Ligurian:
# Martin Piaggio (1774–1843)

O Martin Piaggio (1774-1843) o l’é un di poeti zeneixi ciù conosciui, fiña da quelli che no san ninte de zeneise; a grande diffuxon a-i seu tempi do Lunäio do Sciô Regiña a l’à fæto de mainea che tutti quanti, pöcoassæ, n’aggian sentio parlâ. O Piaggio, peò, ciù che un poeta o l’é un cronista – de spesso scimpatico e desgagginou – da realtæ zeneise di seu tempi; testemònio di anni da Restauraçion, che veddeivan inte tutta Euròpa a fin de inluxoin stæte portæ da-a Revoluçion Franseise, e inta Liguria a fin de l’independensa e l’annescion a-o Piemonte, o Piaggio o tia feua da sti avvegnimenti unna seu morale rescignâ: «Di affari de politica no ve ne stæ à intrigâ / chi nasce pe ubbidî no deve commandâ». E dapeu: «e revoluçioin produan di guai / e chi ubbidisce no fallisce mai». D’atra parte, inte quello momento no gh’ea atro da fâ, pe chi no voeiva de rogne; a-o mascimo se poeiva tiâ di mocchetti sottî e aggaibæ, sensa mai parlâ do Governo, mette in evidensa i problemi da çittæ à comensâ da quelli sanitäi, piggiâsela co-i usuräi e i patroin de cà caistioxi; arregordemmo verso a fin da seu vitta quella che oua diescimo unna «campagna giornalistica» in favô de vacciñe contra e voieue; scritô ancon pe tanti aspeti setteçentesco, raçionalista e raxonatô, o dà o megio de lê inte unna comicitæ asquæxi mecanica, da tiatro de marionetti, espressa da un verso ottoäaio martellante e tòsto ossescivo. Uña de föe ciù conosciue do seu Esòpo Zeneise, I doì avari, a l’à inspiou l’avvoxâ comedia do Govi Pignasecca e Pignaverde, e a l’é tipica pe l’ammuggiâse de scituaçioin che son tutto feua che realistiche, da veo poeta popolare; a-o parangon osservemmo che a comedia goviaña a se perde inte di particolæ da tiatro borgheise che n’ammerman o valô satirico e a se lascia andâ à na retòrica consolatöia e familista, pròpio donde o Piaggio o ne conta a fin di doì usuräi con poule de condaña freida e baifarda: «fun trovæ da un sò vexin / tutti doì c’un ratto in bocca / de l’avaro degna fin».

O Piaggio o l’é solo in apparensa un poeta a-a boña, ch’o caccia zu versci abrettio; in realtæ o l’é imbeviou da cultua do seu tempo, comme se peu vedde quande o repiggia di tòpoi letteräi de quelli anni e o î adatta a-e condiçioin da societæ zeneise. Inte unna longa poexia o ne descrive de «smanie da villezzatua» ciufito goldoniañe, tanto che inte quella che reportemmo chì coscì o fa parlâ un «giovin signore» tòsto parinian.

English translation:
# Martino Piaggio (1774–1843)

Martino Piaggio (1774-1843) is one of the best known Genoese poets, even by those who know nothing about Genoese; the wide circulation in his time of the Lunario del Signor Regina has meant that everyone, more or less, has heard of it. Piaggio, however, is more than a poet, he is a chronicler – often sympathetic and nonchalant – of the Genoese reality of his time; a witness to the Restoration years, which saw the end of the illusions brought about by the French Revolution throughout Europe, and in Liguria the end of independence and annexation to Piedmont, Piaggio draws from these events his resigned moral: “in political affairs don’t go meddling / he who is born to obey must not command”. And then: “revolutions produce trouble / and he who obeys never fails”. On the other hand, at that time there was nothing else to do, for those who did not wish to be bothered; at most one could make subtle and polite jibes, never mentioning the government, highlighting the city’s problems starting with the health problems, lashing out at usurers and exorbitant landlords; We remember towards the end of his life what we would now call a journalistic campaign in favour of the smallpox vaccine; a writer in many respects still from the 18th century, rationalist and reasoner, he gives his best in an almost mechanical comedy, from puppet theatre, expressed by a hammering, almost obsessive octonary verse. One of the most famous fables of his Genovese Aesop, The Two Misers inspired the famous comedy by Govi Pignasecca and Pignaverde and is typical for its accumulation of situations that are anything but realistic, like a true popular poet; in comparison, we observe that Govi’s comedy loses itself in details of bourgeois theatre that detract from its satirical value and indulges in consolatory and familistic rhetoric, precisely where Piaggio tells us the end of the two moneylenders with words of cold and mocking condemnation: “they were found by one of his neighbours / both of them with a rat in their mouths / a worthy end for a miser”.

Piaggio is only on the surface a good-natured poet, throwing down verses as they come; in reality he is steeped in the culture of his time, as can be seen when he takes literary motifs from those years and adapts them to the conditions of Genoese society. In one long poem, he describes some rather Goldonian “cravings for holidays”, while in the one we quote here, he makes a “young gentleman” speak that is almost Parini-like.