tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post3554573458800822028..comments2024-03-27T16:48:21.039-05:00Comments on Wuthering <br>Expectations: I cannot say how, or why, I was impelled to write these scenes in Italian - Vittorio Alfieri's MemoirsAmateur Reader (Tom)http://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-16652157097129519632015-01-28T13:26:10.113-06:002015-01-28T13:26:10.113-06:00You know, I can see where this would come from. L...You know, I can see where this would come from. Leopardi is reading Enlightenment French, and Alfieri is speaking whatever French dialect he grew up with in Turin. They are not thinking of Hugo and Verlaine like I am.<br /><br />I have also been learning, while reading Leopardi, that I have no idea how to pronounce Italian.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-31367262327533017132015-01-28T11:50:35.325-06:002015-01-28T11:50:35.325-06:00In the Zibaldone Leopardi spends years fretting ab...In the <i>Zibaldone</i> Leopardi spends years fretting about the popularity of French in Europe. Italian is more beautiful, Italian is more expressive, Italian is purer and closer to Latin, people only learn French because it's 'scientific" and stiff and easy -- years and years he goes on on griping over the same arguments to himself. If Alfieri is calling French "a tyrant" then I'd guess they had their own cross-pollinating let's-hate-French club.Umbagollahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14556344092820711893noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-49631875307543424982015-01-26T11:13:40.149-06:002015-01-26T11:13:40.149-06:00Leopardi had a deep relationship with Alfieri. Ma...Leopardi had a deep relationship with Alfieri. Maybe all of the recent <i>Zibaldone</i> reading will spark an Alfieri revival. That was a meant as a joke. It will not happen.<br /><br />I had not seen any of that Pushkin material. Very interesting; thanks.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-28349754951831519602015-01-26T07:05:47.755-06:002015-01-26T07:05:47.755-06:00Alfieri was well known to Russian writers in the e...Alfieri was well known to Russian writers in the early 19th century. Pushkin refers to him several times in his letters and critical essays, including this:<br /><br />"Les vrais génies de la tragédie ne se sont jamais souciés de la vraisemblance. Voyez comme Corneille a bravement mené le Cid. Ha, vous voulez la règle de 24 heures? Soit et là-dessus il vous entasse des événements pour 4 mois. Rien de plus inutile à mon avis, que les petits changements de règles reçues: Alfieri est profondément frappé du ridicule de l'<i>a-parte</i>, il le supprime et là-dessus allonge le monologue et pense avoir fait faire une révolution dans le système de la tragédie; quelle puérilité!"<br /><br />Pushkin translated a monologue from <i>Filippo</i> in blank verse. One of Pushkin's literary opponents, the much laughed-at admiral Shishkov, translated <i>Filippo</i> into Russian prose a little later, ca. 1828.<br /><br />Alfieri himself wrote a sonnet on the four Italian greats: Dante, Petrarch (the "grandfather of love"), Ariosto (the creator of Orlando), and Tasso (as far as I could guess: the "epic poem" must have been <i>Jerusalem</i>). Naturally, he wondered if a fifth had been working hard somewhere to have Phoebus smile upon him. Apparently, Leopardi agreed that Alfieri was worthy of that slot.Alex Khttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05922917428608106970noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-15301780122602133282015-01-23T14:39:47.228-06:002015-01-23T14:39:47.228-06:00I'm not saying he's wrong, myself.I'm not saying he's wrong, myself.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-59083364790229674522015-01-23T13:53:57.953-06:002015-01-23T13:53:57.953-06:00...he calls French (and English) a “tyrant jargon”...<i>...he calls French (and English) a “tyrant jargon” that sounds like “a detestable bagpipe” compared to the “fine toned harp” of Italian</i><br /><br />I could go along with that. There's a similar comment in one of the books I've been reading about Giaocchino Belli and his <i>Romanesco</i> dialect.seraillonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17654593356535433945noreply@blogger.com