Be sure you know what you write
Be sure you know what you write
Sometimes, I wonder why the editor of a prestigious paper, as
The Jakarta Post is, decides to submit to its readers nonsense
masked as articles written by pseudo-columnists.
In addition to the recurring articles dealing with sports
written by journalists who, being wrapped in a flag, see the
sport only through certain colors (see Vic Mills & Co), this
paper presents now and then some articles written by columnists
who really don't know what they are dealing with. I'm referring
to the unsigned article When in Rome, it's best to spin a very
tall tale (Oct. 24, 1997, page 7).
As an Italian and as a Roman, I cannot avoid pointing out that
if somebody does not realize what is going on around him, he
should avoid laying the law and scribbling pseudo-articles packed
with nonsense.
Apart from the linguistic mistakes, (the word bellissima means
very beautiful and not stupendously; stupenda means stupendous,
not beautiful; illustra doesn't exist in Italian but we say
illustre either in the masculine or in the feminine; the
columnist clearly showed that he was dealing with something which
is beyond him/her.
Take as a sample the word dottore (graduate). The word is
usually addressed by some waiters, parking lot attendants and so
on, to anyone leaving a restaurant or a parking lot. It's just a
jocose way aimed at getting a good tip. It's more than clear that
the article's writer didn't get the subtle and ironic meaning
hidden behind the use of the word dottore.
It's more than probable that the writer, while roaming the
streets of Rome, has been the target of several vaffanculo (not
va fa'n cul), which does not mean "kiss my a..." as the writer
thinks. It's the contracted form of the Roman idiomatic phrase
Vatte a fa da 'nder culo. The meaning of this pet phrase, that
for somebody it could even represent a pleasant wish, cannot be
taken ad litteram since it changes according to the circumstances
and to the inflection of the voice.
Dealing with the word mannaggia and its meaning, the writer
has showed his/her abysmal ignorance of what was going on around
him/her when in Rome. The word mannaggia is a contracted form of
the archaic Italian sentence male ne aggia. Nowadays, this word
has lost its original meaning. Let's say that it could be related
to the Indonesian aduh (oh). What's wrong if an Indonesian lady
says aduh or if an Italian one says mannaggia?
PIERO RONCI
Jakarta