Anita Hotchkiss, October 15, 2019<\/p>\n
Blog Post \u2013 Translation #2 \u2013 Ballestra<\/p>\n
Pre-translation strategic decisions:<\/u><\/p>\n
Before translating, I have to decide if and how I\u2019m going to (a) recognize and (b) differentiate between the standard Italian, the Pescara dialect, colloquial Italian and youth slang, and whether and to what extent I will translate any Italian idioms or expressions.\u00a0 My strategy will be to use a standard Italian for description, and different tones and language for the foreman and Lu Purk, with more casual language when Lu Purk is speaking to indicate his youth, and to do the best I can to come up with English idioms that will retain the sense of the Italian ones.<\/p>\n
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Early Friday morning, without having slept a wink all night because of his excitement about the new job, he presented himself to the boss in work clothes:\u00a0 long, loose hair, corduroy pants, and a T-shirt saying Free marijuana, Crooked Craxi in jail! That\u2019ll be our spring!<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em>Scanning the worrying bruises that encircled his eyes, the foreman reproached him:\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t see you in shape at all, boy.\u201d \u201cWhat happened to you, didn\u2019t you sleep?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cRelax, bro\u2019.\u00a0 I\u2019m ready for anything\u201d Lu Purk lied.\u00a0 \u201cI can\u2019t wait to start.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cPass me the first bucket for wherever up there.\u201d\u00a0 He made a vague gesture toward the top of the scaffolding; one of the young bricklayers saw him from the roof and greeted him cheerfully with a wave of his arm.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m here, partner.\u00a0 I\u2019ve come to give you a hand\u201d he trembled, raring to go.\u00a0 \u201cAre you kidding, son?\u201d said the foreman, with a thread of concern in his voice.\u00a0 \u201cWe agreed that you would occupy yourself with the buckets.\u00a0 There\u2019s no place for you up there.\u00a0 It\u2019s dangerous\u201d he added seriously.\u00a0 \u201cYou will keep an eye on the kneading machine and will give a hand to the cripple with the buckets, and that\u2019s that.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhatever you say, capo\u201d said Lu Purk, spreading his arms. Don\u2019t get hot.\u00a0 I\u2019ll watch over the fucking kneading machine so the world doesn\u2019t fall into it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOf course,\u201d agreed the foreman.\u00a0 \u201cIf you want to make some money and don\u2019t make me regret listening to you, do me the damn pleasure of obeying orders, agreed?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSure,\u201d said Ant\u00f2 Lu Purk.\u00a0 \u201cI wouldn\u2019t want to give you a headache for anything in the world\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Decisions of Detail<\/u><\/p>\n I used the word \u201cbro\u201d rather than \u201cpartner\u201d when Ant\u00f2 speaks to the foreman to indicate his lack of respect, but used the word “partner” when he’s calling to his friend up on the scaffolding.\u00a0 I also used the actual word \u00a0\u201cfucking\u201d which I presumed someone of his age and political attitude would use.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 At the end, I used the word \u201csure\u201d instead of \u201cyes,\u201d again to indicate a more relaxed way of speaking.\u00a0 When the foreman was speaking, given that it did seem in the original that he showed some concern about Lu Purk, I had him use the word “son” and speak in a more paternal tone.\u00a0 I changed “holy” piacere to “damn pleasure” which indicates he was swearing but does not use the word “holy” which would not be used in English.<\/p>\n I used the politically unacceptable word “cripple” when the foreman was speaking, because I don’t believe that workmen in a building site crew pay much attention to political correctness.<\/p>\n As a way of giving more information about Craxi, I added the word “Crooked” to his name on the T-shirt, which I felt would at least give a clue that Craxi was a person who was a criminal.\u00a0 I felt any more words to describe him would not be consistent with what one usually finds on a T-shirt.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"