My grandmother, a Sicilian of origin, teacher of a small village in the province of Messina, for every 100 words, shared a saying, a proverb, one of those phrases born in the village, useful to better indicate some events and to leave a teaching and/or a warning to the interlocutor. It didn't matter whether I was caught or not, whether I had known the world or not; That sentence hit you in full, investing you in the strongest way and underlining your insecurities and weaknesses.
I imagine it in the streets of the town, between smiles and laughter, looks and chat, to respond to every incident with a proverb sewn ad hoc for that fateful situation.
Is there a screaming lady from the balcony against her daughter who scapeman? I hear grandmother say "dirty clothes are washed at home";
Does the daughter not listen and rebel strongly and presumptuously? "There is no worse deaf than those who do not want to hear";
Has the carpenter's son decided to leave and embark on a new road? "Better late than never", because moreover "every left is lost".
And so for hours and hours, days, weeks, in a continuous loop, we live on these answers, almost as if they can be justification for any behavior and one wonders nothing else, because the saying is enough to close the speech. His peremptory is deadly.
Moreover, these are phrases born on the street, in the daily experience of multiple men and women, in teacher situations that can easily replace the theory and study of human behavior. Useless path for those who lived those experiences and live them daily.
It is easy to detect that some sayings, today, do not have the same strength or grandeur that we would expect. If my grandmother were alive, she would be able to insert them here and there with great ease, but I do not know how true they are in reality in the 2000s. It is therefore important to divide the types of proverbs: the discriminators, the modern versions and the evergreen.
Discriminators:
Culture and history teach us how much personal characteristics were not an element of uniqueness but of differentiation and alienation, in the past. The physical characteristics, sexual orientation, religion and any other element characterizing a subject, was a reason or reason for removal and derision if there was no full adherence to the common vision.
"Nana woman, all den" ... a proverb that leaves you speechless, recalling a female physical feature and that refers to a disconcerting sexual element; To date, such a saying would not have long life, fortunately, but in the past women considered this sentence as correct and why not, a real compliment.
"In the small barrel there is good wine ... but there is nothing in the cap". If you go to look for the meaning on the internet of the first part of this way of saying, well, you will have as a definition "low people have other qualities". Starting from the assumption that I am not a very high person, I have wondered how long, to be high, it can be considered a dowry; Of course it is true, "half beauty height", but I also wonder why a lower person cannot have at least the other half.
"The lies have short legs", but why this fury with the lowest people?
But this is the case throughout Italy, from north to south and if you stop in Piedmont (and not only), you are a woman and you have red hair, you could be tested because "Rossa de Cavei, greedy for use"; I save you the translation, but I wonder why this intrinsic male chauvinism also close to a simple saying.
In short, one cannot stop for a moment that the "politically correct" also affects Italian proverbs; and thank goodness!
Modern versions:
Do you know those sayings that we still use today but that we could safely change because we have become much more cynical and bad?
"The cat goes to lard so much ... that you fattee itself to die for!". It's obvious. Although Jill Cooper has taught us to coach us constantly, we would also eat the same television and the so -called "Junk food" would have the best of us.
"Do you not see ... eye examination?". Guys, how can you think that the heart cannot dolere? The typical saying of those who do not have the spine of launching some dish or glass against a man or a woman who betray; But we are honest, thanks to Facebook we have seen how much this saying is not so real now
... and from afar you can hear music that makes "Love The Way You Lie"!
"Help that God ... hate you". Do I have to explain why? This 2020 was not enough for you?
The evergreen:
And here they are, those sayings that I think can never end and that even today find an exceptional truth:
"Not all donuts come out with the hole"; Thinking example of how in a family in a manner, I managed to be bacheze and out of my mind and then, even materially, I am a bad cook.
"To err is human, to persevere is diabolical"; Who among you know someone who continues to err in a serial way without any improvement? While I imagine everyone with his hand raised, I start making a fine of my sins.
"Attempting does not harm", "this father, such son", "country you go, a custom you find", "whoever does it, does for three" and so on for another 100, 1000, 10000.
The proverbs speak in our silence and insinuate themselves into our life, in our language to try to teach us something that we think we don't know, or that perhaps we don't want to know.
I think, with a different maturity from that of a few years ago, that the use of these popular statements coincides with justifying ourselves for situations that we do not know, at all, manage.
But never like this year, if my grandmother were still here in front of the population, she would lighten her voice by bringing her fist to her mouth, taking it gently and would say:
"The misfortunes never come sun" ... how true it is ... good new strain of the Covid-19 of 2021.
