ITALIAN PROVERB / CONSCIENCE

As I’ve stated previously, translating proverbs can be tricky. Here are 3 Italian proverbs that relate to conscience.
The first is straightforward:
“Alla coscienza nessuno può sottrarsi.” This means: “You can’t escape your conscience.”
The next one is still easily translated: “Una buona coscienza è un buon cuscino.” Literally, this means: “A good conscience is a good cushion,” but it’s meant to imply: “A good conscience is a soft pillow.” That makes sense. If your conscience is clear, you’ll sleep without difficulty.
This third proverb, which I’m told is of Tuscan origin, is the brain-squeezer: “Lui ha la coda di paglia.”
Literally, this means: “He has the straw’s tail.” Say what?
What does having the tail of a piece of straw have to do with conscience?
In Tuscany, to be accused of having “la coda di paglia” means you have a guilty conscience. Maybe the guilty person in question is playing at drawing straws: he draws the short straw but instead of revealing this “losing” straw, he conceals the short end (tail) of the straw; however, the contrite look on his face exposes his guilty conscience. I don’t know if this conclusion is correct, but it’s the only one I could come up with. If you have a different one, let me know.
Ciao!

ITALIAN PROVERB / FAITH

I don’t mean to step on toes or ruffle feathers of any “true believers”; I’m merely writing a simple observation based on a proverb I recently translated.
“La fede sta nel credere, e non nel vedere.” Literally, this means: “faith rests in the believing, not in the seeing.”
If you want to sound more lyrical, you might say: “Faith is the vision of the heart.”
That sounds lovely, but let’s pull our heads out of the clouds and get real. When you buy a car, do you have faith in the salesman when he says, “it runs like a dream”? Or do you take it out for a spin to see for yourself? If the salesman has an oversized crucifix dangling from his neck, are his words more credible?
If you can’t see it, hear it, touch it, taste it, or smell it, do you believe whatever you’re told because your heart just had a vision?
I probed deeply into the meaning of this proverb and this what I concluded, “Faith is believing what you know isn’t so.”
This is the true meaning of the proverb.
Believe me.

APRIL FOOLS

I decided since today is April Fools Day, I would share a few Italian Proverbs regarding fools. There’s nothing tricky or food related about them, as we’ve found in other proverbs; they’re just a little fluff for a light-hearted holiday.
“I pazzi crescono senza innaffiarli.”
“Fools grow without watering.”
“I pazzi inventano la moda e I savi la adottano.”
“Fools create the fashion and the wise adopt it.”
“I pazzi per lettera sono I maggiori pazzi.”
“Learned fools are the greatest fools.”
“Quando no dice niente, non è dal savio il pazzo differente”.
“When no one speaks, the fool and the wise are equal.”

“Ognuno può far della sua pasta gnocchi.”
“Everyone can make his own recipe for pasta.”
OOPS! That doesn’t have anything to do with fools. APRIL FOOLS!
I couldn’t resist adding one of those “food-related” proverbs. What does it really mean?
“If it’s yours, you can do as you like.”

ITALIAN PROVERB/BREAD

Here’s another food-related Italian proverb:
"Il Pane diviso è la salute dei denti. "
The literal translation is: "Bread that’s broken into pieces is healthy for the teeth."
So are they advocating eating bread to prevent cavities? Maybe only bread broken into pieces prevents cavities, while biting into a larger piece of bread or a slice of bread might be harmful to your teeth. Those of you who have read earlier posts I’ve written regarding Italian proverbs and food, know that the proverb has nothing to do with bread or any other starch. Well then, that leaves newlyweds. Newlyweds? Sure, why not? If newlyweds break their bread into pieces will they or their future children have healthy teeth? Not likely, but what if newlyweds live apart (like breaking bread into pieces) from parents and in-laws? Since bread is considered the "staff of life," and since parents and in-laws "create life," then the proverb means: "A separate household for the newlyweds prevents quarrels."

ITALIAN PROVERB/PEARS

I like this little Italian proverb: “La pera matura cade sola.” The English translation is simple: “The mature pear falls by itself.” But what are we really talking about here? Pears? Fruit? Trees? Is there a lesson to be learned about not getting out the ladder and climbing the tree to pick pears? Is this telling us not to risk injury for a lousy pear? Should we shake the tree to get the pears to fall? What if pears are out of season? What if we don’t like pears is the proverb still viable? Forget the pears. This proverb has nothing to do with pears. Italians hold food in high regard, and thus you’ll find food in many of their proverbs. Check back to my Monday blog on soup, as another example of how Italians utilize food in their proverbs. So what does “La pera matura cade sola” really mean? “Everything in its own time.”

ITALIAN PROVERB / SOUP

Here’s a fun little proverb to dissect: "Mangia questa minestra o ti getto dalla finestra! "
Literally, this means: "Eat this soup or I’ll throw you out the window." That doesn’t sound like a proverb; it sounds like a threat from one angry cook. Does it mean: I slaved over the stove all day stirring this bleeping soup; so like it or not, you’d better eat every last spoonful, and do so with a smile on your face, or out the window you go? No, that’s not it. Let’s go back to the eater. If you demonstrate good manners, you eat whatever you’re served. That tells us this proverb is about good manners not soup. So you could say: "If you don’t show good manners, I’ll throw you out the window." Or, you could simply say: "Shape up or ship out."
Buon appetito!

ITALIAN PROVERBS

ITALIAN PROVERBS

Translating proverbs can be as tricky as translating poetry. They both require reflection into the metaphors, which can ring through clear as a bell, or be so far out there you wonder what the author might have been smoking when he sat down to write. The following is one of those pesky little proverbs that at first seems easy enough to translate, but then you read it and ask: “Say what?”

“Nuoto chi può e chi non può nuotare a fondo se ne va.” Literally this means: “He who can swim will swim and he who cannot swim will sink.” Sure that makes sense, so what? What kind of proverb is that? So now you have to jump into the pool, or the lake, or the stream, wherever these rascals are swimming and sinking, and figure out what’s really happening. Some swim, some sink, but how are they interacting? Are the swimmers helping the sinkers? No? Well then, there you have it. There’s your proverb: “Every man for himself.”