The Narrative Within

Tough Translations

Posted on May 3, 2023 by Art for Housewives

Giuseppe Ungaretti (1888-1970) is considered one of Italy’s great modern poets. Like other Futurists, he supported WWI believing a bit of aggressive agitation could help regenerate and energize Italy. So he enrolled in the infantry serving in the trenches. But war was not as poetic as he thought. While in the trenches he reflected on the existential aspects of the war and began keeping a piece of paper and pencil stub in his pocket and started writing verses. But the trenches are not the easiest place in the world in which to write. You never knew when you’d have to pick up your gun and shoot or be shot at. So Ungaretti developed a style that was minimal and to the point.

One of Ungaretti’s most famous poems is “Mattina”, that is, “Morning”:

M’illumino
d’immenso

These four words are a translator’s nightmare thus many variations exist of this one simple phrase. Examples include:

I illuminate (myself)
with immensity

and

Immensity fills

Me with light

The above are two variations but there are others as well. However, the best way to understand this poem is to understand its context.

Imagine yourself, a young man stuffed with radical ideas, forced to live in a trench. Suddenly the big ideas seem so small and the small things so big. After a day of skirmishes, you fall asleep exhausted in the trench in total darkness. Your ideals are losing their glitter but you wake up and above you is this immense sky. The sun is rising and covers you with its light.

Around 1585, Roman citizens complained that there was a need for more drinking water. So Pope Sixtus had several of Rome’s ancient aqueducts restored including the Acqua Felice aqueduct. Once the latter was finished, to publicize what he’d done for the citizens, the Pope commissioned the fountain known as Fontana del Mosè. Located just around the corner from Bernini’s Ecstasy of Saint Teresa, the fountain’s sculptural iconography blends many biblical and political motifs. But the focus is on the large central statue of Moses added in 1588.

If you look closely at Moses, you’ll notice a pair of horns growing out from his head. We can find the same horns on Michelangelo’s Moses found at the Basilica of St. Peter in Chains (so named because it houses the chains used to imprison Peter in Jerusalem).

So why were these horns placed on Moses’ head? Most scholars agree that the horns are a product of a bad translation. In Exodus 34:29 we’re told that when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant in his hands, he was so happy that his face actually shone. In fact, he was so radiant that two rays of light came out from his forehead.

The Old Testament was written in Hebrew and Aramaic. In Hebrew “karan” or “karnaim” meaning “rays” could have been confused with “keren” meaning “horn”. In other words, Moses has horns thanks to a bad translation.

According to the Wycliffe Global Alliance with its mission of translating the Bible into every possible language, as 2022 the Bible has been translated into 724 languages. Just in English alone the Bible has been translated into over 100 versions. Same language, same book yet, nevertheless, translated in a variety of ways resulting in a variety of meanings.

Catholics have their own version of the Bible whereas Protestants have traditionally used the King James Version. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew and Aramaic whereas the New Testament was written in Greek that was later translated into Latin. Now imagine all these various translations, which existed before the printing press and word processors, being recopied by scribes. It generally took a scribe 15 months to copy just one Bible.

There’s even a New International Version (revised in 2011). And in Britain another version of the Bible came out in 1996 with an “inclusive language” edition but its publication in the U.S. was opposed by conservative evangelical groups who resented the gender-neutral language.

As with the poetry of Ungaretti and the Horns of Moses, translations can be misleading. And wrong.

Now why would anyone want to base their code of ethics on a bad translation?

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Related: Trench Warfare and World War One: 400 Miles of Hell + Life in the Trenches + Ungaretti’s grave at Verano Cemetery in Rome

Moses’ Horns + Shiny or Horned + Moses’ Horns: The Perils of Mistranslation + Language of the New Testament + Reps. Greene and Santos would censor the bible, FFRF warns + Marjorie Taylor Greene tried to force Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib to retake their oaths on a Bible in a resurfaced video +

Posted in Art Narratives, Books, Rome/Italy | Tagged Bible, Ecstasy of Saint Teresa, Fontana del Mosè, fountains in Rome, Giuseppe Ungaretti, Moses, translations | Leave a comment

Thoughts and Prayers

Posted on May 3, 2023 by Art for Housewives

The increasing lack of compassion for our fellowman is heartbreaking. And as for all those self- proclaimed Christians who insist on using the name of God as some sort of personal brand, I suggest they take time out and really read the Bible first before pumping themselves up with their cheaply fabricated self-righteousness. To encourage them to come down from their pedestal, I suggest they start off with the verse from James 2:26 that translates as “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.”

