{"id":14405,"date":"2017-06-28T17:36:01","date_gmt":"2017-06-28T15:36:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/?p=14405"},"modified":"2017-06-28T17:36:01","modified_gmt":"2017-06-28T15:36:01","slug":"non-uccidete-il-mare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/non-uccidete-il-mare\/","title":{"rendered":"Non Uccidete Il Mare"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week marked the start of gli Esam<\/strong><\/span>i<\/span><\/strong> di Maturit\u00e0<\/strong> (the A levels<\/span>\/final exams<\/span>) for thousands of young Italians. The first exam <\/span>consist<\/span>ed<\/span> of writing an essay <\/span>based on one of seven possible materie <\/strong>(subjects): literature, art, technology-science, history, history-politics, sociology-economics, and general. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The students had six hours to complete their task, a break being permitted after at least three hours from the beginning of the test. The only aid allowed was an Italian dictionary, or a bilingual dictionary for students whose mother-tongue wasn’t Italian. If you’re interested, you can find all the themes for the Esame di Maturit\u00e0<\/strong> here: Prova d’Italiano<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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Il misterioso lamantino (Trichechus Manatus) incontrato dagli studenti italiani all’esame di maturit\u00e0! Photo: Public Dominion
<\/em><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

The literature choice consisted of a poem by Giorgio Caproni<\/span><\/a><\/strong> (1912-1990), called Versicoli quasi ecologici<\/strong>\u00a0(Small Quasi-Ecological Verses), published in his 1991 collection\u00a0Res Amissa (Lost Thing)<\/em>. Caproni is a modern poet who is not well known to the majority of people, and hardly studied at all in school. The theme of this poem, however, is very relevant to current events, particularly the most recent G7 summit and the depressing news of a certain world leader’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement<\/span><\/strong><\/a> on climate change.<\/p>\n

Here’s the poem followed by our translation into English:<\/p>\n

Versicoli quasi ecologici, di Giorgio Caproni<\/strong><\/p>\n

Non uccidete il mare,<\/strong>
\n la libellula, il vento.<\/strong>
\n Non soffocate il lamento<\/strong>
\n (il canto!) del lamantino.<\/strong>
\n Il galagone, il pino:<\/strong>
\n anche di questo \u00e8 fatto<\/strong>
\n l\u2019uomo. E chi per profitto vile<\/strong>
\n fulmina un pesce, un fiume,<\/strong>
\n non fatelo cavaliere<\/strong>
\n del lavoro. L\u2019amore<\/strong>
\n finisce dove finisce l\u2019erba<\/strong>
\n e l\u2019acqua muore. Dove<\/strong>
\n sparendo la foresta<\/strong>
\n e l\u2019aria verde, chi resta<\/strong>
\n sospira nel sempre pi\u00f9 vasto<\/strong>
\n paese guasto: “Come<\/strong>
\n potrebbe tornare a essere bella,<\/strong>
\n scomparso l\u2019uomo, la terra”.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Small Quasi-Ecological Verses, by Giorgio Caproni<\/p>\n

Don’t kill the sea,
\nthe dragonfly, the wind.
\nDon’t suffocate the lament
\n(the song!) of the manatee.
\nThe bush-baby, the pine:
\nthese too make
\nman. And whoever for vile profit
\nstrikes a fish, a river,
\ndon’t give him
\na knighthood. Love
\nends where the grass ends
\nand the water dies. Where,
\nas the forest and the green air
\ndisappear, he who remains
\nsighs in the ever growing
\nbroken country: “Earth, how
\nbeautiful it could become again,
\nif man disappeared”.<\/p>\n

Come on readers, in the words of French President Emmanuel Macron let’s Make Planet Earth Great Again<\/strong><\/span>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Last week marked the start of gli Esami di Maturit\u00e0 (the A levels\/final exams) for thousands of young Italians. The first exam consisted of writing an essay based on one of seven possible materie (subjects): literature, art, technology-science, history, history-politics, sociology-economics, and general. The students had six hours to complete their task, a break being…<\/p>\n

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