Since I spent part of my summer translating some of my posts into Italian I will now here publish what I’ve done so far.
See you soon then.
MoR
La tête vide, mais des bons amis
Therèse, Paul et moi at our dining table in Rome. Click to enlarge
Scrivere a volte significa dover affrontare situazioni come questa: la testa completamente vuota, di fronte ad una pagina egualmente vuota.
ψ
Enjoy Therèse et Paul while having lunch with us in Rome.
ψ
I just published a new chapter of the Manius’ soap both in English and in Italian.
Two more chapters are ready, one with Massimo and Deirdre (who finally reaches home after months); another with Massimo and the Witch.
Stay tuned.
Manius Papirius Lentulus. Progress so far
Venus Verticordia by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882). Via Wikipedia. Click for attribution. Venus was also called Verticordia by the Romans since she was capable of 'changing human hearts'. Verticordia had a temple on the Via Salaria
As for the adventures of Manius Papirius Lentulus in Ancient Britannia [Misce Sultitiam Consiliis: Add Folly to Wisdom] I’ve not been idle.
At present:
1) I am translating all that has been written so far into decent enough Italian (harder than I thought)
2) as for the new chapters (like the latest and the one in preparation) I first write in Italian and later only I translate all into English. It is quicker and at this point I need it.
3) I am inserting Andy’s editing into my English text. Andy, this extremely nice English blogger I just met face to face in Milan, is very respectful of my weird English. He just corrects evident mistakes.
4) I got new ideas in Milan about how one can write in two languages at the same time. I in fact there met Christian Floquet face to face, ie a half French half Italian extremely nice person (his Italian half is Calcagni-Negroni, so he, well, is my cousin – I told you blogs are also great for meeting people in real life, wow). Ok. Now Christian (who lives both in Paris and in Milan) happens to teach translation at the Milan University.
He told me of this writer who, while writing novels in two languages at the same time, lost his vein at a certain point (if I recall well). So what he did he began to learn another language in order to get his inspiration back. Amazing. Not that I feel I’m a writer, no, but since, well, I write, such examples are inspiring (and consoling). Merci Christian!
A fifth point will soon appear, ie the categories (or lexicon) I have conceived for the Manius / Massimo etc. soap, which may provide an idea of where I’m aiming at and of the mixture of stultitia (folly) and consilium (wisdom) I am planning.
Clivus Scauri, and ancient Roman alley not far from Giorgio's home. Click for attribution and to enlarge. M. A. Scaurus (163 – 89 BCE), one of greatest politicians of the Republic at the time of Caius Marius (Caesar's uncle) used it to reach the Palatine & Forum area
Note. Misce stultitiam consiliis is meant to mean ‘mix folly with wisdom’ although sapientia is the right word for wisdom.
The thing is the poem by Horace I took it from is too beautiful (read too how the notion is discussed over at the MoR)
Misce stultitiam sapientiae? We will see. Sapientia (wisdom in all its ancient & modern, philosophical & theological, meanings) is in fact – as Cicero put it (I, Off. c. 43) – congnitio rerum omnium (knowledge of all things), tum humanorum, tum divinarum (those that are human, and those that are divine).
Big deal thing, I know.
Man of Roma. Un bilancio (assessment)
MoR in Piazza Navona. Click for a larger view. Pic taken by Devinder Singh with my brand new Galaxy Tablet. Dev, an Indian blogger, was in Rome last May. He had presented a short (and great) film at Cannes. See 2 links on Piazza Navona at the foot of the post
[Per i lettori italiani.
Un nuovo blog, Pagine del Man of Roma, in cui sto mettendo brani significativi del MoR in italiano.
La soap sull'antica Britannia la sto scrivendo anche in italiano]
ψ
Thus said, cercando di non fare i tronfioni e di essere obiettivi (English translation in progress) il 9 settembre 2007 cominciai un blog in inglese perché:
1) era difficile
2) dopo 16 anni di IT volevo riprendere gli studi umanistici
3) la lingua di Shakespeare, meravigliosa, speravo aprisse a una varietà di interlocutori eccitante
4) volevo praticare la dialettica, mito della mia generazione ma di valore universale
5) volevo focalizzare il lavoro sulla romanness, verificando eventuali nessi, di qualsiasi tipo, tra i romani dell’antichità e i romani – italiani (e oltre) – di oggi (la romanitas si dispiegò infatti su un impero vasto).
Piazza Navona, Rome, former Circus of Emperor Domitian located to the north of the Campus Martius. Via Wikipedia. Click for a larger view
Come è andata?
