Paradîs Pierdùt

 

On Paradìs Pierdùt

(lulu.com/spotlight/ermesculos)

Not quite the same snake that crossed Chris’ s road yesterday (Facebook post, Sept 5/21); yet, all the same, this snake has been very much in my path over past little while, and in fact gets much of the blame for getting things to change (for poor Adam and Eve) from this:

Nectarine fruits which the compliant boughs

Yielded them, side-long as they sat recline

On the soft downy bank damasked with flowers:

The savoury pulp they chew, and in the rind,

Still as they thirsted, scoop the brimming stream;

Nor gentle purpose, nor endearing smiles

Wanted, nor youthful dalliance, as beseems

Fair couple, linked in happy nuptial league,

Alone as they.  About them frisking played                              340

All beasts of the earth, since wild, and of all chase

In wood or wilderness, forest or den;

Sporting the lion ramped, and in his paw

Dandled the kid; bears, tigers, ounces, pards,

Gambolled before them…

to this, where:

Adam to himself lamented loud,

Through the still night; not now, as ere Man fell,

Wholesome, and cool, and mild, but with black air

Accompanied; with damps, and dreadful gloom;

Which to his evil conscience represented

All things with double terrour:  On the ground                          850

Outstretched he lay, on the cold ground; and oft

Cursed his creation…

and Eve herself begs him to:

Forsake me not thus, Adam! witness Heaven

What love sincere, and reverence in my heart

I bear thee, and unweeting have offended,

Unhappily deceived!  … Forlorn of thee,

Whither shall I betake me, where subsist?

While yet we live, scarce one short hour perhaps,

Between us two let there be peace; both joining,

As joined in injuries, one enmity

Against a foe by doom express assigned us,

That cruel Serpent….

Anyway, how all this happens is the task of John Milton to tell in his Paradise Lost, which in my latest work becomes Paradìs Pierdùt, a translation of key parts of Milton's work in the Friulian language. (For anyone mad enough to want to find out, incidentally, Paradìs Pierdùt can be found at lulu.com/spotlight/ermesculos, while the Friulian rendering of the above can be found at culosermes.blogspot.ca .)

La mia traduzione del Paradise Lost di Milton si concentra sugli eventi che portano dallo stato iniziale, quando nell'Eden tutto era innocenza e gioia e armonia, come in questo passo:

“…nsièmit pojàs a stèvin (Adamo ed Eva) in tal bièl vert da la riva di flòus colorada:

i armelìns a ti godèvin e cu la so scusa pa la sèit aga a cjapàvin sù da la curìnt; 

nè buna volontàt di fà, nè un bièl ridi di muša no ghi mancjava, nè chel fà schersòus e beàt

che cussì ben e tant ai zòvins ghi conferìs, nuvìs coma lòu. 

Atòr di lòu contèntis a saltusàvin duti li Bèstis di sta cjera, da 'ncovolta salvàdis, 

in ta bosc o dešèrt, foresta o tana; il leòn a si la godeva a zujà, 

e cu li sàtis na cjavruta al caresava; ors, tìgris, pùmas, 

pàrdos a saltusàvin atòr di lòu…”

a questo passo, dove vediamo che il povero Adamo:

                                 “…si lamentava, adès no 

coma prin dal colà, di sè stes sigùr e plen di cunfidensa, 

ma di aspièt neri e cu na siera dal dut bruta che a la so 

Cosiensa nera dut jodi a ghi feva cun teròu dopli: 

distiràt par cjera frèida al steva, e spes 

il Creàt al bestemava…”

e il pianto stesso della sconsolatissima Eva:

“…Nosta lasami, Adàm; cal sedi il Cjèl testimoni dal grant ben, 

e da la riverensa che'n tal còu i ài par te, e che sensa intìndilu 

ufindùt ti ài e purtròp inganàt; i soj chì ch'i ti domandi, ch'i ti prej, 

ch'i t'imbrasi i zenoj: nosta bandonami, che par te i vìf, il to bièl aspièt, 

il to judami, il to consolami in ta stu brut, ma brut momènt, 

l'ùnica me sostansa e punt stàbil: sensa di te, indulà i zaràju, coma i faràju a vivi?

Intànt ch'encjamò vifs i sìn, n'altra oruta forsi, lasa chei fra di nu in pas i restani, 

insièmit, unìs cuntra'l mal, unìs in aversitàt cuntra un Nemìc ca ni è stàt metùt davànt,

chel crudèl di Sarpìnt…”