Well we’ve survived the snow, although things were looking a bit desperate when we were down to our last few scraps of food (Geoff had his eye on one of the village cats but I think it got suspicious and ran off). To make matters worse we only had enough wood left to keep us warm for about three days and it seriously looked like we were going to have to abandon our little house and go to stay with my parents in their centrally heated apartment!
But the sun, ‘O Sole Mio’ has come out of hibernation and is busily telling the nasty snow to ‘andare a quel paese’ as we say. So, time for una barzelletta (a joke) to cheer us up. Every culture seems to have its particular group of people who have became the target for its jokes, and unfortunately here in Italy it is the Carabinieri, those long suffering souls who have to deal with so much of the dirty work in maintaining law and order, who have become the traditional butt of the classic Italian barzelletta. Folk law has it, unjustly of course, that the Carabinieri are distinctly lacking in intelligence, and this is the prevalent theme of the Carabinieri barzellette. Eccone una (here’s one of them):
Quattro Carabinieri stanno attraversando il deserto nella loro macchina. All’improviso, lontani da ogni segno di civiltà, il motore si guasta. I Carabinieri sono costretti ad abbandonare la macchina e, prendendo con sé le quattro portiere, continuano a piedi.
Dopo molte ore di lungo e duro cammino sotto il sole cuocente arrivano ad un’oasi dove si trova un gruppo di beduini.
Dopo averli aiutati e avergli dato da bere uno dei beduini, incuriosito, chiede ai Carabinieri: “Come mai vi sieti portati dietro quelle pesanti portiere per il deserto?”
I Carabinieri rispondono: “Perché così quando fa troppo caldo possiamo abbassare i finestrini!”.
Translation:
Four Carabinieri are crossing the desert in their car. Suddenly, far from any sign of civilization, the motor breaks down. The Carabinieri have to abandon their car and, taking with them the four car doors, continue on foot.
After many long hard hours of walking under the baking sun they arrive at an oasis where they find a group of Bedouins.
After having helped them and given them something to drink, one of the Bedouins, out of curiosity, asks the Carabinieri: “How come you have carried those heavy car doors with you across the desert?”
The Carabinieri reply: “So that when it gets too hot we can wind the windows down!”.
Comments:
Tom:
Is there a name for the gesture of turning the index finger in the cheek? 😉 I’m making it now. The first person to show me this gesture was 8 years old.
Serena, you might have called this barzelletta the “veduta delle quatro finestrine.” (am I close?)
serena:
@Tom Ciao Tom, The ‘finger in the cheek’ gesture is only used by children when they are talking about food and translates into ‘Mmm….che buono!!’
Serena
P.S. mi piace la tua barzalletta “veduta delle quatro finestrine”, bravo!
Jeannet:
“Think about”.. ‘la indice nella guancia’ nel
questo caso a region veduta. And so did I about
‘la barzalletta’…’arrivederci i carbinieri nella burqa’, loro finestre e loro albergo in emergency case. Jeannet.
Jeff:
These posts are wonderful practice for a student. I like to try translating the Italian sections first, then compare to see how accurate I was. I got most of today’s post, but had no idea what a portièra was, which of course made me miss the entire joke. 🙂
As always, keep the wonderful posts coming! This kind of atmosphere really brings the language and culture to life.
serena:
@Jeff Grazie Jeff, It’s always useful for me to get this kind of feedback so that I know that my ‘strategies’ are working, for some people at least.
Siccome la maggiore parte delle barzallette sono o un gioco di parole o molto legate alla cultura Italiana non è molto facile trovarene qualcuna che traduce bene in Inglese, ma ci proverò.
A presto, Serena
Tom:
Serena, in fact we were in a restaurant when my little friend Ricardo used the finger in the cheek gesture – but it wasn’t about dinner. I made a teasing barzelletta (In English, as he has greater fluency in my language than I have in his) – he rolled his eyes and gave a twist of his finger into his cheek. I thought it was a gesture for a sarcastic, “very funny.”
But if it’s a compliment to the chef, it’s still cute!
cinzia:
Serena, do you ever hear the word “sportello” used for “car door”? My dictionary lists “portiera, portello, sportello” for car door. I’ve always used “sportello” (which I know also means “bank window, ticket window, etc.”) and only heard “portiera” recentemente. Is it a regional thing?
serena:
@cinzia Salve Cinzia, in my experience ‘portiera’ is the most common word for car door. ‘Sportello’ can be used but it usually signifies, as you correctly point out, ‘bank/post office/ticket window’ etc. However, as with many other words, there may also be a measure of regional preference. I would say to stick with ‘portiera’ for car door and ‘sportello’ for the ticket window and so on. We also have ‘sportello automatico’ which is the correct name for what most people call the ‘bancomat’ (cash withdrawal machine).
Serena