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<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nContinuing to progress my learning of Italian, I have started to read Agatha Christie\u2019s A Murder in Announced <\/em> 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!<\/p>\nWhy am I posting this\u2026 it is just an exercise for my own interest, to be fair, so no I am not expecting anyone even to read it!<\/p>\n
\nChapter 2<\/h2>\n\n
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Translated Italian Text<\/h3>\n
Anche a Little Paddocks stavano facendo la prima colazione.<\/p>\n
La signorina Blacklock, una donna di circa sessant\u2019anni 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 \u00abDaily Mail\u00bb. Julia Simmons, invece, scorreva pigramente le pagine del \u00abTelegraph\u00bb. Patrick Simmons stava risolvendo le parole incrociate del \u00abTimes\u00bb. La signorina Dora Bunner si era immersa anima e corpo nella lettura del giornale locale. <\/p>\n
La signorina Blacklock scoppi\u00f2 in una risatina sommessa; Patrick mormor\u00f2: <\/p>\n
\u00abAderente\u2026 non adesivo\u2026 ecco dove ho sbagliato!\u00bb <\/p>\n
All\u2019improvviso un\u2019esclamazione convulsa, che somigliava al chiocciare di una gallina spaventata, arriv\u00f2 dalla signorina Bunner.<\/p>\n
\u00abLetty\u2026 Letty, hai visto qui? Cosa vorr\u00e0 dire\u2026\u00bb <\/p>\n
\u00abChe c\u2019\u00e8, Dora?\u00bb <\/p>\n
\u00abUn annuncio pazzesco. Parla di Little Paddocks, non c\u2019\u00e8 dubbio. Ma cosa pu\u00f2 significare?\u00bb<\/p>\n
\u00abSe mi facessi vedere, Dora cara\u2026\u00bb <\/p>\n
La signorina Bunner pass\u00f2 il giornale alla signorina Blacklock e le indic\u00f2 l\u2019inserzione con dita tremanti. <\/p>\n
\u00abQui, Letty. Guarda.\u00bb <\/p>\n
La signorina Blacklock lesse. Poi sollev\u00f2 le sopracciglia e si guard\u00f2 intorno con aria scrutatrice. Poi torn\u00f2 a leggere, questa volta a voce alta.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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My Translation into English<\/h3>\n
They were also having breakfast at Little Paddocks.<\/p>\n
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 \u201cri~\u201d here?) The Times crossword. Miss Dora Bunner was immersed heart and soul in the letters of the local paper.<\/p>\n
Miss Blacklock chuckled under her breath; Patrick murmured, \u201cAdherent\u2026 not adhesive\u2026 that\u2019s where I went wrong!\u201d<\/p>\n
Suddenly, an involuntary exclamation, which sounded like squawking of a terrified chicken, burst out of Miss Bunner.<\/p>\n
\u201cLetty\u2026 Letty, have you seen here? What is it saying?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is it, Dora?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA crazy announcement. It talks about Little Paddocks, there is no doubt about that. But what does it mean?<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you let me see it, Dora dear\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Miss Bunner passed the newspaper to Miss Blacklock and indicated the announcement with a trembling finger.<\/p>\n
\u201cHere Letty. Look\u201d<\/p>\n
Miss Blacklock read. Then she raised her eyebrows and looked about inquiringly. Then she returned to her reading, this time out loud.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
New Vocabulary<\/h3>\n\n- un abbinamento (n) \u2013 a pairing, a matching, a putting together of things<\/li>\n
- il capotavola (n) \u2013 head of the table \u2013 capo, boss<\/li>\n
- le parole incrociate (n) \u2013 crosswords<\/li>\n
- la risantina (n) \u2013 giggle, chuckle, quiet laugh \u2013 a diminutive of \u201crisata\u201d, the noun form of \u201cridere\u201d<\/li>\n
- scorreva \u2013 scorrere (v) \u2013 to flow or to slide, in the context of the text, flipping through the pages<\/li>\n
- scoppi\u00f2 \u2013 scoppiare \u2013 (v) to burst<\/li>\n
- somigliava al \u2013 somigliare al (v)- to resemble something, to seem like \u2013 creating a wonderfully evocative simile<\/li>\n
- chiocciare (v) \u2013 to cluck (presumably onomatopoeic)<\/li>\n
- pigramente (adj) \u2013 lazy<\/li>\n
- pazzesco (adj)- crazy<\/li>\n
- scrutatrice (adj)- scrutinising, inquiring<\/li>\n
- tremanti (adj) \u2013 trembling<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\nNew Idioms<\/h3>\n\n- anima e corpo \u2013 soul and body, heart and soul, completely<\/li>\n
- Cosa vorr\u00e0 dire\u2026 \u2013 \u201cwhat will it want to say\u201d, what does it say, what is it saying?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Grammar<\/h3>\n
