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| American Checkers translates in Italian "DAMA" (literal translation "Milady") each player has 12 pieces available. |
My uncle Carlo Niccacci was one of the 125.000 prisoners of the US Army in North Africa and Sicily (1940-1943 campaign) during WW II. As a prisoner, he learned how to play checkers and in his turn, he taught my father Renato how to play checkers really well, you will never win if you play checkers with my father!
I have known about this story since I was a little girl along with the expression that my uncle had learned from American soldiers, "goddamn son of a bitch", which took me a while to translate. I had to wait for a long time before I could understand its meaning, also because the pronunciation I remember was a little different but as soon as I was learning English I could tell that this was exactly the expression that my father said to me. It is probably thanks to this story, this expression, the Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy films playing every Saturday morning on Italian TV (my father taught me to enunciate the names of the actors really well in their original language), that I started getting interested in English. That was all about my father knew in English, he had studied French in school.
My uncle Carlo Niccacci moved to Rome with his family like many other people from Deruta during the 1950s to work as a concierge in a wealthy neighborhood of the eternal city. Visiting uncle Carlo in Rome for our family was a great adventure, especially for me, I was really little. I still remember his small home, the kitchen with its cabinets, the sleeping room, the tiny toilet, and the green area outside with beautiful green spots. The building he worked for was located in the Parioli area in Rome, Via Leone IV. I think we went there again after many years and the garden has been replaced with a parking lot, "goddamn cars".
I also remember when my uncle Carlo visited us in Deruta in return, his beautiful smile from far when he got off the bus from Rome and walked over to his parents' home, where we lived, about 200 meters from the bus stop. He always wore a coat and a hat, it must have been wintertime when he visited us in Deruta. Such beautiful memories. Uncle Carlo was a very good man, big and strong, and a lovely husband.
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| Detail of a beehive, in Italian "alveare" |
This is what came to my mind when I was looking for the correct Italian word for "checkers" for my fiancé having to do with a translation from English about a kiln for the production of the glass bottles in Piegaro..."checkers" is also a part of a glass kiln, something to add to my new vocabulary in Piegaro, in Italian checkers translates "alveoli", "struttura alveolare", "alveare" (tr. beehive) which on its turn comes from the natural world of bees.
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curiosity: in Italy, we have the best dubbers in the world, this is probably why we accept watching dubbed movies and we like them. Dubbing is an art for us in Italy, likewise translating is an art and technically as difficult as dubbing. As an example, I noticed that the word "bitch" in movies is always translated with "puttana" (tr. whore) while I think that in an argument or in a fight, especially between two women, the correct translation is "stronza". It is all for today about bad language, as you may tell from movies and everyday life, it is part of our language and correct translations would be requested. I know for sure this is my personal projection dreaming of perfect post content because I would love to have an editor for my posts one day!
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FRIENDS OF CAMA
2 commenti:
Herewith follows the comment a friend of Cama sent to me via email on August 8th, 2012:
"I read with interest your blog about the checkers game and how it came to your father and uncle. I love the expression ‘what do you think? That I am an American?” It is especially interesting to me because of the common feelings about “the ugly American.” It is nice to know that we were not always considered ‘ugly.’
Your blog also mentions the term ‘alveoli.’ In English, alveoli is the anatomical name of the tiny thin-walled air sac found in large numbers in each lung, through which oxygen enters and carbon dioxide leaves the blood. I can see how this word would be connected the honeycomb structure made by bees. Before I read your blog I never knew where the word came from; I just assumed it was a Latin word that had no current usage except for anatomy."
Americans are much beloved in Italy especially by the generation of my parents, my mother Elena still remembers when an American soldier picked her up in Deruta and gave her chocolates (she was 8 years old when the war was over). My mother met Americans again about thirty years ago only through Cama and this has added reputation and credibility to her memories. It is true, at Cama we have met wonderful people coming from the United States, customers in love with art and Italian cultural heritage, appreciating quality and true values, just like you. The business is (temporarily) over and we are still in love with Americans!
I am so happy that you found interest in the blog, we use the same word in medicine, for lungs exactly, the same usage as in English, 'alveoli' (etymology: from the Latin word 'alveolus-alveoli'(singular), 'alveoli-alveolorum' (plural).
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