![]() It isn’t in my idiolect and the dictionary doesn’t support it either. I don’t think that interpretation is possible in Italian. (and makes me tempted to interpret “smozzicare” as itself a smozzication of a “castrate” meaning of “mozzo” – but that’s probably my yiddish/nyc “shm-” coming through) Like our host, I find “original” too weak a translation, but I’d think “primitive” has in English, as in Italian, both meanings that Manzoni is playing with: the primary one of “original” and the figurative one of “rough, crude, uncivilized.” Possibly it’s made more obvious by the fact that “anche ben educati” doesn’t exactly mean “even the educated,” but rather “albeit well-mannered.” That’s precisely the simile the passage is making! and the passage a beautiful description of someone who is a living “jeezum crow!” (can you tell i’ve been to vermont recently?) also French mousse, Spanish mocho.” The only French mousse I knew was the noun meaning ‘moss foam,’ but this turns out to be an adjective meaning would make “primitiva” glossable more as vulgar/coarse/obscene than “original”. Moore chooses “original” for primitiva, but I prefer the more primitive “primitive.” I was struck by the word smozzicate: smozzicare ‘to crumble to mumble, to slur (words)’ is derived from mozzo ‘cut off, docked,’ which is (according to Wiktionary) “From Vulgar Latin * mutius, from Latin mutilus. Words that, despite this disguise, maintain their original energy. ![]() A fellow friar and friend, who knew him well, once compared him to words that are overly colorful in their natural form, which some people, even the educated, utter when passion overflows, but in a fractured form, with a couple of letters changed for the sake of propriety. His whole demeanor, like his appearance, betrayed a long war between a fiery, resentful disposition and the opposite desire, which usually prevailed, always alert and guided by higher motives and inspiration. Un suo confratello ed amico, che lo conosceva bene, lo aveva una volta paragonato a quelle parole troppo espressive nella loro forma naturale, che alcuni, anche ben educati, quando la passione trabocca, pronunziano smozzicate, con qualche lettera mutata, parole che in quel travisamento fanno però ricordare della loro energia primitiva. ![]() Tutto il suo contegno, come l’aspetto, annunziava una lunga guerra tra un’indole subita, risentita, e una volontà opposta, abitualmente vittoriosa, sempre all’erta e diretta da motivi e da ispirazioni superiori. Moore’s translation of Manzoni’s I promessi sposi, and I liked this description (from the end of chapter 4) of Padre Cristoforo, who had become a Capuchin monk after killing a man: My wife and I are reading The Betrothed, Michael F. ![]()
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