{"id":1012,"date":"2011-10-21T09:20:00","date_gmt":"2011-10-21T09:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/?p=1012"},"modified":"2011-10-23T18:46:40","modified_gmt":"2011-10-23T18:46:40","slug":"la-fame-di-mim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/la-fame-di-mim\/","title":{"rendered":"La Fame di Mimì"},"content":{"rendered":"

Povera Mim\u00ec la Gatta, ha un po\u2019 di problemi digestivi e l\u2019ho messa a dieta stretta di riso e tonno, ma lei \u00e8 molto schizzinosa e vuole solo i suoi croccantini. Resiste per quasi un giorno e \u201cposcia, pi\u00f9 che \u2018l dolor, pot\u00e8 \u2018l digiuno\u201d!<\/strong> (Dante)<\/em> = Poor Mim\u00ec the Cat, she has a few digestive problems and I\u2019ve put her on a strict diet of rice and tuna, but she is very fussy and only wants her dried food. She resists for almost a day and \u201cThen hunger did what sorrow could not do\u201d! <\/p>\n

As I watched Mim\u00ec overcome her qualms and begin to nibble tentatively at the rice, this famous line from Dante\u2019s XXXIII Canto dell\u2019Inferno<\/strong> came to mind. The quote seemed to fit the situation. However, like much of Dante\u2019s writing, the meaning of this phrase is open to interpretation.<\/p>\n

The quote refers to Conte Ugolino della Gherardesca<\/strong>, who \u2018betrayed\u2019 his native town of Pisa by helping the Guelfi<\/strong> to gain power in 1275, and then again in 1284-85 by allying himself with Lucca and Firenze, Pisa\u2019s arch-enemies. In 1288, when the Ghibellines retook power in Pisa, Ugolino was imprisoned in a tower overlooking Piazza dei Cavalieri<\/strong> together with two of his sons and two of his nephews. After some months of imprisonment all five were left to die of hunger.<\/p>\n

The quote has two main interpretations: the most popular of these is, as usual, the most grizzly. The theory is that Ugolino, driven to starvation by hunger, ate the flesh of his own children. In this case \u201cposcia, pi\u00f9 che \u2018l dolor, pot\u00e8 \u2018l digiuno\u201d <\/strong>is interpreted as \u201cthe desperation of hunger was greater than the pain of consuming his own children\u201d. This was the interpretation that I applied as I observed Mim\u00ec the cat come to terms with the loathsome bowl of rice and tuna: \u201cHer hunger was greater than the pain of eating something that she didn\u2019t like.\u201d<\/p>\n

The second, older, interpretation, which is more compassionate towards Ugolino, is accepted by modern critics as being the true one. In this version \u201cposcia, pi\u00f9 che \u2018l dolor, pot\u00e8 \u2018l digiuno\u201d<\/strong> = \u201cThen hunger did what sorrow could not do\u201d <\/strong> is interpreted as meaning that although the pain of seeing his own children die was very great, emotional pain alone doesn\u2019t kill, and Ugolino had to await his own  painful death by starvation.<\/p>\n

If you visit Pisa, and you are one of the brave handful of tourists who venture more than 20 metres from the Campo dei Miracoli<\/strong>, the lovely Piazza dei Cavalieri<\/strong> is well worth a visit. You will find La Torre della Fame <\/strong>(Hunger Tower) to the left of the arched exit which leads from the piazza into Via dei Mille<\/strong>, named after Garibaldi\u2019s famous 1,000 \u2018red shirts\u2019 \u2013 but that\u2019s another story! <\/p>\n

Here is an extract from the XXXIII Canto dell\u2019Inferno<\/strong>, concluding with the famous quote:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n

e disser: "Padre, assai ci fia men doglia
se tu mangi di noi: tu ne vestisti
queste misere carni, e tu le spoglia".<\/strong><\/p>\n

Queta\u2019mi allor per non farli pi\u00f9 tristi;
lo d\u00ec e l\u2019altro stemmo tutti muti;
ahi dura terra, perch\u00e9 non t\u2019apristi?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Poscia che fummo al quarto d\u00ec venuti,
Gaddo mi si gitt\u00f2 disteso a\u2019 piedi,
dicendo: "Padre mio, ch\u00e9 non m\u2019aiuti?".<\/strong><\/p>\n

Quivi mor\u00ec; e come tu mi vedi,
vid\u2019 io cascar li tre ad uno ad uno
tra \u2019l quinto d\u00ec e \u2019l sesto; ond\u2019 io mi diedi,<\/strong><\/p>\n

gi\u00e0 cieco, a brancolar sovra ciascuno,
e due d\u00ec li chiamai, poi che fur morti.
Poscia, pi\u00f9 che \u2019l dolor, pot\u00e9 \u2019l digiuno\u00bb.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

And said they: ‘Father, much less pain ’twill give us
If thou do eat of us; thyself didst clothe us
With this poor flesh, and do thou strip it off.’<\/p>\n

I calmed me then, not to make them more sad.
That day we all were silent, and the next.
Ah! obdurate earth, wherefore didst thou not open?<\/p>\n

When we had come unto the fourth day, Gaddo
Threw himself down outstretched before my feet,
Saying, ‘My father, why dost thou not help me?’<\/p>\n

And there he died; and, as thou seest me,
I saw the three fall, one by one, between
The fifth day and the sixth; whence I betook me,<\/p>\n

Already blind, to groping over each,
And two days called them after they were dead;
Then hunger did what sorrow could not do."<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Povera Mim\u00ec la Gatta, ha un po\u2019 di problemi digestivi e l\u2019ho messa a dieta stretta di riso e tonno, ma lei \u00e8 molto schizzinosa e vuole solo i suoi croccantini. Resiste per quasi un giorno e \u201cposcia, pi\u00f9 che \u2018l dolor, pot\u00e8 \u2018l digiuno\u201d! (Dante) = Poor Mim\u00ec the Cat, she has a few…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[54995,58996,58991,58990,58992,58995,58997,58993],"class_list":["post-1012","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dante-alighieri","tag-piazza-dei-cavalieri","tag-piu-che-l-dolor","tag-poscia","tag-pote-l-digiuno","tag-then-hunger-did-what-sorrow-could-not-do","tag-torre-della-fame","tag-xxxiii-canto-dellinferno"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1012"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1012\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1013,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1012\/revisions\/1013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}