a schiovere
NoonNovember 27, 2022 – 09:22
The emigrant, who often left on “ships” to seek his fortune elsewhere
from Eric DeLuca
The outcast, the exile: before the Italian language made the term emigrate prevail, those who set out with ships «pe’ terre assai luntane» were ‘nu forasciuto.
It happens to languages to superimpose a word, an expression unknown to those involved, on a collective experience. “Bella ciao”, the singing symbol of the Resistance, was a song almost unknown to the partisans.
«Shoà» is also a superimposed word following the destruction. Originating from ancient Hebrew, it was ignored by the victims.
Even words have their own biography, birth, growth, decline. Forasciuto is no longer used. It sounds precise to me, it indicates the dismay of someone who is out of their place, from a shelter, with no entrance in sight. Even when stopped somewhere, in temporary transit, one remains punctured.
I was, in France, as the last remnant of the emigration of the Italian workforce. I spoke Neapolitan to keep a point from which I had not escaped.
In Turin I lived in a house that had a sign on the door: “Do not rent to Neapolitans”. I believe that the prohibition also extended to Caserta and other southern origins.
The “Neapolitan” of the cartel was perhaps unbeknownst to him, a synecdoche, a rhetorical figure that names a part to indicate a larger whole.
I lived there the same. It gave me pleasure to mutter one of our greeting phrases: «go», followed by pleasure.
November 27, 2022 | 09:22
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