to schiovere
noon, January 9, 2022 – 08:53
Careless, listless: used by my mother as an incentive to do better
from Erri De Luca
Good for nothing, incapable, a term only heard by my mother. He affectionately reported it to those who failed a task, careless, listless. He gave it to me as a child, as an incitement to do better. Then he no longer appeared in our adult chatter, no longer mentioned for other circumstances.
His sfelenzo comes back to me like the lost shepherd of a nativity scene. I researched it in the Neapolitan vocabulary to see if it really existed or if she had invented it. Exists.
The name gives me a half smile, addressed to a time ago when the meaning of words was learned from the tones of the voice and not from the definitions. Yes, little sfelenzo.
It was male only. It didn’t apply to my poor school results. For those more severe expressions were used, subte without being able to remedy them. I did not understand several pages to study, trying on the other hand to memorize them. Sending them to that country was simply inconceivable. I would do it later, avoiding any examination.
Returning with my thoughts to the age of strong incompleteness, I know that I felt a long time before I found my place and belonging within an insubordinate generation, thus redeeming my shortcomings.
It does not happen twice to a youth to be wind that blows from one end of the planet to the other.
This year 2022 opens full of two in number. He suggests making a couple, forming an alliance, to avoid feeling spelled out.
January 9, 2022 | 08:53
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