The Mosco Ballet Comes to Nuoro

A wonderful Christmas, much of which was spent in the company of Maria Rita's extended family, was rounded off by a visit to Nuoro's concert hall 'Teatro Eliseo' on the evening of Sunday December 27th to see the Moscow Ballet dance to Tschaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite. Maria Rita was very keen to see it as she had practised ballet for several years as a teenager and young woman and such shows are rare in Nuoro! Although I'd been to a few classical music concerts before I had never actually been to watch a ballet and didn't know quite what to expect. Well, visually it was stunning and you couldn't help but admire the grace and athleticism of the dancers and, in the case of the male dancers, their strength too. I was reminded of something my late father said to me when I was about 10 or 11 years old and I was never happier than when I was kicking a football about. I had been rather dismissive about ballet dancing being a manly activity when my father said, "you'd be surprised how much fitness, strength and skill is required in order to be a male ballet dancer. Probably more than is needed to play football." After seeing the male lead effortlessly lift the female lead above his shoulders, and turn with such elegance and precision during this performance, those words and the obvious truth of them came back to haunt me. Ironically, I was also reminded of something a young footballer said to me many years ago, about how some ballet training was a huge help in strengthening the muscles around his ankles, with which he was having some problems. All in all, it was a thoroughly enjoyable and uplifting evening.

Museo Etnografico Sardo

With all my Christmas shopping completed, and with some time to spare this morning, I visited the Museo Etnografico Sardo which I have visited before, on a previous stay in Nuoro, but it was well worth a second visit. According to the guide it is the most important ethnographical museum in Sardinia and the only museum directly emanating from the Sardinian Regional Government. There are over 7,000 items in the museum's collection, comprised of jewellery, masks, popular musical instruments dating back to the 19th century etc, but among the most striking exhibits are the examples of popular Sardinian dress and costumes, especially those costumes used in some of  the festivals and parades that take place in Sardinia (as Heather Cowper has written about here in her travel blog). As she says, some of the costumes look rather sinister and nightmare-ish but are supposed to be symbols of good luck and abundance. These are the photos I took this morning while I was at the museum.

The Beginnings of the Railway in Sardinia

A few evenings ago Maria Rita and I went to her sister Patrizia and brother-in-law Gianfranco's apartment for dinner. After we'd eaten, as always, some fabulous food, the conversation turned to the famous English author D H Lawrence and his travel memoir of Sardinia Sea And Sardinia (which I have to confess that I've never read) and Patrizia actually produced an Italian translation Mare E Sardegna which was interesting to browse through briefly. Much of Lawrence's travel around Sardinia was done using the island's railway system and it was interesting to hear Gianfranco tell me that Sardinia owes its railway, completed around 1870, to a wealthy Welsh engineer named Benjamin Piercy who was so taken by the Sardinian landscape that he also built a villa, the Villa Piercy, in the British architectural style of the Victorian era in which he lived, on the hills at Bolotana and in the locality of Badd'e Salighes. He imported trees from Britain for its gardens, amongst plants and shrubs from other parts of the world, and today the surrounding gardens have become a public park. If I was understanding the conversation correctly (which was exclusively in Italian), the original four railway lines that Piercy was responsible for have become the tourist railway network, Il Trenino Verde. It is not a particularly fast network but very popular with tourists because of the breathtakingly spectacular views of some of the mountainous scenery on the island inaccessible from view by use of any other form of transport. I have read elsewhere that if you wish to get around the island quickly then using the railway system is not the way to do it, and Patrizia told me that the carrriages in use in central Sardinia still have wooden seats!

Poetry Translation And Nuoro's Artistic Traditions

The other day I wrote aboout the Caffè Tettamanzi in Nuoro which is about the oldest bar in town and used to be a popular meeting point for local artists and writers. In fact, although Nuoro is far from being the first town on the list for sightseers in Sardinia, it has a cultural and artistic heritage which is amongst the most renowned on the island. The Nobel Prize winning author Grazia Deledda came from Nuoro as did another well known literary figure Salvatore Satta, amongst others, and it's good to see that other members of Maria Rita's family could well become a part of this rich artistic heritage in the future. One of her brothers, Mariano, is the bass player in local band Frammenti Anni '60 whose CD Bonasera Sardigna da Quelli che Amano.... is, in my opinion, excellent. It features songs in both Sardu and Italian and musically there is an effective fusion of both a Latin influence and that of the British and American rock tradition, especially the 60s era. Her other brother Raimondo is, like me, a published poet and also, like me, used to be the lead singer in a band. On my last visit to Nuoro, in early September, Raimondo and I exchanged gifts. I gave him a copy of my CD of original songs Ancient Wisdom Modern World and in return he gave me a signed copy of one of his collections of poetry I tamburi del cuore. Even though I'm still learning Italian I could still tell that his work was rich with imagery, psychology and a depth of genuine feeling. I immediately started to try to translate some of the poems. Having translated about nine of them I unintentionally put the project on ice, instead working on the songs of Fabrizio de André. A couple of days ago Maria Rita asked me when I was going to have a go at translating some more. This spurred me on to translate two in the same day, the most recent of which is as follows:-

A Dedication To The Sea
by Raimondo Selenu

I sit silently beside you
between the memories
of an old sailing vessel
and the future hopes
of a speedy motorboat.

I feel
like a small child
who listens attentively
to what it is you have to say.

Your way of speaking impresses me.

I am the sand that loves the waves
and lives in the immensity of your breath,
listening to the song
of the reef.

Alongside you I appear so small
amongst the pebbles
smooth with age
and shells
that dwell within you.

I curl myself up like a small child
finding nourishment
in fairy tales and adventure stories.

I adore your way of speaking.

© Raimondo Selenu (Trans. from the Italian by Geoff Davis)

 

And this is the Italian original:-


      Dedicato Al Mare

Mi siedo silenzioso accanto a te,
                 tra i ricordi
  di una vecchia barca a vela
             e le speranze
     di un motore fuoribordo.


                Mi sento
     come un piccolo bambino,
                che ascolta
          ciò che hai da dire.


Mi impressiona il tuo modo di parlare.


     Sono sabbia che ama le tue onde
        e vive nell'immenso tuo respiro
            nell'ascolto del tuo canto
                   alla scogliera.


     Mi faccio piccolino accanto a te
                      tra i sassi
               levigati dai tuoi anni
                      e conchiglie
                 che abitano in te.

Mi accuccio come un piccolo bambino
                     per nutrirmi
             di fiabe e di avventure.


        Adoro il tuo modo di parlare.


© Raimondo Selenu

Here is the link to my other translations of Raimondo's poems.

Aperitivo Before Dinner In Caffè Tettamanzi

Early evening, at around abour six o'clock, Maria Rita and I quite often like to go out for a walk into the centre of town which is no more than a few minutes' walk away. We often combine this with a bit of shopping and usually stop at a bar for an aperitivo before returning home for dinner. Last night we spent some time in a very charming bar Caffè Tettamanzi which we've frequented a few times on my visits here. I was interested to discover that this particular bar has been written about in another blog Heather On Her Travels and curiously enough Heather's hometown is also Bristol (although we've never met). Anyway, for me, this particular page of her blog is of special interest (in fact, her entire blog is fascinating) and has some excellent photos. Looking at the photos a few minutes ago took me back to last night when Maria Rita and I were both enjoying one of our favourite drinks Cocktail San Pellegrino.

Caffè Tettamanzi at night