{"id":10647,"date":"2015-12-23T20:47:16","date_gmt":"2015-12-23T19:47:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/?p=10647"},"modified":"2015-12-23T20:47:16","modified_gmt":"2015-12-23T19:47:16","slug":"a-very-special-christmas-tree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/a-very-special-christmas-tree\/","title":{"rendered":"A Very Special Christmas Tree"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every Christmas when I was a child we had to learn the usual stereotypical seasonal poems which inevitably referred to il Bambinello<\/strong> (Baby Jesus), angeli e pastori adoranti<\/strong> (adoring angels and shepherds), and pace e amore fra tutti gli uomini<\/strong> (peace and love between all people).
\nSo, whilst searching the other day for an atypical Christmas poem, it was with a sense of relief that I finally found Un Abete Speciale<\/strong> (A Special Fir Tree), written by Gianni Rodari.<\/p>\n

\"Gubbio<\/a>

Giant Christmas tree, Gubbio<\/em><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Gianni Rodari<\/a> (1920-1980) was a journalist, writer and poet who wrote mostly for children. His writing, on the surface, appears simple and rhythmical, but he never indulges in facile stereotypes or banalities. Rodari likes to play with words and sounds, and has the ability to convey profound truths in the most straightforward of ways, as we see in the following lines:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/colgroup>\n\n\n
\n

Un Abete Speciale<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/span><\/strong>di Gianni Rodari<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Quest\u2019anno mi voglio fare<\/span>
\nun albero di Natale<\/span>
\ndi tipo speciale,<\/span>
\nma bello veramente.<\/span>
\nNon lo far\u00f2 in tinello,<\/span>
\nlo far\u00f2 nella mente,<\/span>
\ncon centomila rami<\/span>
\ne un miliardo di lampadine,<\/span>
\ne tutti i doni<\/span>
\nche non stanno nelle vetrine.<\/span>
\nUn raggio di sole<\/span>
\nper il passero che trema,<\/span>
\nun ciuffo di viole<\/span>
\nper il prato gelato,<\/span>
\nun aumento di pensione<\/span>
\nper il vecchio pensionato.<\/span>
\nE poi giochi,<\/span>
\ngiocattoli, balocchi<\/span>
\nquanti ne puoi contare<\/span>
\na spalancare gli occhi:<\/span>
\nun milione, cento milioni<\/span>
\ndi bellissimi doni<\/span>
\nper quei bambini<\/span>
\nche non ebbero mai<\/span>
\nun regalo di Natale,<\/span>
\ne per loro ogni giorno<\/span>
\nall\u2019altro \u00e8 uguale,<\/span>
\ne non \u00e8 mai festa.<\/span>
\nPerch\u00e9 se un bimbo<\/span>
\nresta senza niente,<\/span>
\nanche uno solo, piccolo,<\/span>
\nche piangere non si sente,<\/span>
\nNatale \u00e8 tutto sbagliato.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

A Special Fir Tree<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/span><\/strong>by Gianni Rodari<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

This year I want to make<\/span>
\na Christmas Tree<\/span>
\nof a special kind,<\/span>
\nbut really beautiful.<\/span>
\nI won\u2019t make it in the living room,<\/span>
\nI\u2019ll make it in my mind,<\/span>
\nwith a hundred thousand branches<\/span>
\nand a billion of lights,<\/span>
\nand all the presents<\/span>
\nthat aren’t in the shop windows.<\/span>
\nA ray of sun<\/span>
\nfor the trembling sparrow,<\/span>
\na tuft of violets<\/span>
\nfor the frozen lawn,<\/span>
\nan increase in pension<\/span>
\nfor the old pensioner.<\/span>
\nAnd then games,<\/span>
\ntoys, playthings<\/span>
\nas many as you can count<\/span>
\nwith your eyes wide open:<\/span>
\none million, one hundred million<\/span>
\nbeautiful gifts<\/span>
\nfor those children<\/span>
\nwho never had<\/span>
\na Christmas present,<\/span>
\nfor whom each day<\/span>
\nis like any another,<\/span>
\nand is never a holiday.<\/span>
\nBecause if a child<\/span>
\nis left without anything,<\/span>
\neven a single little one,<\/span>
\nwhose crying is not heard,<\/span>
\nChristmas is all wrong.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Every Christmas when I was a child we had to learn the usual stereotypical seasonal poems which inevitably referred to il Bambinello (Baby Jesus), angeli e pastori adoranti (adoring angels and shepherds), and pace e amore fra tutti gli uomini (peace and love between all people). So, whilst searching the other day for an atypical…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":10651,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[229245,385961,385960],"class_list":["post-10647","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-gianni-rodari-italian-poet","tag-italian-christmas-poem","tag-un-abete-speciale"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10647","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=10647"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10653,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10647\/revisions\/10653"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}