 Member since Nov '07
Working languages: English to Italian
|  Maria Rosaria Contestabile
The right word
NA Local time: 17:02 CET (GMT+1)
Native in: Italian  | | |
Freelancer,  Verified member | | Translation, Subtitling | | Specializes in: | | Cinema, Film, TV, Drama | Games / Video Games / Gaming / Casino |
| Also works in: | | Tourism & Travel |
More Less | | PRO-level points: 122, Questions answered: 77, Questions asked: 23 | Sample translations submitted: 1 | English to Italian: McDonald's/La Tante | Source text - English
Restaurant Review: McDonald’s, 49 King’s Road, London SW3;
La Tante Claire, 68/69 Royal Hospital Road, London, SW3
How to end it all? That was the problem. How to finally put down my eating irons, hang up my bib and resign this column in the same spirit that it has been written for the past couple of years? The answer came after deliberations between editors, consultants and various illustrious fatties of my acquaintance. Finally it was Christopher, my wayward architect buddy, who came up with the solution: “You should eat at McDonald’s on the King’s Road, and then proceed on foot to La Tante Claire, where you should attempt to match the MacMeal in every respect with items from Pierre Koffmann’s notoriously rich, Gascon cuisine.
He was right, of course; what greater contrast could there be than that between one of the only three Michelin three-star restaurants in London and the bigger restaurant chain on the planet? At La Tante they wear their stars on their window – at McDonald’s they tend to be on the lapels of the staff’s shirts. And in traversing the bare half-mile between the two establishments, I would in a sense be striding from one half of our divided nation to the other: from high-carbohydrate meals designed to bloat the bellies of the lumpenproletariat, to high-protein repasts engineered to tighten the collar studs of their rulers. If you wanted to make the ultimate assay of public British eating in 1977, this would have to be it. My only concern was – would I be able to cram it all in?
There may be no such thing as a free lunch, but in Christopher’s peculiar case there were now two in the offing. We met at McDonald’s at 12.30 sharp. Both of us had abstained from breakfast and from dinner the night before. We were ravening. | Translation - Italian
Ristoranti: McDonald’s, 49 King’s Road, London SW3;
La Tante Claire, 68/69 Royal Hospital Road, London SW3
In che modo finire? Questo era il problema. Come riporre infine i ferri mangerecci, appendere il bavaglino e accomiatarmi da questa rubrica nello stesso spirito in cui è stata redatta nell’ultimo paio d’anni? La risposta è arrivata dopo essermi consultato con redattori, esperti e vari illustri ciccioni di mia conoscenza. Alla fine fu Christopher, il mio imprevedibile amico architetto, a trovare la soluzione: «Devi mangiare da McDonald’s in King’s Road e poi raggiungere a piedi il La Tante Claire e cercare l’abbinamento perfetto tra la notoriamente ricca cucina guascone di Pierre Koffmann e il McMeal.»
Naturalmente aveva ragione: quale maggiore contrasto di quello tra uno degli unici tre ristoranti a Londra che vantano tre stelle Michelin e la più grande catena di ristoranti sul pianeta? Al La Tante le stelle sono in vetrina, da McDonald’s di solito si trovano sui baveri delle camicie del personale. E attraversando i miseri ottocento metri che separano i due locali, in un certo senso avrei percorso la strada che separa una metà della nostra nazione divisa dall’altra: dai pasti ricchi di carboidrati pensati per gonfiare le pance del sottoproletariato al cibo ad alto contenuto proteico orchestrato per stringere i bottoni del colletto dei loro governanti. Era quello che ci voleva come ultimo assaggio del 1997 dei pranzi fuori casa del popolo britannico. La mia unica preoccupazione era: sarei stato in grado di mandare tutto giù?
Forse non esisterà una cosa come un pranzo gratis, ma nel caso particolare di Chris adesso ce n’erano due in vista. Ci incontrammo da McDonald’s a mezzogiorno in punto. Tutti e due ci eravamo astenuti dal fare colazione e dal cenare la sera prima. Eravamo famelici. |
More Less | | Bachelor's degree | | Years of translation experience: 20. Registered at ProZ.com: Apr 2006. Became a member: Nov 2007. | | N/A | | N/A | | N/A | | Adobe Acrobat, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, Powerpoint | | CV available upon request | | Maria Rosaria Contestabile endorses ProZ.com's Professional Guidelines. | | About me I specialize in translations for the cinema (dubbing and subtitling) and in literary translations.
These are a few of the films I have subtitled: Random Hearts; Jakob the Liar; The bone collector; Men in Black; Ben-Hur; Casualties of War;Gentlemen prefer blondes; How to marry a millionaire; The Seven Year itch; Behind enemy lines; One Hour Photo.
Amongs the books I have translated there are two books by Sindiwe Magona (Mother to Mother and Push Push and other stories), a collection of Will Self journalism, The Vietnam Wars by Marilyn Young and Altman on Altman by David Thompson. |
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Keywords: cinema, literary translations
Profile last updated
Dec 21, 2010 |
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