Continuing to progress my learning of Italian, I have started to read Agatha Christie’s A Murder in Announced in Italian! Although I have not read the novel in English before, I found the juxtaposition of Italian language and quintessentially English placenames and character names highly incongruous and amusing!
Why am I posting this… it is just an exercise for my own interest, to be fair, so no I am not expecting anyone even to read it!
Chapter 2
Translated Italian Text
Anche a Little Paddocks stavano facendo la prima colazione.
La signorina Blacklock, una donna di circa sessant’anni proprietaria della casa, sedeva a capotavola. Indossava un abito sportivo di tweed e al collo, con infelice abbinamento, portava tre giri di perle false. Stava leggendo il «Daily Mail». Julia Simmons, invece, scorreva pigramente le pagine del «Telegraph». Patrick Simmons stava risolvendo le parole incrociate del «Times». La signorina Dora Bunner si era immersa anima e corpo nella lettura del giornale locale.
La signorina Blacklock scoppiò in una risatina sommessa; Patrick mormorò:
«Aderente… non adesivo… ecco dove ho sbagliato!»
All’improvviso un’esclamazione convulsa, che somigliava al chiocciare di una gallina spaventata, arrivò dalla signorina Bunner.
«Letty… Letty, hai visto qui? Cosa vorrà dire…»
«Che c’è, Dora?»
«Un annuncio pazzesco. Parla di Little Paddocks, non c’è dubbio. Ma cosa può significare?»
«Se mi facessi vedere, Dora cara…»
La signorina Bunner passò il giornale alla signorina Blacklock e le indicò l’inserzione con dita tremanti.
«Qui, Letty. Guarda.»
La signorina Blacklock lesse. Poi sollevò le sopracciglia e si guardò intorno con aria scrutatrice. Poi tornò a leggere, questa volta a voce alta.
My Translation into English
They were also having breakfast at Little Paddocks.
Miss Blacklock, a woman of about sixty years, owner of the house, sat at the head of the table. She wore a sporty tweed suit and, at her neck, three strings (??) of fake pearls, an unfortunate combination. She was reading The Daily Mail. Julia Simmons, meanwhile, flipped the pages of The Telegraph lazily. Patrick Simmon was solving (why “ri~” here?) The Times crossword. Miss Dora Bunner was immersed heart and soul in the letters of the local paper.
Miss Blacklock chuckled under her breath; Patrick murmured, “Adherent… not adhesive… that’s where I went wrong!”
Suddenly, an involuntary exclamation, which sounded like squawking of a terrified chicken, burst out of Miss Bunner.
“Letty… Letty, have you seen here? What is it saying?”
“What is it, Dora?”
“A crazy announcement. It talks about Little Paddocks, there is no doubt about that. But what does it mean?
“If you let me see it, Dora dear…”
Miss Bunner passed the newspaper to Miss Blacklock and indicated the announcement with a trembling finger.
“Here Letty. Look”
Miss Blacklock read. Then she raised her eyebrows and looked about inquiringly. Then she returned to her reading, this time out loud.
New Vocabulary
- un abbinamento (n) – a pairing, a matching, a putting together of things
- il capotavola (n) – head of the table – capo, boss
- le parole incrociate (n) – crosswords
- la risantina (n) – giggle, chuckle, quiet laugh – a diminutive of “risata”, the noun form of “ridere”
- scorreva – scorrere (v) – to flow or to slide, in the context of the text, flipping through the pages
- scoppiò – scoppiare – (v) to burst
- somigliava al – somigliare al (v)- to resemble something, to seem like – creating a wonderfully evocative simile
- chiocciare (v) – to cluck (presumably onomatopoeic)
- pigramente (adj) – lazy
- pazzesco (adj)- crazy
- scrutatrice (adj)- scrutinising, inquiring
- tremanti (adj) – trembling
New Idioms
- anima e corpo – soul and body, heart and soul, completely
- Cosa vorrà dire… – “what will it want to say”, what does it say, what is it saying?
Grammar
Looking at the verb forms, the opening paragraph is in the imperfect tense, which I am told by internet is often used for setting the scene for a story which is what seems to be happening here.