Io credo bene. In modo non sistematico:
214 scritti (non tantissimi forse nell’arco di quasi 4 anni ma molti sono saggi ben sudati), 5.281 commenti (tanti, molti dei quali più lunghi del post che li aveva stimolati). Praticamente, tra articoli e commenti, “un librone di diverse migliaia di pagine” in cui gli interventi (al 99% in inglese) sono spesso più elevati degli scritti stessi. Ci sono anche i miei commenti e, wel well, i miei lettori sanno che sono un bel chiacchierone (chatter-box).
Estrema varietà degli interlocutori. Eccitante dicevo. In ordine alfabetico:
America, Australia, Austria, Brasile, Canada, China, Francia, Germania, Gran Bretagna, India, Irlanda, Italia, Messico, Nuova Zelanda e Svezia.
Bust of Roman Emperor Domitian who reigned from 81 to 96 CE. Roma, Musei Capitolini
Viaggio di esplorazione. Questo per me e spero per i lettori è stato il Man of Roma:
Un girovagare imparando cose belle insieme, un dialogo continuo (estenuante a volte), uno studio tosto da parte di chi scrive (fa bene, ok, ma ‘na faticaccia …).
Nel fondo ero e rimango un insegnante, fiero del mestiere che ho fatto per più di 30 anni, un dare e soprattutto un ricevere che riscalda il cuore prima della mente.
Verifica dello strumento dialettico. La tecnica dialettica – inventata forse da Socrate e Platone 2400 anni fa (ma esistono dialettiche orientali efficacissime, vedi il link subito sopra) – per come la vedo io è:
A. dialogo con noi stessi sui temi che ci appassionano
B. Dialogo con libri testi e pagine (anche web) validi (non si cresce senza dialogare con menti migliori della nostra).
Consiglio lo studio attento di scritti frammentari o zibaldoni (l’efficacia dell’esempio vivo!) poiché il pensiero in progress ci fa teste pensanti (thinking people) per naturale imitazione, piccole teste o grandi chissenefrega (who the hell cares), l’importante è pensare con la nostra testa, diritto sancito da ogni costituzione democratica.
Domitian's Stadium, built in 86 CE conceived for Greek athletics that the Romans considered immoral (nakedness etc.). Later become 'Circus Agonalis' the population watched there agones (games, from αγών: any contest), whence 'agone', which possibly merged into 'navone' (big ship), whence Navona. Voilà, Piazza Navona! Click for credits
Personalmente ho imparato tantissimo dallo Zibaldone di Leopardi, dai saggi di Montaigne e soprattutto dai Quaderni del carcere di Antonio Gramsci, autore oggi riscoperto a livello globale (dalla destra e dalla sinistra americana, in India, in Inghilterra ecc.) non per il suo essere marxista (il marxismo è morto, pace all’anima sua) ma per il suo essere pensatore geniale, utilissimo.
Presto vorrei meglio approcciare gli essais (1rst & 2nd series) & lectures di Ralph Waldo Emerson, forse il più grande intellettuale americano che, for some weird reason, è a me molto affine.
[Anche la poesia, attenzione, di ogni genere e popolo, è strumento -cognitivo e artistico- micidiale]
C. Dialogo con gente in carne ed ossa, dovunque è possibile (amici, caffè, strada). I blog? Per loro natura dilatano il dialogo e naturalmente con l’uso di una lingua franca il livello di tale dilatazione è potenzialmente altissimo.
Piazza Navona, air view. Click for credits
Infine, ‘romanità’ ieri e oggi. E qui concludo perché credo che l’audience del blog (not too far from half a million hits, specie considerando argomenti non proprio semplici direi) sia dovuta proprio a questo:
al meraviglioso mondo di Roma raccontato da un ‘uomo medio’ in tutte le salse possibili. Da uno cioè nato e vissuto quaggiù, ie a witness from right there.
ψ
Ringrazio con affetto tutti quelli che mi hanno seguito e che ho seguito nei loro blog.
THIS IS NOT A FAREWELL, IT’S A NEW BEGINNING! [had to add this since a few readers were worried: see comments below].
That the journey continue! I do love you ALL (and you know it damn!)
Yours.
Man of Roma
Nota. Per piazza Navona vedi queste notizie storico-archeologiche in italiano e in inglese.
ψ
Post correlati (bilanci, audience e temi, man mano che il blog cresceva):
[Related posts (assessment, audience & themes as the blog progressed in time]
Post sul Metodo (see the English original of this, well, wild post)
100 Posts. I’ll Celebrate My Own Way. 1
100 Posts. I’ll Celebrate My Own Way. 2
Merry Saturnalia! And a Roman New Blog
Il mio maestro
Le mie idee [English original] cominciarono a fermentare 35 anni fa, quando mi imbattei nella persona che nel presente blog chiamo Magister, ovvero il mio caro maestro.
