Things are funnier in other languages
After many months of off and on reading I have finally finished "La Vampa D'agosto" in the original Italian/Sicilian. Here is my book report:
The story follows Italy's favorite Sicilian detective Montalbano as he tracks the killer of a girl whose body is found 7 years after the fact in a forgotten apartment (which is literally buried to get around certain Italian building permit red-tape). The prime suspect has an air-tight alibi that is undone in the end by Italy's unreliable air travel system: he couldn't have been on a plane to Bangkok that day - there was a strike! Complicating it all is the victim's sexy twin sister who is inexplicably attracted to the 50-something Montalbano.
All in all it's a delightful noir-style detective novel where "heat" - the incredible all-pervading heat of Sicily in August - plays the same metaphorical roll that "night" usually does in these kinds of thrillers. Not only does Montalbano work in a police station with no air conditioning, but he's forced to return to the dank underground crime scene again and again. Seriously. By the end of the novel he's so over heated that he basically strips down to his underwear at every opportunity. Like 4 or 5 times. And if the heat representing Montalbano's stymied desire to catch the killer isn't clear enough the sexy twin sister is always accompanied by cooling imagery. But beware the ice-queen's double cross!
I put my comprehension at somewhere around 70%. To give you a feel for where I'm at here's a line from the book plus my own translation.
Montalbano satò fora. Adriana si era rapruta, strazzannola, la cammisetta, aveva le minne di fora. Spitaleri tiniva 'un cuteddro in mano e stava avanzanno contro. Caminava rigido, pariva un pupo meccanico.«Fermo!» gridò il commissario.
Translates to me as:
Montalbano jumped out. Adrian was ?????, strangling her, the shirt, she had her ????? out. Spitaleri held a knife in his hand and was advancing against her. He walked rigidly, like a mechanical puppet."Stop!" yelled the detective.
As you can see, I can get the jist but I could certainly stand some improvment.
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3 comments:
I copy/pasted your Italian text into the Yahoo! Babel Fish text translation tool. Here's what it spit back at me:
"Montalbano satò pierces. Adriana was rapruta, strazzannola, the cammisetta, had the minne of pierces. Tiniva Spitaleri ' a cuteddro in hand and it was avanzanno against. Rigid Caminava, pariva pupo a mechanic.
“Firm” I scream the commissioner."
So. . . I'd say you're doing pretty well.
The author writes everything in dialect so even the words that should be easy to translate like "fuori" get turned into "fora" so it's no wonder the translator does so poorly.
"He walked rigidly."
*giggle*
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