{"id":8935,"date":"2015-04-02T21:29:55","date_gmt":"2015-04-02T19:29:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/?p=8935"},"modified":"2015-04-02T21:31:46","modified_gmt":"2015-04-02T19:31:46","slug":"la-primavera-e-balzata","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/la-primavera-e-balzata\/","title":{"rendered":"La Primavera \u00e8 Balzata"},"content":{"rendered":"

La Primavera \u00e8 Balzata<\/strong> \u2026 what on earth kind of title is that Geoff! Well, if you\u2019re a regular follower of our blog you\u2019ll know by now that Geoff\u2019s mind works in mysterious ways.<\/span><\/p>\n

Currently, I\u2019m having a phase of re-reading some of my favourite old books which I brought over with me years ago from England. When I packed my boxes and bags for the big move I managed to get rid of an awful lot of clutter, amongst which, several kilos of books that I knew I\u2019d never read again. But carefully squirrelled away amongst my most important possession was a fairly large collection of books that I knew I\u2019d read again, and again, and again.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fact: no matter how proficient one becomes in a second language, there\u2019s no substitute for reading in your mother tongue, and this I\u2019ve finally accepted, having passed through several phases of forcing myself to read only in Italian. Basta!<\/strong> I read enough Italian every day, on the internet, in the mail, in shops, etc. etc. So, I\u2019m going to treat myself to the luxury of working my way through those old treasured favourites from England. And right now I\u2019m on volume three of Spike Milligan\u2019s wonderful and hilarious (or as he puts it ‘hitlarious’) war memoirs.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"spring\"<\/a>

the grass is ris. Photo (CC)<\/span><\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Allora, cosa c’entra La Primavera \u00e8 Balzata<\/strong>? This odd phrase is the result of an experiment with Google translate. I love to share elements of my culture with Italian friends, but some things are simply untranslatable \u2026 and that is soooooooooooo frustrating! One of these little untranslatable cultural snippets is the lovely poem that I first read in a collection of Spike Milligan\u2019s poetry. It\u2019s uncertain whether or not Spike was the original author, and it\u2019s often attributed to the multi-talented Anonymous, but he would often recite it when the whim took him. You\u2019ll probably recognise it:<\/span><\/p>\n

Spring is sprung, the grass is ris.
\nI wonders where the birdies is.
\nThey say the birds is on the wing.
\nAin’t that absurd?
\nI always thought the wing was on the bird<\/span><\/p>\n

Now what would happen, I asked myself, if I entered this poem into Google translate, seeing as it largely depends upon on wordplay for its humorous effect?
\n<\/span>Here\u2019s what the wonderful ubiquitous Google came up with:<\/span><\/p>\n

La primavera \u00e8 balzata, l’erba \u00e8 ris.
\nMi chiede se i birdie \u00e8.
\nDicono che gli uccelli \u00e8 sulla fascia.
\nNon \u00e8 che assurdo?
\nHo sempre pensato che l’ala era l’uccello<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Nooooooooooooooooooooo, wrong wrong and wrong again! But wait, what is this button that I see here? Wrong? Improve this translation <\/strong> \u2026 yes, yes, and yes again! Okay, here we go:<\/span><\/p>\n

La primavera \u00e8 balzata, l’erba si \u00e8 alzata.
\nMi chiedo dove sono gli uccellini.
\nDicono che gli uccelli sono in volo.
\nNon \u00e8 assurdo?
\nHo sempre pensato che l’ala era sugli uccelli<\/strong>.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

But it just ain\u2019t funny no more \u2026. spring\/sprung, birds on the wing\/wing on the birds \u2026 epic fail!<\/strong><\/span> In Italian of course, spring, as in the season, and spring, as in a coiled up piece of metal don\u2019t share the same word: la primavera<\/strong> = spring, la molla<\/strong> = spring, balzare<\/strong> = to spring, or leap. And we don\u2019t say gli uccelli sono sull\u2019ala<\/strong> in Italian but gli uccelli sono in volo<\/strong> = the birds are in flight!<\/span><\/p>\n

The moral of my sad tale, dear readers? As a forestiero<\/strong> (outsider\/foreigner), some parts of your culture you will simply never be able to share.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

La Primavera \u00e8 Balzata \u2026 what on earth kind of title is that Geoff! Well, if you\u2019re a regular follower of our blog you\u2019ll know by now that Geoff\u2019s mind works in mysterious ways. Currently, I\u2019m having a phase of re-reading some of my favourite old books which I brought over with me years ago…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":8941,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[619],"tags":[376825,376824,866],"class_list":["post-8935","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-italian-language","tag-primavera","tag-spike-milligan","tag-spring-in-italy"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8935","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\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8935"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8945,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8935\/revisions\/8945"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}