Aveva piovuto tutto il giorno. Roma ha uno strano odore quando piove. Ero andato casualmente nel centro culturale nel quale Magister era solito tenere conferenze, nei pressi del Tevere, il fiume sacro di Roma.
Già molto vecchio, capelli e barba bianchi, i suoi occhi erano attenti, penetranti. Nei ruggenti anni ’70 l’Italia era tutto un dibattito. Sto ascoltando The Dark Side of the Moon per cercare di ricreare l’atmosfera di quei giorni lontani.
Roma. Tevere sotto la pioggia. Courtesy of 'eternallycool.net'
Il maestro parlava a voce bassa per lo più e il silenzio degli ascoltatori era assoluto, a volte persino imbarazzante. Quando gli capitava di arrabbiarsi la voce si faceva potente, gli occhi scintillanti.
Non lo dimenticherò mai. Ero un brutto anatroccolo prima di conoscerlo. Non che egli abbia fatto di me un cigno (l’idea fa un po’ ridere) ma certo da lui ho ricevuto tanto, la nozione tra le altre cose della mente e della volontà come potenti strumenti di libertà.
Chissà se sono stato un buon allievo. Lasciai casa in cerca di fortuna. La sfortuna è dei giovani che non incontrano maestri.
Non rivelerò la sua identità. Non che a lui importi, ormai non c’è più e i suoi resti stanno da qualche parte nella città eterna da lui così intensamente amata. Lo adoravo. E non fui il solo a piangere sulle sue ceneri. Ho dei motivi per non rivelarvi chi in realtà fosse, e vorrei qui solo ripetere che a lui devo veramente tanto, non ultimo quest’amore, curiosità o desiderio per la conoscenza – non so bene come dirlo -, questa sorta di “edonismo culturale” (“conoscitivo” per gli anglosassoni) che tende ad auto-organizzarsi e che malgrado l’età continua a crescere invece di abbandonare il mio spirito.
Tra le altre cose devo al Maestro il metodo dialettico utilizzato del presente blog nonché l’idea che la scrittura sia la migliore palestra per imparare a pensare con chiarezza, razionalmente.
Scrittura & pensiero
Pensare, scrivere, chiarificare:
lo sforzo del disporre i tuoi pensieri
in modo chiaro, ordinato e comprensibile.Così tanti anni or sono
il mio Maestro consigliava
per la buona educazione della mente.
Maestro amato,
filosofo, scrittore, pedagogo …
[l'originale in inglese è migliore:
Writing, thinking, clarifying,
striving to sort out thoughts
in ways so “clear and ordinate”
and comprehensible.This, many years ago, Magister counselled
for the good education of the mind.
Beloved Magister,
writer, philosopher, educator...
Il mio insignificante tributo a Magister]
New Manius Papirius Lentulus’ Chapter Posted over at ‘Misce Stultitiam Consiliis’
Two ancient Roman women. A Latin (left) and a Romano-Celtic (right). A work by the Victorian painter A. Tadema, 1893. Click for a magnificent view of it
A new Manius’ chapter has just been posted over at Misce Stultitiam Consiliis, MoR’s new blog.
[Of course the MoR will remain my main home it goes without saying]
It’s been a tour de force. I’ll here summarize Manius’ plot as it unfolded so far as soon as possible. And will reply to comments here at the MoR.
[Update: comments have been replied to, but Manius' plot, I don't know people, after all that is happening in North Africa and Libya, which certainly concerns Roma (a main theme here at this blog.)
Man of Roma during 2008 Christmas
Plus I have another post in mind on Giulio Andreotti, Aldo Moro, Banda della Magliana, Berlusconi, after dear Zeus is watching’ post and the debate around it: very intriguing idea this blogger had, it suffice to watch the trailer below I owe to Zeus.
Who, by the way, being watching, we better ALL behave folks 
We will see (when I say like that I usually do nothing.)
Time now to hit the sack. Good night.]
A New Blog by the Man of Roma
Sheep in the English countryside. Click for credits and to enlarge
I’ve started a new blog just for the hell of it.
[Although Man of Roma will remain my main blog]
It’s written by Manius Papirius Lentulus, my ancient Roman alter ego.
What will I do with it?
I have no idea but in spite of the Latin title (and of the Latin alter ego) it will be open to any fun topic also outside Romanness.
Ciao ragazzi e ragazze.
