Journal of Italian Translation - Brooklyn College - Academic Home ...

Gaoheng Zhang / Francesca Bellino
Italy, she no longer took a fancy to her name. However, she had
also learned that the customer is always right and must be given
maximum satisfaction.
Scratching his head, the man continued to sneer. He stressed
that Lucia didn’t suit her personality and Pan Na Na would be
better. “You people even want to pinch Italian names. It’s just not
enough for you to rip off business from Italian vendors. All right,
can I call you Panna then?” He carried on half-seriously while
sipping a ristretto with cream 1 , which he orders when he isn’t in a
hurry. She didn’t react to the silly joke at first, but then she started
to ponder a bit. After a pause for reflection, she replied him acerbically
while trying to remain nice: “How do you express it in Rome?
Mind your own business?”
Renzo, or Wen Sen Zuo, says the same thing to his nephews
in a brusquer tone of voice. They tease him because his love story
with Pan Na Na bears no resemblance to that in The Betrothed. Yi
and Ding were both born in Rome. They burst out laughing when
they read the novel of Alessandro Manzoni in school, learning that
the protagonists had the same names as their uncle and aunt. Pan
Na Na and Wen Sen Zuo didn’t know that they bore the names of
characters from such an important work of literature. They heard
these names on the TV and liked them, so they took them as their
own.
Among the Chinese immigrants in Rome, Pan Na Na and Wen
Sen Zuo are the youngest in the family. They don’t have children,
never go out for fun, don’t like reading novels, and fall asleep in
front of the TV in the evening. They turn it on during dinner and
leave it on until the next morning, when they dash off together in a
mad rush to the bar in Piazza Vittorio in Esquilino. They watch several
TV programs, including quiz and reality shows, and naturally
TV news. They listen to the news in order to improve their Italian
but also to keep informed on what is happening around them and
to understand the Italian way of life. They believe everything the
TV says. It’s their Bible. So when they heard that on May 11 there
might be a major earthquake that could destroy the eternal city,
they started planning their first vacation away from the bar and
their first trip out of Rome since two months ago.
123