Jesus and Pasolini

Hi—

I look forward to seeing your new image of Jesus. Meantime, a word about him and Pasolini.

For all we know, Jesus was a rubble-rouser, as in fact he seems to be in  Pasolini’s film, a real pain in the butt for both Jews and Romans. I don’t think it’s way off the mark to say that in Jesus Pasolini saw someone like himself, someone all too human who was keenly aware that something was rotten in the society he lived in and was in need of being changed, sort of from bottom up.   

But I want to touch on Pasolini in connection with something else.

Some of Pasolini’s early poetry is written in the Friulian spoken in the Casarsa region., which differs in significant ways from central Friulian. Friulian, as I think you know, is recognized as a minority language in Italy, and as such it is entitled to significant funds from the federal goverment. The proponents of Friulian are largely supporters of central Friulian, a variant which, they claim, is more deserving of representing the Friulan language as a whole. This means that the use of variants of the language are discouraged. Enter Pasolini. In his early poetry he pretty much makes use of the Casarsa variant.  Since Pasolini’s Friulian poetry is arguably the best Friulian poetry ever written, it is hard to dismiss it and claim that the central variant is the more deserving. This is where linguistic politics come into play.  Proponents of central Friulian even claim that Pasolini himself wrote in central Friulian and not in the Casarsa variant.

The Friulian I use in all my translations is the Casarsa variant, which is pretty much identical with the Friulian used by Pasolini himself.  This doesn’t go down well with the proponents of central Friulian, although, to be fair, a number of years ago they offered to help me in the publication of my translation of Orlando Furioso (over 4000 octaves in length), but only on the absurd and impossible condition that I rewrite it making use of all the rules and regulations of central Friulian! 

I’m fighting a losing battle, I’m afraid. All the same, I carry on, hoping I can help a bit in keeping my home Friulan from vanishing…

So think I know how you feel when confronted it with people like the Taranto banker with the swimming pool. 

Ermes