| Italian to English: La Madre | |
Source text - Italian
La Madre
La madre era piccola e magra, con le spalle un po' curve; portava sempre una sottana blu e una blusa di lana rossa. Aveva i capelli neri crespi e corti, li ungeva sempre con dell'olio perche non stessero tanto gonfi; ogni giorno si strappava le sopracciglia, ne faceva due pesciolini neri che guizzavano verso le tempie; s'incipriava il viso di una cipria gialla. Era molto giovane; quanti anni avesse loro non sapevano ma pareva tanto più giovane delle madri dei loro compagni di scuola; i ragazzi si stupivano sempre a vedere e madri dei loro compagni, com'erano grasse e vecchie. Fumava molto e aveva le dita macchiate dal fumo; fumava anche la sera a letto, prima d'addormentarsi. Dormivano tutti e tre insieme, nel grande letto matrimoniale con la trapunta gialla; la madre stava dal lato della porta, sul comodino aveva una lampada col paralume fasciato d'un cencio rosso, perchè la notte leggeva e fumava; certe volte rientrava molto tardi, i ragazzi si svegliavano allora e le chiedevano dove era stata: lei quasi sempre rispondeva: — Al cinema —, oppure: - Da una mia amica -; chi fosse quest'amica non sapevano perchè nessuna amica era mai venuta a casa a trovare la madre. Lei diceva loro che dovevano voltarsi dall'altra mentre si spogliava, sentivano il fruscio veloce degli abiti, sui muri ballavano ombre; s'infilava nel letto accanto a loro, magro corpo nella fredda camicia di seta, si mettevano discosti da lei perchè sempre si lamentava che le stavano addosso e le davano calci nel sonno; qualche volta spegneva la luce perchè loro s'addormentassero e fumava zitta nell'ombra.
| Translation - English
The Mother
The mother was small and slim with slightly rounded shoulders; she always wore a blue skirt and a pink blouse. She had short black frizzy hair that she always covered with oil so that it wouldn’t be so full. Every day she would pluck her eyebrows making them like two little black fish that darted towards her temples; she powdered her face with yellow powder. She was very young; How old she really was they didn’t know but she seemed so much younger than the mothers of their classmates; The children were always amazed to see the mothers of their friends and how they were fat and old. She smoked a lot and had smoke stained fingers; she even smoked at night in bed before going to sleep. All three of them slept together in a big double bed with a yellow quilt; the mother used to go on the side nearest the door, on the bedside table she had a lamp with a shade bound together with a red rag, because at night she would read and smoke; sometimes she would come back very late and the children would wakeup and ask where she had been and she would almost always reply, ‘‘At the cinema’’ or even ‘‘at a friends house’’ who was this friend? They didn’t know because no friend had ever come to the house to find the mother. She told them that they had to turn away while she was undressing, they heard the fast rustling of her clothes, shadows were dancing on the walls; she would get into bed next to them, her thin body in a cold silk night shirt, and they would keep away from her because she was always complaining that they were always on top of her and were kicking her in their sleep; sometimes she would put the light out so that they could go to sleep and would smoke silently in the dark.
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