(Untitled)

[darthcrimmy]

I finally looked up the translation of Chromaggia and it makes a lot of sense and makes me actually want to listen to the song now. And I just realize that Rotti probably fully understood the Italian as she was singing it which is why he looked pissed off the whole time.

CHROMAGGIA Chromaggia

Comments

[zigamorph]

At one time I circulated a translation that was similar to this, but I didn't think was very good. I was under the apparently mistaken impression that it was an official translation, and I therefore gave it due deference.

This was obviously written by someone with an appreciation for classical Italian, as the form consists primarily of allusions to Dante. There is a very famous part of The Inferno, Canto 34, where those among the worst sinners of history, such as Judas Iscariot and the assassins of Julius Ceasar, are literally in the devil's mouth. Similarly, the reference to "Le Coste di Lava" should, I think, be properly read as an allusion to hell, "the edge of the abyss of fire." The implication is that Mag sees herself has a traitor, having sold out Marni and perhaps many others through her misguided loyalty to Rotti and GeneCo.

EDIT: Also, "mia colpa" is not "because of me," but literally means "my fault" or even "my sin." Indeed, its most notable idiomatic appearance is as an echo of the explicitly and emphatically religious Latin formula of Roman Catholic Confession: "mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa" which means "my sin, my sin, my most terrible sin."

EDIT 2: Now that I think of it, there's an important allusion to Il Paradiso Canto 17, which I can't find a decent translation of on the web. The standard English translation uses the terms of archery, such as "arrow" and "bow," but misses the original Italian connotation of symbolism that connotes an analogy between an arrow and lightning and between a bow and a thunderbolt. English still preserves some of this in that it can speak equally well of a bolt of lightning or the bolt of an archer. Forgive my translation attempt here, since I haven't really used Italian since 3rd grade:
La colpa seguirà la parte offensa
in grido, come suol; ma la vendetta
fia testimonio al ver che la dispensa.

(The blame will be placed on the wronged party
and cry out, as usual; but the vengeance
will testify to the truth with which it is dispensed.)

Tu lascerai ogne cosa diletta
più caramente; e questo è quello strale
che l’arco de lo essilio pria saetta.

(You will leave everything you love
most dearly, to this and that bullseye
the archer's bow of exile first fires its thunderbolt.)

Tu proverai sì come sa di sale
lo pane altrui, e come è duro calle
lo scendere e ’l salir per l’altrui scale.

(You will prove how the salt is
on the bread of others, and how hard the path is
on ascending and descending the stairs of others.)

E quel che più ti graverà le spalle,
sarà la compagnia malvagia e scempia
con la qual tu cadrai in questa valle;

(And what will weigh heaviest on your shoulders
will be the companions evil and foolish
with whom you will fall into this abyss;)

che tutta ingrata, tutta matta ed empia
si farà contr’ a te; ma, poco appresso,
ella, non tu, n’avrà rossa la tempia.

(for every ingrate, every madman and impious
will come against you; but a little later
they, and not you, will have a reddened brow.)