Play, Play, Pray

Carnevale is officially over now, but I posted some Venice photos - stolen from Facebook, courtesy of Denise - in my Picasa album.

*Teaser*

From La Dolce Vita: Month Two

The Chinese New Year was this weekend, so on Sunday there was a celebration in Piazza del Popolo. Pictures also posted from that.

From La Dolce Vita: Month Two

For Ash Wednesday (exactly one week ago), a few of us attended service at a cathedral called Chiesa Pontificia di San Gioacchino ai Prati di Castello. Yep, that's the whole name. It was all in Italian but I understood a great deal of the sermon, which was predictably about the meaning of Lent and that it is a time to return to the Lord, not just to give up a bad habit.

The cathedral was beautiful and "la cenere" (the ashes) were placed on our hair, accompanied by the traditional phrase: "Ricordati che sei polvere e in polvere tornerai" (Remember that you are dust, and to dust you will return).

Taken from the bulletin:
• La cenere ricorda che siamo niente, siamo polvere, siamo creature; è simbolo di caducità e di penitenza. L'uscire dai nostri posti per ricevere te ceneri esprime la nostra volontà di impegnarci in questi quaranta giorni nell'ascolto della parola del Signore e nella conversione.

My (fairly literal) translation:
• The ashes remind us that we are nothing, we are dust, we are creatures; it is symbolic of our falling and of penitence (of sins and penitence). The going out of our place (out of our way) to receive ashes expresses our desire of undertaking in these 40 days in listening to the word of the Lord and in the conversion.

My (interpretive) translation:
• The ashes remind us that we are nothing, we are dust, we are but creatures; it is symbolic of sins and of penitence. By going out of our way to receive ashes, we express our desire to undertake in these 40 days of Lent the listening to the word of the Lord and self-conversion.

Aided by Webster, now I can see the problem professional translators have in keeping the fidelity of the words versus expressing their meaning as un-clumsily as possible. Nevertheless, you get the point.