Related: The Eighth Deadly Sin Hatred PDF

Posted in Art Narratives, Books, female consciousness | Tagged Bible, Bible Flash Cards, Bible Quotes, Christianity, drawings, Evangelical Christians, Mary Magdalene, Prana mudra, prayer, Thoughts & Prayers, women’s art | 3 Comments

A God for Everyone

Posted on April 25, 2023 by Art for Housewives

Soot was the problem. It covered the Sistine Chapel’s affrescoes making the colors gloomy and obscuring the details. So in the early 1990s, the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel were subjected to various restorations. After hearing that the colors were so bright that they had a Warhol vibe to them, I went to the chapel to see for myself.

After a long wait in line, we visitors were herded into the Chapel. Here, like everyone else, I strained my neck to look up at the ceiling. But the neck stretching didn’t last long as we were soon herded out towards a loggia leading to the exit. It was so crowded that we could only shuffle, not walk. Behind me I could hear two women talking about the affrescoes. One woman said to the other: The God that Michelangelo painted doesn’t look like the God I pray to.”

In Genesis 1:27 we’re told that God made man in his own image. So if we’re all made in the image of God, why don’t we all look alike? It’s an intriguing idea especially considering that God has no material form. So the only way we can see God in our mind is if we create our own image for him.

Some scholars explain the Genesis verse by saying that humans are meant to be the image of God in their spiritual nature. But for me the keyword here is “image”.

The Jesus I grew up with was like the image above–white with light brown hair and blue eyes. However, in 2001, Richard Neave, a forensic anthropologist collaborated with the BBC on a documentary, created a model of a Galilean man. Neave said that, since Jesus was from Galilee, he would have looked more like the man in the image below than he would have looked like the man in the image above.

In the end, we all pray to a God that we’ve created ourselves. And that’s comprehensible and acceptable. However it is not acceptable for someone to impose their image of God on others.

Not all Gods are alike.

Posted in art, Beauty, female consciousness, Rome/Italy | Tagged affresco, Bible, Genesis, God, image, Jesus, Michelangelo, restoration, Richard Neave, Rome, Sistine Chapel | Leave a comment

The Twisted Tignon

Posted on April 20, 2023 by Art for Housewives

Between the 1620s and the 1840s, more than one million Africans were trafficked from Africa to the Caribbean to be used as slaves in American colonies. The Portuguese, the Brits, and the French were the largest slave traders.

how Africans were shipped as cargo aboard ships

Africans were forced to cross the Atlantic packed into the ship as if sardines in a tin. Their travelling conditions were so bad that many died at sea. Although most of the French slaves were sent to the Caribbean, many were sent to the port city of New Orleans. Here the French adapted Code Noir which provided the slaves with some protection. But that radically changed in 1763 when the French were forced to sign over their control of Louisiana to Spain.

The Spaniards obliterated the Code Noir. They wanted to make sure that the Blacks knew their place and had no possibility of social mobility even those who’d obtained their freedom. Plus these hot blooded Spaniards were afraid that Black women were too beautiful and beauty gives a woman power. So in 1786 the governor of Louisiana passed the Tignon Law prohibiting Black women from exposing their hair in public. A tignon (TEEN-yon) is a cloth that’s wrapped in such a way as to cover the hair completely. The word “tignon” appropriates from the French “chignon” (hair bun).

And, as most slaves wore scarves to keep their hair up while working, wearing a scarf was an indication of social inferiority. But it was also meant to distinguish light skinned Blacks from white women.

But these Black women turned an oppressive law into a celebration by transforming the tignon into a crown of glory. They used fabulous fabrics tied with ornamental knots to create their tignons that were further personalized with charms, feathers, brooches, etc. In this way, fashion was used to make a statement: these women had no intention of being obliterated by an insidious colonial government.

Portrait of Dido Elizabeth Belle Lindsay and Lady Elizabeth Murray

Royal Navy officer John Lindsay was a real playboy type. After capturing a Spanish ship, Lindsay discovered a beautiful slave girl kept in chains. He freed her and took her as his concubine. The young woman’s name was Maria Belle. She gave birth to John’s child, Dido Elizabeth Belle, Dido after the mythic African Queen. Eventually Lindsay married a sociably acceptable white wife. It was awkward having Dido around so she was sent to live with Lindsay’s wealthy uncle, William Murray, living in Kenwood. Here Dido grew up with an orphaned cousin, Lady Elizabeth Murray. The two young ladies enjoyed being together in their luxurious setting although the race distinction had clearly been made. Dido, for example, was not allowed to dine with the rest of the family. Nevertheless, Murray must have loved them both for he was the one who commissioned their portrait together.

