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

Alessandra Aquilani / Aurelio Longhi
to Paris to see all that?
B – What a bonehead!
S – Who? The French lady?
B – No. You.
S – You’re right. I shoulda gone out to dinner on that
money.
B – Probably.
S – Three francs here. Two francs there. Nothin’ really.
You see, Battí, the funny thing is. No. The sad thing is that you
don’t notice right there. But then you go count what you have left
in your wallet and you realize each franc cost you an arm and a
leg. You realize all the times you got cheated. All the times they
stole right from under us. I just know that we left –
B – Is this gonna to take long?
S – Nah, it’s almost over. So we leave the museum and
we go towards the hotel, while we were walkin’ the guide says:
“You got a free night. You can go eat wherever you want, pay for
yourselves. It’s all in the schedule.” OK! I was already thirsty and
getting’ hungry too! I start looking around for a tavern. Not that
nobody drinks in Paris, but in those parts I didn’t see one place.
All cafés. Little fancy bars… hmph. I go into one of these cafés,
just to see. If they don’t have wine I’ll drink somethin’ else. I’d
learned some French, “Garzó,” I says to the waiter, “Toi voudrais
del vino?” the waiter gets close to me. Looks at me in the eyes and
says: “Instead of a vino I’ll give you a punch in the face.”
B – You had it coming.
S – Quiet. “What was that?” I said. “Well, maybe you should
try talkin’ like your mamma taught you.” Just like that we was old
friends. He’s from Jesi. We’re everywhere!
B – Who was it?
S – He lived down by Saint Peter’s. Righetto de Tampero’s
his name. We went to school together. He ended up in Paris. He’s
a waiter.
B – I know him. His mom wrote him a letter and addressed
it: “To my son, the waiter in Paris, France.”
S – Yeah, she wrote: “Send me the right address or else
how will I write you?” That’s him. He says to me, “First of all you
messed up ‘cause toi means you want a glass of wine.” “That’s
what I meant, I want one.” I say. So he offered me a little jug of
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