Dreaming In Italian

Seta (“Silk” in english) is the title of a book by Alessandro Barrico. I read a passage from it in an Italian class in Bologna and promptly bought the book. It’s a short book that I found just short of poetry in some ways. I read it in Italian but you don’t need to. It is available in english from Amazon and a $10.99 ($4.20 used).

In short it is a story of Hervé Joncour, a frenchman whose business is buying and selling the eggs of silkworms who is forced to venture to the what at the time is almost beyond the edge of the world, Japan. There is a mysterious love as part of the story as well as fascinating views into both societies more than 150 years ago.

 …It was 1861. Flaubert was finishing Salammbo’, electric light was still a hypothesis and Abraham Lincoln, on the other side of the war was fighting a war whose end he would never see…

Imagine the trip from France to Japan, a virtually unknown world at that time.

… He crossed the border near Metz, traveled through Wurttemberg and Bavaria, entered Austria, reached Vienna and Budapest by train, and continued to Kiev. On horseback he traversed two thousand kilometers of the Russian steppe, crossed the Urals into Siberia, and traveled for forty days to reach Lake Baikal, which the people of the place called: the sea. He followed the course of the River Amur, skirting the Chinese border to the ocean and when he arrived at the ocean he stopped at the port of Sabrik for eleven days, until a dutch smuggler’s ship carried him to Cape Teraya, on the western coast of Japan. On foot, taking secondary roads he went through the provinces of Ishikawa, Toyoma and Niigata, entered Fukishama, reached the city of Shirikawa….

At least those parts, that I found in the “Look inside” feature on Amazon match my own translation (pretty easy ones to translate) so  I hope that the rest is accurate to the beauty of the original.  I do hope that someone will have read it and will post a comment or will read it and come back and comment. Enjoy.

Is there anyone who is not familiar with the name Silvio Berlusconi? He seems like a joke to us here in the states but is the longest serving Italian Prime Minister since the end of WWII and was elected 4 different times – truly dominating Italian national politics for 17 years. All of this despite his obvious conflicts of interest and behavior which seemed at best immoral and often illegal. He has a long list of legal issues. Wikipedia lists them under the headings of allegations (fraud, mafia association, bribery and corruption), false testimony (proven), soliciting minors for sex and abuse of office. It does make the head spin.

He is the 6^th riches man in Italy with an estimated wealth of 6 billion dollars. He controls the the largest media company in Italy and when he was prime minister controlled an estimated 90% of all media since as prime minister he controlled the state media as well as his own. Does this sound like a conflict of interest to you? Apparently he knows how to use the media and is known to dominate the airwaves with constant personal appearances. Here is a campaign video from his 2008 election campaign. The video quality is not great but I chose this one because it has english subtitles.

So what is new with Silvio? LOTS. First of all, despite his forced resignation in November 2011 (people were dancing in the street and singing the Hallelujah Chorus – no joke) the old reprobate has decided to run again in next year’s elections for prime minister. The latest news is that he just became engaged to a 27 year old woman – 49 years his junior. Oh, that Silvio!

I don’t really understand Italian politics but I’m not alone. I don’t think that even the Italians understand Italian politics. My sense is that Silvio, while very charismatic and appealing to lots of Italians on many levels didn’t do the country any favors. I know that one of his campaign slogans was lower taxes and more benefits for all. It’s not hard to see how this adds up to ballooning national debt and perhaps the source of the huge financial crisis now rampant in Italy.

Still he’s a fascinating guy. During his university years studying law he was an upright base player and singer on cruise ships. He has two CDs of Neapolitan songs to his credit. Who knew? So while he may seem totally unsuitable to be a head of any state from my american perspective he is certainly one of the more entertaining players on the world stage. I’ve yet to meet an Italian who seemed to like him but then again I haven’t met an american who admits to having voted for George Bush. Maybe it’s just the crowd that I hang out with.

Over two years ago (my God have I been doing this that long?!) I did a post on the cats of Rome. Yes, they are an institution in Rome and yes, there are people all over the city that feed them. I recently saw an article in the NY Times. There is a major cat sanctuary in the city in the Torre Argentina which is also considered a major architectural site. So now the city has decided the cats have to go. Since I wrote the original post my perspective on i gatti randagi (the feral cats) has changed considerably. I have had cats for the last 20 years until a couple of years ago when the last two came to the end of their lives. They are independent creatures who take care of themselves only demanding that you know who is the boss the house. I can live with that. However for almost two years now I have lived in an apartment which is unfortunately right next door to a house where the inhabitants have taken it upon themselves to feed homeless cats. How nice you say. But not so fast.

Those cut little creatures when they are household pets do an admirable job of being clean and, unlike dogs, are quite tidy when it comes to the byproducts of eating and drinking – i.e. pissing and shitting. However it is easy to observe that when a bunch of them are sharing an area this habit goes by the wayside. You can no longer safely walk almost anywhere without encountering little mounds of fetid, foul smelling cat shit. And believe me it smells worse than what comes out of dogs. The neighbors are singularly cavalier about the effect of this on their neighbors and really don’t seem to give a, well, shit about how the neighbors are affected by their kindness to what I now consider pests. I hope that the landlord can figure out a solution – otherwise I will need to move from an apartment that I like otherwise.

Oh, yes I added the category of language to this post. I found that the third time that I accidentally stepped into a recently left pile I found that after I ran out of English curses I started in with the Italian ones.

If you’d like to read the whole NYTimes article here is a link.

Now catching up on some interesting italophile things that have gone on during the last month or two. One outstanding one was a simulcast of the San Francisco Opera production of Rigoletto on September 15th. The venue was AT&T park, San Francisco’s spectacular new (well, newish) baseball stadium. Once a year there is a simulcast of an opera production to the giant screen at the ballpark. I had never gone. Indeed I hadn’t even known that this was going on. Someone brought it to my attention and the price was right – free. So I went with a close friend. It was nothing short of spectacular. The viewing was better than I have ever had at a live performance. You could clearly see and hear the characters in closeup (sometimes too close actually) but still is was an incredible experience. The crown almost completely filled the stadium including seating on the infield. I don’t remember the numbers but there were on the order of 25,000 opera lovers in the “house”.

I would advise a couple of things for those wishing to go. First of all, you can sign up early which gets you slightly early entry into the park – a good idea. Second, bring some food and drink. You must be aware of the rules, especially for drink but they are stated clearly. Thirdly, dress warmly. It’s not for nothing that San Franciscans have sweaters for sale in the middle of the summer. Heavy jack, scarf, hat and gloves are all reasonable measures. Finally take BART (the local subway) and walk the mile to the park and back. Enjoy!