For over 100 years the painting was not only wrongly interpreted, it was attributed to the wrong artist. Its true origins finally came out thanks to BBC’s “Fake of Fortune” research team.

Related: The Tignon Law + AFRICANS IN FRENCH AMERICA + The Tignon Law: How Black Women Formed Decor Out of Oppression + Tignon Law: The Attempted Oppression of African Beauty + Tignon Headwrap Tutorial video + Turbans, Voodoo, & Tignon Laws in Louisiana + The Black Woman’s Forgotten Fight against the Laws that Banned her Hair + French Slave Trade + Slavery in France +

The history of British slave ownership has been buried: now its scale can be revealed + 1778 – DAVID MARTIN, PORTRAIT OF DIDO ELIZABETH BELLE LINDSAY AND LADY ELIZABETH MURRAY + Lady Elizabeth Finch-Hatton + Dido Elizabeth Belle + Dido, African Queen +

My ancestors profited from slavery. Here’s how I am starting to atone for that + Direct ancestors of King Charles owned slave plantations, documents reveal +

Armaments for the Daughters of Zion: The Puritan Woman and Her Spiritual Authority over the Physical World PDF +

Tignon Tutorial: 4 Quick & EASY Headwrap/Turban Styles +

‘Highly unusual’: lost 17th-century portrait of black and white women as equals saved for US

Degrees of separation between Jane Austen and Dido Elizabeth Belle

Posted in art, Beauty, Fashion, female consciousness, politics | Tagged Code Noir, drawing, painting, slaves, Tignon Law, Transformation, turbans, women’s art | 1 Comment

The White Doll

Posted on April 18, 2023 by Art for Housewives

Ladies, what the hell is going on in the U.S.A.?

Although I’ve lived most of my life in Italy, I was born and raised in the U.S. where I was taught how lucky one was to be an American because the U.S.A. was the best place in the world. And the symbol of this greatness was the Statue of Liberty.

The French gave the U.S. the statue partly as a sign of the friendship between the two countries (France went bankrupt not because of Marie-Antoinette but because it helped subsidize the American Revolution just to get back at the Brits). However, the main objective of the statue’s creation was to celebrate the end of the Civil War and of slavery. The Statue, therefore, is a monument to Liberty and Democracy. A monument to the Blacks, to their struggle towards freedom, and to their emancipation. And this is another reason why the extreme-white wants to obliterate the study of history and culture in the U.S.—they want to literally whitewash history and believing that “life liberty and the pursuit of happiness” is for Whites Only. They are so culturally illiterate that they probably don’t know that the Statue of Liberty celebrates black emancipation. And looking at what happens to beer cans with rainbows, it’s best they don’t know if we don’t want them shooting at the Statue with their AR 15s, too.

In a post from a few years ago, Storytellers, I wrote about “three different women from three different places [who] turned their insides out to write about themselves. Maybe it’s something more women should try to do. Because autobiography is a form of identity negotiation. A form of affirmation. By knowing who you are, it’s easier to be yourself.” One of the women referred to was Gwendolyn Brooks.

Gwendolyn (1917-2000) was an African poet who turned to prose to write about young Black women growing up in Chicago during segregation. In her novel Maude Martha, Gwendolyn created a fictitious character to illustrate the racism she herself had to endure while growing up. The humiliation left her (and other Black children) with indelible psychic scars.

Our sense of self, our semi-self-imposed identity, much determines how we live our lives, of what choices we make, of how we inter-relate with others. Gwendolyn understood this and felt the need to recreate her identity according to her own standards and not those of some white-washed patriarchal racist. And with reason.

In the 1940s, psychologist Mamie Phipps Clark and her husband conducted a series of experiments known as the “doll tests”. The intent was to see the psychological effects of segregation on Black children.

Science, Civil Rights, and the Doll Test (source)

Black children (ages 3-7) were presented with a white doll and a black doll then asked which doll was beautiful, which doll was good, which doll was ugly, and which doll was bad. The majority of the children indicated the white doll as good and beautiful whereas the black doll as bad and ugly. The psychologists concluded that discrimination and segregation had caused these children to feel inferior thus mutilating the perception they had of themselves.

Segregation subjected Blacks to a collective solitary confinement. Deprived interaction with the mainstream world, Black children grew up feeling isolated and inadequate. They considered themselves losers even before the game got started.

The results were so concrete and devastating that they were used in the case of Brown v. Board of Education, the 1954 landmark Supreme Court case in which the justices ruled unanimously that racial segregation of children in public schools was unconstitutional.

One of the greatest gifts you can give another is to make them feel better about themselves. Pro-life is helping those in difficulty to embrace life and not fear it.

So why not make the world a better place and make someone feel beautiful today!