Newsgroup: it.cultura.linguistica.inglese
Titolo: Io so' io ...

Come tradurreste la famosa frase del personaggio di Alberto
Sordi:
«Io so' io, e voi nun siete 'n cazzo!»
 
 
-- 
The brotherhood of man is not a mere poet's dream; it is a most
depressing and humiliating reality.
    -- Oscar Wilde
 

 «Io so' io, e voi nun siete 'n cazzo!»
 
Anzitutto dovremmo decidere come rendere nella versione inglese il 
romanesco, però parlato da un nobile dell'Ottocento. :)
 
-- 
-- Just my 2 cents


 
Credo che l'unica cosa possibile sia rendere il senso: è
un problema non troppo lontano da quel che si son trovati
per le mani Calvino e Eco nel tradurre Queneau...
 

 dell'Ottocento. :)
 
 
Penso che nel caso inglese il Settecento sarebbe più indicato.
 
 
Bozze:
"I am what I am, and you are a bag of draff."
"I am who I am, and you are flyshit."
 
Ma ci vorrebbe un nativo per rendere bene il senso e il modo.
 
 
-- 
"You know that I write slowly. This is chiefly because I am
never satisfied until I have said as much as possible in a few
words, and writing briefly takes far more time than writing at
length."
                -- Carl Friedrich Gauss 
 

 Ma ci vorrebbe un nativo per rendere bene il senso e il modo.
 
I couldn't guess what someone from either the eighteenth or nineteenth 
century would say. I'm not even sure that I could come up with a 
twentieth or twenty-first century idiom that expressed in such a direct 
way that sentiment. Americans typically don't take that "Tu non sai chi 
sono" posture as do some Italians.
 
We might compare the merits of our girlfriends.
"My gal is red hot! Your gal ain't doodly-squat!"
 
Or, we might retreat to the excuse of a modest self-assessment.
"I yam what I yam, and that's all that I yam. I'm Popeye the sailor man!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8TRoMSG-5I
 
 
(I don't know if any of you saw the brilliant Robert Altman film, 
Popeye, with amazing performances by Robin Williams and Shelly Duvall, 
but here's a clip of that singing declaration. This film has slipped 
into oblivion, and is considered a failure even by some of the 
participants. But it is actually a comedic masterpiece in its capturing 
of the original cartoon characters. One day, I hope in my lifetime, it 
will be rediscovered and appreciated.)
 
Then, of course there is that iconic self-help book of many decades ago.
"I'm OK, you're OK."
 
But, perhaps it's the cynical and politically incorrect transformation 
of that popular concept by the National Lampoon magazine that most 
closely resembles Alberto Sordi's in-character utterance.
"I'm OK, you're Puerto Rican."
 
(The humor is a product of the epoch and place. Substitute any other 
nationality of your choice.)

 will be rediscovered and appreciated.)
 
If it's any consolation, Tony, that movie is one of my favorites. I thought 
it was brilliantly done.
 
-- 
Joey from New York
Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator,
but among those whom I love, I can: all of them make me laugh.
   -- WH Auden
 

 it was brilliantly done.
 
I biffs 'em, I buffs 'em, I always out-roughs 'em, and none of 'em gets 
nowhere!
 
 
 
 

):

Did it take you, as it did me, several minutes to understand what was being 
said?  I experience the same phenomenon when I go to an Irish play: for the 
first 10 or 15 minutes I'm totally lost, but then something adjusts and I'm 
fine. It was the same for Popeye, but maybe not so long. Great performance by 
the wild and wacky Williams.
 
And Shelley Duvall was fabulous.


 And Shelley Duvall was fabulous.
 
Williams mumbles malapropisms throughout the film, and it takes careful 
attention to hear them, but they are some of the funniest lines in the 
film. I'm sure I missed a bunch on the first viewing, but by now I know 
them all. Don't touch nothin', you might get a venerable disease.  Heh 
keh keh keh keh.