crepuscolare che si raggricchia in una goccia di fosforo
Ogni cosa è presente
Come nel 1902 tu sei a Parigi in una soffitta
Coperto da 35 centimetri quadri di cielo
Liquefatto nel vetro dell'abbaino
La Ville t'offre ancora ogni mattina
Il bouquet fiorito dello Square de Cluny;
Dal boulevard Saint-Germain scoppiante di trams e d'autobus
Arriva la sera a queste campagne la voce briaca della giornalaia
Di rue de la Harpe
<<Pari-cûrses>> <<l'Intransigeant>> <<la Presse>>
Il negozio di Chaussures Raoul fa sempre concorrenza alle stelle
E mi accarezzo le mani tutte intrise dei liquori del tramonto
Come quando pensavo al suicidio vicino alla casa di Rigoletto

Si caro
L'uomo più fortunato è colui che sa vivere nella contingenza al pari dei fiori
Guarda il signore che passa
E accenda il sigaro orgoglioso della sua forza virile
Recuperata nelle quarte pagine dei quotidiani
O quel soldato di cavalleria galoppante nell'indaco della caserma
Con una ciocchetta di lilla fra i denti

L'eternità splende in un volo di mosca
Metti l'uno accanto all'altro i colori dei tuoi occhi
Disegna il tuo arco

La storia è fuggevole come un saluto alla stazione
E l'automobile tricolore del sole batte sempre più invano il suo record fra i vecchi macchinari del cosmo
Tu ti ricordi insieme ad un bacio seminato nel buio
Una vetrina di libraio tedesco Avenue de l'Opéra
E la capra che brucava le ginestre
Sulle ruine della scala del palazzo di Dario a Persepoli
Basta guardarsi intorno
E scriver come si sogna
Per rianimare il volto della nostra gioia

Ricordo tutti i climi che si sono carezzati alla mia pelle d'amore
Raggianti al mio disiderio
Nevi
Mari gialli
Gongs
Carovane
Il carminio di Bombay e l'oro bruciato dell'Iran
Ne porto un geroglifico sull'ala nera
Anima girasole il fenomeno convergere in questo centro di danza
Ma il canto più bello è ancora quello dei sensi nudi

Silenzio musica meridiana
Qui e nel mondo poesia circolare
L'oggi si sposa col sempre
Nel diadema dell'iride che s'alza
Siedo alla mia tavola e fumo e guardo
Ecco una foglia giovane che trilla nel verziere difaccia
I bianchi colombi volteggiano per l'aria come lettere d'amore buttate dalla finestra
Conosco il simbolo la cifra il legame
Elettrico
La simpatia delle cose lontane
Ma ci vorrebbero delle frutta delle luci e delle moltitudini
Per tendere il festone miracolo di questa pasqua

Il giorno si sprofona nella conca scarlatta dell'estate
E non ci sono più parole
Per il ponte di fuoco e di gemme

Giovinezza tu passerai come tutto finisce al teatro
Tant pis Mi farò allora un vestito favoloso di vecchie affichés


Dip 7 brushes into your heart 36 years old yesterday April 7th
And touch up that face worn out by the passing seasons

You have ridden life like a nickel-plated mermaid on a carousel
Whirling
From city to city from philosophy to frenzy
Love to passion royalty to poverty
There isn't a church movie theatre newsdesk or bar you don't know
You've slept in every family's bed

There should be a carnival
Of all the sorrows
Forgotten along with umbrellas in all the cafes of Europe
Gone in a cloud of smoke with handkerchiefs in the sleeping cars of express trains heading north or south

Countries hours
There are voices that follow you everywhere like the moon or a dog
Even the whistle of a smokestack
That stirs the colours of the morning
And of dreams
You won't forget or the scent of certain nights drowned in topaz armpits
These cold narcissus that I keep on the table by the inkwell
Were painted on the walls of Room 19 of the Hotel des Angalis in Rouen

A train rambling along the quay late at night
Beneath our window
Beheaded the reflections of multicoloured lanterns
Among casks of Sicilian wine
And the Seine was a garden of blazing flags

