Entrance door to the GALLERIA NAZIONALE DELL'UMBRIA, Perugia, Italy |
I also write in Umbrian dialect as part of my Facebook friends are Italian and I feel like using dialect in Italy makes people come closer to each other. This said I am going to try and 'translate' what I originally wrote in Umbrian dialect, namely Perugino dialect. In general, the most difficult part is translating idiomatic expressions and play-on-words from dialect to any other language but I will try to do my best.
Benedetto Bonfigli, Angels offering roses, 1466, Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria, Perugia, Italy |
In my Facebook dialect post, I meant to say that last Sunday I would have met friends at the Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria downtown Perugia.
On the first Sunday of the month admission to the Italian public museums are free and we had a mission to accomplish. Therefore we thought of free admission as an invitation to accomplish our goal. Then I added that if beauty will save the world, it is most important to cultivate beauty. I also said that I don't mind at all nourishing beauty. I used an Italian idiomatic expression that goes: buttarsi a peso morto, which means 'to fling oneself into something'. However, in Italian peso translates 'weight' and the idiomatic expression 'buttarsi a peso morto' visually communicates the image of someone investing all his/her body weight into something. Right now I am a little overweight, therefore the play-on-word was that by being pretty heavy, my flinging myself into beauty would be a more efficient contribution thanks to my weight indeed.
Giovan Battista Caporali, Saint Jerome's altarpiece, 1510-1515 Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria, Perugia, Italy |
I have no idea if this explanation would make sense to an English speaking reader. I do not even know if I was the only Italian who enjoyed reading my post by making some self-irony. Therefore I continued my post by saying that because I used all my body weight to fling myself into cultivating beauty, there is no way I could benefit from this action of mine. One of the immediate benefits is that I can refine my body's inside, which is in my mind and soul. As a second step, I will be able to refine the outside which means losing weight. However, I wrote I can do one thing at a time only. Therefore for the second refinement, there is still some time to go. I hope I will still be on time to recover my ideal weight. Finally, I apologized to beauty if I was too much of a burden on her, still referring to my weight. The irony won't save the world, however, it helps feel much lighter!
This is not the end of the story. I will write a new post describing the reason why we visited the Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria last Sunday. What our mission was. It's a story that for the time being I have shared only with my new Facebook friend who has just become our new contributor to the Friends of Cama page on Facebook. She is very knowledgeable and passionate about art. Follow our page and share it with friends. Help us keep beauty alive!
Follow my life story. Enjoy my creative journey.