Hi everyone! I always read Italian book reviews whenever one happens to cross my path since I’m always on the look-out for interesting contemporary Italian writers. Today’s translation exercise is an extract from a review of the book ‘Cacciatore di Mafiosi’ by Alfonso Sabella, which has just been published by Mondadori (and can be purchased from IBS and other online booksellers). The review is the work of Antonio Pagliaro, and was posted in his blog Xantology, where you can find the full review if your appetite has been whetted by this short extract!
As usual, I encourage you to attempt a translation and post your work as a comment on the blog. I'll post my own translation attempt in a couple of days.
OK, onward with the extract:
Cacciatore di Mafiosi
Recensione fulmine per chi va di fretta: questo è il più bel libro di mafia che io abbia letto negli ultimi anni. Segue recensione non fulmine.
Pietro Romeo, soldato di Leoluca Bagarella, non intende “farsi l’incastru pi ’sti quattru cornuti”. E’ in stato di fermo davanti al procuratore Sabella. Pietro Romeo è un gigante, pesa più di cento chili. Si capisce subito che può uccidere a mani nude. Questo, infatti, era il suo compito: strangolare.
Adesso è di fronte alla scelta: ergastolo o collaborazione. E decide di collaborare.
Romeo è un uomo forte che racconta di aver avuto paura una sola volta. Prima di affiliarsi a Cosa nostra era un ladro. A Bagheria ruba un camioncino di sigarette e, nella fuga, dimentica il cassone semiaperto. Quando incrocia un corteo funebre, accelera per evitarlo. Non ci riesce: la maniglia dello sportello spalancato aggancia una corona di fiori - “Per il mio amato cognato” - e la trascina con sé. I parenti del morto iniziano un folle inseguimento. “Ammazzatilu ’stu crastu”.
Romeo è terrorizzato, abbandona il camion e riesce a dileguarsi. Convinto di avere attratto su di sé una grande sfortuna, sull’episodio non dormirà a lungo. Poi entra in Cosa nostra e inizia la carriera di omicida senza armi, fino alla cattura e al pentimento. Romeo collabora e fa prendere tre latitanti la stessa notte del suo arresto. A Roma, fa recuperare un quintale di esplosivo. T4 e semtex destinati, nell’ambito della “trattativa” del 1993, alla Torre di Pisa. “Se un giorno Pisa si trovasse senza la Torre” si raccontavano i capimafia.
Romeo è un pentito importante e porta gli inquirenti anche nel suo “ufficio” in via Messina Montagne. Dentro un grande capannone, in una nicchia gli attrezzi: manette, corde, lacci, fil di ferro, guanti. Alle pareti le immagini sacre: santa Rosalia, santa Rita, la Madonna. Qui Romeo strangolava. Qui, fra i tanti, è morto Gaetano Buscemi, l’uomo d’onore che, interrogato otto ore, sa di non poterne uscire vivo e si dice disponibile a raccontare quel poco che sa a patto di avere una tomba su cui la moglie possa piangere. Richiesta accolta: niente acido per lui, il cadavere viene ritrovato in una via di Villabate…
Monday, November 24, 2008
1 response(s):
OK, here is my attempt! Feel free to correct my mistakes, or post your own versions!
Mafia Hunter
A lightning quick review for those who want to cut to the chase: this is the best book about the Mafia that I’ve read for some time. For those with a little more time to spare, a more leisurely review follows.
Pietro Romano, one of Leoluca Bararella’s men, doesn’t intend “to be stitched up because of these four bastards”. He’s arrested, and brought before Sabella, the Public Prosecutor.
Pietro Romeo is a giant of a man, weighing more than a hundred kilos. First impressions are that he could kill with his bare hands. This, in fact, is his modus operandi: he strangles his victims.
Now he has to face a choice: life imprisonment or collaboration. And he decides to collaborate.
Romeo is a strong man who says he’s only ever felt fear once in his life. Before becoming part of the Cosa Nostra he was a thief. At Bagheria he stole a truck full of cigarettes and, during the get-away, he forgot that the back of the truck was half-open. He got caught up in a funeral procession, and accelerated to avoid it. He didn’t make it: the handle of the open door snagged a wreath of flowers – “To my beloved brother-in-law” – and dragged it along the road, with the relatives of the dead guy in hot pursuit, baying for blood. “Kill the bastard!”
The petrified Romeo ditches the van and manages to sneak away. Convinced that he’s brought a huge weight of bad luck down on himself, he can’t manage to sleep until along time after the event. Then he enters the Cosa Nostra and starts his career of killing with his bare hands, until he’s finally captured and repents.
Romeo collaborates and, on the same night as his arrest, he blows the whistle on three fugitives, who are then captured. In Rome he leads the authorities to a hundred kilos of explosives. T4 and Semtex that are intended – following the 1993 treaty - to bring down the Leaning Tower of Pisa. “One day Pisa will find itself without its tower” the Mafia Dons used to say.
Romeo is an important informant, who also takes the investigators to his “office” in via Messina Montagne. His equipment is inside a huge hanger, hidden in a cubbyhole: handcuffs, ropes, nooses, wire and gloves. On the walls are sacred images: Saint Rosalia, Saint Rita, the Madonna. Here Romeo used to carry out his strangulations.
Here, among many others, Gaetano Buscemi died, the man of honour who, interrogated for eight hours, knew that he’d never leave the room alive. He said that he was willing to tell what little he knew if his wife would have a grave over which to mourn. The request was granted: no acid bath for him, his corpse was found in a street in Villabate…
Post a Comment