ψ
Update. After three days of wax tablets blogging Manius’ adventures have been read by people from these places. I wonder why 
Color in Music and Color in Words. Have We Got the Christmas Blues?
What can possibly the concepts of colour in music and colour in words have in common? (It’s a sort of reply to our latest post)
[I know, it's Christmas time, how boring a few scattered thoughts on such stuff today. Merry Christmas in any case to all of you!]
Tone Colour in Music
Colour in music may refer to timbre, which is what allows us to distinguish a clarinet from an oboe, a sax from a trumpet and so on.
Usually even just a single instrument (the horn, the trumpet or the piano for example) can change its sound according to how it is played and to who is playing it, so we somewhat have different colours within the same timbre.
A piano played by different artists can produce very different results. I find the piano amazing since it can greatly vary its timbre especially considering that piano tones are directly produced by a mechanism and the only thing a performer can do is just a variation in velocity, ie in the speed and strength in which a key is pressed.
“When Ferruccio Busoni played [the piano] – Heinrich Neuhaus wrote (Neuhaus was Sviatoslav Richter‘s and Emil Gilels‘ teacher) – you heard the brass of trumpets, the trill of violins and the soft chords of harps.”
Classical Guitar. Expressive but Neglected
The classical guitar is even richer in colours than the piano [but unfortunately very few great musicians wrote music for this delightful instrument.]
Not only for the very sensitive human fingers (especially with no nails!) touching the strings directly without any mechanical intervention, but also for the right hand (the plucking one) that can move above, over, or below the sound hole thus greatly modifying the sound. Additionally the same string on a guitar sounds differently when plucked by the index, medium or ring-finger fingertips (again, with no nails). Last and not least, the same note can (pitch) be played on different strings, which varies the colour even more.
[As a break listen to Filomena Moretti from Sardinia (Italy) playing a prelude and fugue by Bach on the guitar. I wonder what her playing would be like without nails. Notice how the sound changes as she moves her hand from and to the guitar sound hole.]
ψ
In some languages the connection between the concepts of colour and of timbre is more evident: Klangfarbe is musical timbre in German (Farbe = colour), and in English we have timbre but also tone colour, an exact equivalent of Klangfarbe.
Do We See ‘la Vie en Rose’?
Paul Costopoulos: “Someone feeling sad has the “blues”; we are “green” with envy or we are “green behind the ears” when we are new to something. One may be “red” with confusion and we see “la vie en rose”. Tying colors and feelings is nothing new and music is feelings.”
MoR: “Colours and feelings. Interesting. I never heard “green behind the ears”, but numerous are the English phrases I don’t know.”
Sledpress: “Color is vibration — the wavelengths of light — so sound full of vibrations and harmonics, created as one vibration overlaps another, could be called sound full of color. I remember reading a saying of Goethe about the world being composed of the “deeds and sufferings of light.”
MoR: “Goethe’s theory of colours is a splendid nightmare. And I wonder how these waves being so different can interact. Unknown territory.”
Sledpress: “I have a special fondness for splendid nightmares, like phlogiston (…) I do think there has to be some intrinsic connection between the measurable effects of certain types of vibrations on the human system and the subjective experience of those colors, sounds and so on.”
MoR: “Various are the effects of sound and colour vibrations on people and I ignore the progress of psychology and neuropsychology of colour and music in order to escape subjectiveness. I know there’s a lot of music and colour therapy based on some research being made.”
[Have another break by listening to these amazing Japanese little girls. They are in my view almost perfect artists already at their age!]
Colour in Writing
Mario: “And colour in writing? Forgetful you are.”
MoR: “Right. To me colour in writing is given by the vivacity of images. Examples of very colourful writers are to me Homer, Tolstoy, Gramsci, Garcia Marquez or Garcia Lorca. Also in the real sense that I see colours when I read them. Here, as with music (although I left it unexpressed above,) we have what is called synaesthesia.”
Mario: “Synaesthesia?”
MoR: “It’s when the sensory perceptions of taste, vision, hearing, etc.. mix. We receive them from our sensory organs, but they are processed, and sometimes mixed, by our brain.”
Mario: “So sounds can evoke colours, or the vision of an apple its taste, and so on.”
MoR: “Exactly. In literature the synaesthetic effect of colour could be triggered by the vivacity of images. The authors mentioned are full of glowing images. So if I say that a writer’s text is colourful I refer to his / her vigour, vitality, expressiveness as for the images he / she evokes. In music it is clear that tone colours – but also expressiveness of melodies etc. – can favour synaesthesia.”
ψ
Mario: “How do you know those girls are Japanese and not Chinese?”
MoR: “Because a Chinese friend of mine has told me.”