It moves into the passato remoto in the third paragraph which seems to correspond with a move from scene setting to action. The passato remoto seems easy to recognise because of the ~ò third person ending. It is odd and distinctly counter-intuitive to me as an English speaker to change tenses like this. Is it normal in Italian?
I noticed a subjunctive in the dialogue when Letty Blacklock asks “Se mi facessi leggere” triggered by the if clause which introduces uncertainty. I found that one a challenge to translate directly, the sense of making someone do something of fare doesn’t really work here so I went with “If you let me read it” even though the Italian does not use “lasciare”
I was originally confused by the future tense of volere is used in the sentence “Cosa vorrà dire”, “What will it want to say”, rather than “Cosa vuole dire”, or more prosaically perhaps, “Cosa significa?” I am now given to understand – thank you internet – that “vorrà dire che…” is a common expression to signify “It means that…” and this construction simply inverts it and puts it into a question…..
Looking at the verb forms in the dialogue, it looks like everyone is using the informal second person to each other which seems entirely appropriate in context and where Dora can be addressed as “Dora cara”. The ~are imperative always trips me up, using “Guarda”, something I know from the scusa/scusi distinction – I even know that it is the subjunctive form used for the formal second person imperative – but it is still a distinction I forget! The “~i” ending does not pair up with the informal voice.
I also like to keep an eye out for pronouns and we have ” le indicò” – indicated to her, pointed out to her, the feminine indirect object pronoun. For the sake of fluent translation, however, I chose to omit it from the English as we had already indicated the indirect object when the paper was passed to Letty Blacklock and an additional to her in the same sentence seemed otiose.
My Translation into English
They were also having breakfast at Little Paddocks.
Miss Blacklock, a woman of about sixty years, owner of the house, sat at the head of the table. She wore a sporty tweed suit and, at her neck, three strings (??) of fake pearls, an unfortunate combination. She was reading The Daily Mail. Julia Simmons, meanwhile, flipped the pages of The Telegraph lazily. Patrick Simmon was solving (why “ri~” here?) The Times crossword. Miss Dora Bunner was immersed heart and soul in the letters of the local paper.
Miss Blacklock chuckled under her breath; Patrick murmured, “Adherent… not adhesive… that’s where I went wrong!”
Suddenly, an involuntary exclamation, which sounded like squawking of a terrified chicken, burst out of Miss Bunner.
“Letty… Letty, have you seen here? What is it saying?”
“What is it, Dora?”
“A crazy announcement. It talks about Little Paddocks, there is no doubt about that. But what does it mean?
“If you let me see it, Dora dear…”
Miss Bunner passed the newspaper to Miss Blacklock and indicated the announcement with a trembling finger.
“Here Letty. Look”
Miss Blacklock read. Then she raised her eyebrows and looked about inquiringly. Then she returned to her reading, this time out loud.
Agatha Christie’s Original
At Little Paddocks also, breakfast was in progress.
Miss Blacklog, a woman of sixty odd, the owner of the house, sat at the head of the table. She wore country tweeds – and with them, rather incongruously, a choker necklace of large false pearls. She was reading Lane Norcott in the Daily Mail. Julia Simmons was languidly glancing through the Telegraph. Patrick Simmons was checking up on the crossword in The Times. Miss Dora Bunner was giving her attention whole-heartedly to the local weekly paper.
Miss Blacklog gave a subdued chuckle. Patrick muttered: “Adherent – not adhesive – that’s where I went wrong.”
Suddenly a loud cluck, like a startled hen, came from Miss Bunner.
“Letty – Letty – have you seen this? Whatever can it mean?”
“What’s the matter, Dora?”
“The most extraordinary advertisement. It says Little Paddocks quite distinctly. But whatever can it mean?”
“If you’d let me see, Dora dear -”
Miss Bunner obediently surrendered the paper into Miss Blacklog’s outstretched hand, pointing to the item with a tremulous forefinger.
“Just look, Letty.”
Miss Blacklog looked. Her eyebrows went up. She threw a quick scrutinising glance round the table. Then she read the advertisement out loud.