Looking at the verb forms, the opening paragraph is in the imperfect <\/strong>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.<\/p>\nIt moves into the passato remoto<\/strong> 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 ~\u00f2 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? <\/p>\nI noticed a subjunctive<\/strong> in the dialogue when Letty Blacklock asks \u201cSe mi facessi <\/strong>leggere\u201d triggered by the if<\/strong> clause which introduces uncertainty. I found that one a challenge to translate directly, the sense of making someone do something of fare doesn\u2019t really work here so I went with \u201cIf you let me read it\u201d even though the Italian does not use \u201clasciare\u201d<\/p>\nI was originally confused by the future tense of volere is used in the sentence \u201cCosa vorr\u00e0 dire\u201d, \u201cWhat will it want to say\u201d, rather than \u201cCosa vuole dire\u201d, or more prosaically perhaps, \u201cCosa significa?\u201d I am now given to understand \u2013 thank you internet \u2013 that \u201cvorr\u00e0 dire che\u2026\u201d is a common expression to signify \u201cIt means that\u2026\u201d and this construction simply inverts it and puts it into a question\u2026.. <\/p>\n
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 \u201cDora cara\u201d. The ~are imperative always trips me up, using \u201cGuarda\u201d, something I know from the scusa\/scusi distinction \u2013 I even know that it is the subjunctive form used for the formal second person imperative \u2013 but it is still a distinction I forget! The \u201c~i\u201d ending does not<\/em> pair up with the i<\/span><\/strong>nformal voice.<\/p>\nI also like to keep an eye out for pronouns and we have \u201d le indic\u00f2\u201d \u2013 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.<\/p>\n
\n\n
\n
My Translation into English<\/h3>\n
They were also having breakfast at Little Paddocks.<\/p>\n
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 \u201cri~\u201d here?) The Times crossword. Miss Dora Bunner was immersed heart and soul in the letters of the local paper.<\/p>\n
Miss Blacklock chuckled under her breath; Patrick murmured, \u201cAdherent\u2026 not adhesive\u2026 that\u2019s where I went wrong!\u201d<\/p>\n
Suddenly, an involuntary exclamation, which sounded like squawking of a terrified chicken, burst out of Miss Bunner.<\/p>\n
\u201cLetty\u2026 Letty, have you seen here? What is it saying?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is it, Dora?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA crazy announcement. It talks about Little Paddocks, there is no doubt about that. But what does it mean?<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you let me see it, Dora dear\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Miss Bunner passed the newspaper to Miss Blacklock and indicated the announcement with a trembling finger.<\/p>\n
\u201cHere Letty. Look\u201d<\/p>\n
Miss Blacklock read. Then she raised her eyebrows and looked about inquiringly. Then she returned to her reading, this time out loud.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Agatha Christie\u2019s Original<\/h3>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 At Little Paddocks also, breakfast was in progress.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Miss Blacklog, a woman of sixty odd, the owner of the house, sat at the head of the table. She wore country tweeds \u2013 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.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Miss Blacklog gave a subdued chuckle. Patrick muttered: \u201cAdherent \u2013 not adhesive \u2013 that\u2019s where I went wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Suddenly a loud cluck, like a startled hen, came from Miss Bunner.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cLetty \u2013 Letty \u2013 have you seen this? Whatever can it mean?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cWhat\u2019s the matter, Dora?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cThe most extraordinary advertisement. It says Little Paddocks quite distinctly. But whatever can it mean?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cIf you\u2019d let me see, Dora dear -\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Miss Bunner obediently surrendered the paper into Miss Blacklog\u2019s outstretched hand, pointing to the item with a tremulous forefinger.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cJust look, Letty.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Miss Blacklog looked. Her eyebrows went up. She threw a quick scrutinising glance round the table. Then she read the advertisement out loud.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n
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