{"id":2320,"date":"2012-09-25T09:35:16","date_gmt":"2012-09-25T09:35:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/?p=2320"},"modified":"2012-09-25T14:38:18","modified_gmt":"2012-09-25T14:38:18","slug":"le-mille-ciotole-di-catullo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/le-mille-ciotole-di-catullo\/","title":{"rendered":"Le Mille Ciotole di Catullo"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, while researching for my quiz about Italian airport names, I came across the poems of the Latin poet Gaius Valerius Catullus, who was born in 84 BC in Verona.<\/p>\n

When I was at secondary school I studied Latin, and Catullus was on our reading list. We all used to like his poems, because his descriptions of love are so passionate and sensual, but can also be very aggressive and violent when he is attacking a political enemy such as Cicero, or rude and vitriolic when he sends his farewell poem to his lover. Catullus\u2019s most famous lover is Clodia, whom he nicknamed Lesbia. The word Lesbia in Catullus’s time didn\u2019t have today\u2019s meaning, it came from the Greek island of Lesbos, on which in the Seventh century BC lived the Greek poetess Sappho, whose work Catullus highly admired. So it was in her honour that he decided to rename his own lover \u2018Lesbia\u2019.<\/p>\n

While I was reading through some of his long forgotten poems, I came across an interesting website which compared numerous Italian translations of Catullus\u2019s probably most famous love poem: Carmen 5. This poem has been translated throughout the centuries by many poets and even set to music. It\u2019s better known as \u2018Vivamus, mea Lesbia, atque amemus\u2019, taken from its first line, or in English: \u2018A Thousand Kisses\u2019. Now, this is a very sensual poem, and although it\u2019s not pornographic, as usual some very prudish scholars felt the need to censor it, with almost comic results! Why bother translating it if you find it scandalous? The mysteries of human mind.<\/p>\n

Here is the original Latin poem (do any of you read Latin?):<\/p>\n

Vivamus, mea Lesbia, atque amemus,
\nrumoresque senum severiorum
\nomnes unius aestimemus assis.
\nSoles occidere et redire possunt;
\nnobis cum semel occidit brevis lux,
\nnox est perpetua una dormienda.
\nDa mi basia mille, deinde centum,
\ndein mille altera, dein secunda centum,
\ndeinde usque altera mille, deinde centum;
\ndein, cum milia multa fecerimus,
\nconturbabimus illa, ne sciamus,
\naut ne quis malus invidere possit
\ncum tantum sciat esse basiorum.<\/em><\/p>\n

Salvatore Quasimodo<\/span><\/a> was a great 20th century Italian poet, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1959. Beside writing his own poems, he did some wonderful translations of Latin and Greek poems. Here is Quasimodo\u2019s translation of \u2018Vivamus, mea Lesbia, atque amemus\u2019 into Italian:<\/p>\n

Viviamo, mia Lesbia, ed amiamo,
\ne ogni mormorio perfido dei vecchi
\nvalga per noi la pi\u00f9 vile moneta.
\nIl giorno pu\u00f2 morire e poi risorgere,
\nma quando muore il nostro breve giorno,
\nuna notte infinita dormiremo.
\nTu dammi mille baci, e quindi cento,
\npoi dammene altri mille, e quindi cento,
\nquindi mille continui, e quindi cento.
\nE quando poi saranno mille e mille,
\nnasconderemo il loro vero numero,
\nche non getti il malocchio l\u2019invidioso
\nper un numero di baci cos\u00ec alto.<\/em><\/p>\n

And here is Geoff\u2019s humble translation into English:<\/p>\n

Let us live, my Lesbia, and let us love,
\nand for us every wicked whisper of the old ones
\nis worth no more than the vilest penny.
\nThe sun may die and then rise again,
\nbut when our brief day ends
\nwe’ll sleep for an infinite night
\nGive me a thousand kisses, and thereafter one hundred,
\nthen give me another thousand, and thereafter one hundred,
\nthen a thousand, continue, and thereafter one hundred.
\nAnd when finally we have kissed many thousands of times
\nwe’ll hide the true number
\nso that the envious don’t casts the evil eye
\non seeing the vast amount of kisses we have shared<\/p>\n

Now here is a silly censored translation by the abbot Luigi Maria Rigord [1739-1823]. Rigord changes the opening \u2018viviamo\u2019 (let\u2019s live) to \u2018beviamo\u2019 (let\u2019s drink), and \u2018amiamo\u2019 (let\u2019s love) to \u2018scherziamo\u2019 (let\u2019s joke), but the most important change is that \u2018baci\u2019 (kisses) become \u2018ciotole\u2019 (bowls), transforming this sensual poem into an ode to a piss-up (a vulgar English expression for a bout of heavy drinking)<\/em>! See if you can make sense of it:<\/p>\n

Beviam mia Lesbia, scherziam davvero
\nEd il ronz\u00eco di quanti siano
\nVecchi pi\u00f9 critici stimiamo un zero.
\nE vanno, e vengono i d\u00ec; ma poi
\nChe un breve giorno tramonta, ahi! devesi
\nNotte perpetua dormir da noi.
\nDammi di ciotole per mio contento
\nMill\u2019e poi cento, quindi prontissima
\nMille altre versami con altre cento
\nPoi torna a porgere, finch\u00e9 ti paia,
\nSian altre mille, poi cento aggiungimi,
\nE poi bevuteci tante migliaia;
\nDi ben confonderle siam pronti all\u2019opra,
\nChe non sappiamle, che non c\u2019invidii
\nSe tanto numero mal uom discopra.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, while researching for my quiz about Italian airport names, I came across the poems of the Latin poet Gaius Valerius Catullus, who was born in 84 BC in Verona. When I was at secondary school I studied Latin, and Catullus was on our reading list. We all used to like his poems, because…<\/p>\n

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