I changed certain word in the reading that would not typically sound correct if it was written in English, although there were some exact translations that I really enjoyed and wanted to make sure that they stayed the same. For example, when Lu Purk says, “My friend, I am loaded a thousand miles” when saying that he was energized. He was clearly lying, and he exaggerated it which made it sound almost like he wanted the supervisor, who he clashes with, to know that he was lying.
It was early Friday morning when he started his new job as a builder, he was tired from not sleeping all night from excitement. he introduced himself to the supervisor, who said that he wouldn’t be able to handle this job. He proudly showed off his long, loose hair, corduroy trousers, and shirt that said Free Marijuana, Jail Craxi! For this is our Spring!
“You don’t seem to be in shape for this. Clearly you didn’t think sleep was important for today” said the supervisor. “My friend, I am loaded to a thousand miles. Come on,” responded Lu Purk. The supervisor asked him to pass him bucket and Lu Purk made a vague gesture towards the top of the scaffolding. One of the other builders motioned him to come on the scaffolding with him. “Are you kidding, son?” Said the supervisor. “We agreed you’d take care of the buckets, you don’t belong up there. You will be watching the kneading machine and listening to what I tell you.” “As you wish, boss, I would not give you headaches for anything in the world” said Lu Purk.
One aspect of this translation that I thought was very important to keep was the description of what Lu Purk was wearing. He was described as a hippie, having long hair and a shirt that said Free Marijuana, Jail Craxi!, implying that he was a liberal during this very divided time in history for Italy. A change that I made was in the beginning of the reading, it said “senza aver chiuse occhio tutta notte” and I instead wrote that he was tired from not sleeping, because I thought that it was more direct and sounded better. I ended up making the translation shorter, because I felt that not everything written was necessary. I decided to keep much of the dialect, because it clearly showed the discontent that the supervisor had with Lu Purk, because in the text there was not a description of him, but this way we were able to know what type of man he was. I sensed that he had different political views than Lu Purk did, because after the Lu Purk introduced himself with his appearance, t-shirt and all, the supervisor told him he did not seem cut out for the job. If he did have the same political views, he probably would have commented something positive about his appearance.