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Challenging Italian sentence

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16 messages over 2 pages: 1
drygramul
Tetraglot
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Italy
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 Message 9 of 16
20 March 2014 at 4:19pm | IP Logged 
Que is not a typo. It is a stylistic choice, he clearly makes use of a lot of latinisms and obsolete Italian words. That's why you have que and che, he's no ordinary writer and everything is carefully chosen.

I remember in my childhood reading books that still kept that variation, transcripts of translations dated to the 19th century.
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flabbergasted
Triglot
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 Message 10 of 16
20 March 2014 at 5:53pm | IP Logged 
drygramul wrote:
If you could post the previous paragraph, I might be able to help.



Here it is:

"Misuro me stesso: minuscolo, di lunghe gambe veloci al balzo, alla corsa, tacite;
orecchiuto a trascegliere fruscii di morte e sciacquii di strazio e ronzii di meditata
piaga; occhi plurimi, attorno all'acuzie del muso, autonomi a scrutare ombre, fantasmi,
denti, finzioni di unghie, l'aprirsi cauto di un tacito albero, travestita mascella di
esatte mura"
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flabbergasted
Triglot
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 Message 11 of 16
20 March 2014 at 5:55pm | IP Logged 
dampingwire wrote:

is the rest of the book written in the same
style?





No, it gets even worse.

Edited by flabbergasted on 20 March 2014 at 5:55pm

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Iversen
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 Message 12 of 16
21 March 2014 at 12:18am | IP Logged 
flabbergasted wrote:
"Misuro me stesso: minuscolo, di lunghe gambe veloci al balzo, alla corsa, tacite; orecchiuto a trascegliere fruscii di morte e sciacquii di strazio e ronzii di meditata piaga; occhi plurimi, attorno all'acuzie del muso, autonomi a scrutare ombre, fantasmi, denti, finzioni di unghie, l'aprirsi cauto di un tacito albero, travestita mascella di esatte mura"


Why does such a sane and levelheaded person suddenly decide to flay living snakes?
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flabbergasted
Triglot
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 Message 13 of 16
21 March 2014 at 5:50am | IP Logged 
Iversen wrote:
flabbergasted wrote:
"Misuro me stesso: minuscolo, di lunghe gambe
veloci al balzo, alla corsa, tacite; orecchiuto a trascegliere fruscii di morte e
sciacquii di strazio e ronzii di meditata piaga; occhi plurimi, attorno all'acuzie del
muso, autonomi a scrutare ombre, fantasmi, denti, finzioni di unghie, l'aprirsi cauto di
un tacito albero, travestita mascella di esatte mura"


Why does such a sane and levelheaded person suddenly decide to flay living snakes?


The novel is set in hell.

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Ogrim
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France
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 Message 14 of 16
21 March 2014 at 11:27am | IP Logged 
I had never heard about Giorgio Manganelli to be honest, so I looked him up in Wikipedia. Reading about him there I understand better why this text seems so obscure. Here is a short passage:

Wikipedia: wrote:

Autore di numerose opere dalla prosa elaborata e complessa, che oscilla spesso tra il racconto-visione e il trattato, Manganelli affermò nella sua Letteratura come menzogna del 1967 che il compito della letteratura è quello di trasformare la realtà in menzogna, in scandalo e in mistificazione, risolta in un puro gioco di forme, attraverso le quali la scrittura diventa contestazione. Nelle opere di Manganelli la parodia e il sarcasmo si esercitano in forme letterarie raffinate e funamboliche.

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drygramul
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Italy
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 Message 15 of 16
22 March 2014 at 7:16pm | IP Logged 
flabbergasted wrote:

Here it is:

All right, so he's describing his body - well the perception of it.

My guess is the following:
- the slimy skin is hold together with his body by a hand (a figure of speech, not a real hand)
- raggelare, livida, viscida, seem to describe the physical/emotional state of his skin. With cold/fear extremities become blue (livida), you have shivers (raggelare) and you can even have sweat (viscida). So he's either providing an emotional response or a physical response (is he naked in hell?).
- i think it's safe to say that the prensili chele are his limbs, most probably the hands

That's a hypothetical interpretation of the description, and I'm sorry I can't help more. I think it's wrong to look for a concrete correspondence to his rhetorical devices.
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flabbergasted
Triglot
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Latvia
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 Message 16 of 16
22 March 2014 at 8:27pm | IP Logged 
Thanks a lot. It's a bit clearer now.


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