There is no more time
Space
Is a twilight worm coiled in a drop of phosphorous
Everything is present
As in 1902 you are in a garret in Paris
Sheltered by 35 square centimetres of sky
Melting across the glass of the skylight
La Ville offers you again each morning
The flowering bouquet of the Square de Cluny
From Boulevard Saint-Germain exploding with trams and buses
Every evening you hear the hoarse cry of the paperboy
From Rue de la Harpe
"Pari-cûrses" "l'Intransigeant" "la Presse"
The shoestore Chaussures Raoul still rivals the stars
And I rub my hands stained with the liquors of sunset
Like that time I thought about suicide near Rigoletto's house

Yes my dear
The most fortunate man knows how to live with uncertainty like the flowers
Look at that gentleman strolling past
As he lights his cigar proud of his manly vigour
Restored by the fourth-page spreads in the daily papers
Or that trooper galloping through the indigo darkness of his barracks
A sprig of lilac between his teeth

Eternity shines in the light of a housefly
Place the colours of your eyes side by side
And sketch the arch

History is as fleeting as a nod at the train station
And the tricolour car of the sun keeps breaking its own record pointlessly amid the used machinery of the cosmos
You remember along with a kiss planted in the darkness
The window of a German bookseller in the Avenue de l'Opéra
And the goat grazing on yellow broom
Among the ruined stairs of Darius's palace at Persepolis
You need only look around
And write from your dreams
To revive the face of our joy

I remember all the climates that caressed my skin like a lover
Shimmering on my desire
Snows
Yellow seas
Gongs
Caravans
Carmine of Bombay burnt gold of Iran
I carry their hieroglyph on this black wing
Sunflower soul the phenomenon converges here in the centre of this dance
But the most beautiful song is still that of the naked senses

Silence music of the south
Here and in the world circular poetry
Today marries Always
In the crown of the rising rainbow
I sit at my table and I smoke and stare
A young leaf trills in the garden right in front of me
White doves flutter through the air like love letters thrown from the window
I know the symbol the code the electrical
Connection
The attraction of faraway things
But we need fruit and lights and crowds
To festoon this Easter with miracles

The day sinks into the scarlet basin of summer
And there are no more words
For that bridge of fire and jewels

My youth will pass like the end of every play
Tant pis I'll make myself a fabulous suit out of old posters

- Ardengo Soffici

Monday, November 19, 2012

Tersicore per le strade di Vienna

La Domenica del Corriere
23 June 1929

Tersicore per le strade di Vienna: Tersicore nella strada. Una danza delle insegnanti di ballo, nel Corteo delle Industrie, che si è svolto in questi giorni a Vienna.

Le rondine - The Swallows

in deliziose cappe di raso nero
dattilografavano il risveglio
dettato dall'aurora

in refreshing capes of black satin
they're typing out the new aubade
daybreak just dictated

- Farfa

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Un raggio di sole

'Ognuno sta solo sul cuor della terra
trafitto da un raggio di sole:
ed è subito sera.'


'Everyone stands alone at the heart of the Earth
transfixed by a ray of sunlight,
and suddenly it is evening.'
 

- Salvatore Quasimodo

Sunday, October 28, 2012

L'infinito

Sempre caro mi fu quest'ermo colle,
E questa siepe, che da tanta parte
Dell'ultimo orizzonte il guardo esclude.
Ma sedendo e mirando, interminati
Spazi di là da quella, e sovrumani
Silenzi, e profondissima quiete
Io nel pensier mi fingo; ove per poco
Il cor non si spaura. E come il vento
Odo stormir tra queste piante, io quello
Infinito silenzio a questa voce
Vo comparando: e mi sovvien l'eterno,
E le morte stagioni, e la presente
E viva, e il suon di lei. Cosi tra questa
Immensita s'annega il pensier mio:
E il naufragar m'è dolce in questo mare.

Always dear to me was this lonely hill,
And this hedge, which from me so great a part
Of the farthest horizon excludes the gaze.
But as I sit and watch, I invent in my mind
endless spaces beyond, and superhuman
silences, and profoundest quiet;
wherefore my heart
almost loses itself in fear. And as I hear the wind
rustle through these plants, I compare
that infinite silence to this voice:
and I recall to mind eternity,
And the dead seasons, and the one present
And alive, and the sound of it. So in this
Immensity my thinking drowns:
And to shipwreck is sweet for me in this sea.

- Giacomo Leopardi