Translation Review - The University of Texas at Dallas

only to then qualify, rebut, or expand upon it. This givesthe effect of overhearing someone argue with himself, orrather, argue with some absent other.In “E’ malàn,” it is as though the speaker is trying tocircle around the subject in an attempt to make it moreprecise. The hypothectical, “There must a place whereall the noises of the world end up,” is followed byexpressions of uncertainty at this proposition, (c)hi sa”,(who knows), and by qualifications,“mo dàlongh” (butit’s got to be far). In an attempt to be more precise, thenarrator continues to clarify: una gònga, cmè un gòurgh,mo svérs, un mèr, (a basin, or a pond, but immense, asea). (l. 5 ) There is a series of qualifications: “but gettingcloser, if you could,” and “I’m saying, there’s got tobe a crashing.” There is an assertion, followed by arejection of the assertion: “it (the hubbub) seems like itcould just carry it all away/ but nothing happens, it’s abig racket, without any substance.”In Baldini’s work, thoughts start up, stop, pick upwhere they left off several exchanges back. Subjectsappear, disappear, and reappear later. With dialect,Baldini has said, there is a certain kind of plasticity andmalleability that distinguishes it from standard Italian.One aspect of the dialect’s plasticitity is an insistenceupon the right to reiterate. Baldini explains: “whoeverspeaks in dialect doesn’t feel bothered by a word that isrepeated several times and then loops back again later.Italian, on the other hand, is hypersensitive about repetition;it will not tolerate it.” (11)In Baldini’s poems, the train of thought is broken;there are qualifications, repetitions, reiterations, digressions,exclamations and interrogatives. Certain poemsare a series of non sequiturs, of shifts in subject, of falsestarts and abrupt interruptions. This gives a strong senseof a conversation, but because the person to whom thethoughts are being addressed is not there or is elusive,the lingering sense is not one of having been addressedor having overheard a conversation, but rather one ofhaving been inside and heard the rumblings of an anxioussoul.At the end of this accumulation of noises, the narratorrecognizes what these sounds are: they are the voicesof people standing in line in front of him, each of whomis confessing sins. The noises have become transformedinto a listing of human frailties and failings.and this one is Emilia, there’s no mistaking her,confessing for Carlone too,poor guy, who’s not all there upstairs,and now listen to Don Gaetano behind the screengiving her penance,At the end of this poem, it is as if release comes byhaving endured the weight, the barrage and the accumulation,as if enduring it permits the cathartic transformationof the noises. In the final lines of the poem, the narratorliterally calls out, “listen”: sìnt che robi (listen tothis stuff). The release which at the end of the poemtakes the form of a series of questions, which are reallypleas:e pu un’èlta cunsiòun, mo chi sarà?pu dagli èlti ancòura, cs’èll, l’è sno cunsiòun?cmè ch’i avrà fat a ’rdéus-si tótt insén?i zcòrr, i zcòrr, i fa una baganèra,e l’è che què dabón u n va pérs gnént,l’è tótt i pchè de mònd,e i va ’vènti a cunsès, quant ch’i n n’à fat?sint che robi, mo un basta? u n gne n’è d’ilt?e i n’è bón da stè zétt, u n s nu n pò piò,qualcadéun ch’u i pardòuna, u n gn’è niséun?(p. 122, ll.15-23)and then another confession,who can it be?then some others,you get tired out waiting behind all of them,still others, what is it? are they just confessions?how could it have all come down to this?they talk, they talk, they’re making a din,and it’s that, right here, nothing gets lost,it’s all the sins of the world,and they step forward to make a confessionhow many do they have?listen to this stuff, that’s enough isn’t it?there are more of them?and they just can’t keep quiet, isn’t there someonewho can do it anymore,someone who can forgive them, isn’t there anyone?Notes1. “E’ malan,” in La nàiva in La nàiva, Furistír,Ciacri, Guilio Einaudi Editore, 2000. pp. 118-1222. Raffaello Baldini, Ad nòta: versi in dialetto romagnolo;presentazione di Pier Vincenzo Mengaldo, ArnoldoMondadori Editor, 1995; p. ix “Se non restasse ancoraTranslation Review 37