Laura Pausini: Dove L’Aria E’ Polvere

Language: English | 中文

歌手：Laura Pausini
專輯：Resta In Ascolto (2004)

«Dove L’Aria E’ Polvere» 是關於一位小男孩的歌。這位小孩叫做 Ali Ismail Abbas，來自伊拉克。他的雙臂以及所有的家人，都在戰爭中，被飛彈給奪去了。

歌曲的開始，出現了一隻老鷹：l'aquila：

Cronaca del giorno in cui
L'aquila volò
Su confini dove l'aria è polvere

我花了一些時間來想，這老鷹，指的到底是什麼。一開始，我的推論是，老鷹是指那飛彈。在我看到 Laura 的一段話後，更加確定了；她將那飛彈形容為一隻 "金屬大鳥" (grosso uccello di metallo)。然而，除此之外，你不覺得這個 "大老鷹" 有讓你想起某些東西嗎？或者，更白一點，某一個國家？

嗯，除了大老鷹，這裡，還告訴了我們事發地點：dove l'aria è polvere，那空氣充滿塵埃的地方。

然後，歌曲告訴我們發生什麼了：老鷹來到，把小男孩的雙臂奪去了……接著，來到副歌：

Ed un soldato raccontò
Di come il cielo si oscurò

一位士兵提到天空變暗了。這裡，是真的要說天空變黑了？還是，這想要告訴我們，我們的理性，以及人與人間的關係，因為這一次的暴力行為，蒙上了一層陰影？

E in terra pianse lacrime
Urlando ruggine

那士兵呼吼著，在地上哭泣……你是否有想過，一名士兵，也是會流淚的？

接著，Laura 問了我們一個淺顯，卻很深刻的問題：

Ma che cos'è la libertà?
E che significato ha?

什麼是自由？那是什麼意思呢？那真的是承諾帶給我們的自由嗎？自由，那到底是什麼呢？

在第二節主歌裡，一開始，歌詞告訴我們，老鷹犧牲牠的那些英雄；牠向大眾展示牠的功勳、牠的戰利品。然而：

Il bambino è orfano di casa e di poesia
Per l'indifferenza che
La guerra ha dentro sé

那小孩成為了一位沒有家，沒有詩歌的孤兒 (關於詩歌 poesia 的意思，可以參考上一篇 post)……他成為了孤兒，全是因為，戰爭的無情。

然後，在副歌裡，又一個提問：

Ma che cos'è la verità?
E che significato ha?

什麼是事實呢？那又是什麼意思呢？我們能相信電視上，他們所告訴我們的嗎？我們能相信報紙上的東西嗎？他們有告訴我們事件背後的真相嗎？

接著，在第三段副歌裡，重復了一次提問後：

E' il sole che non sorge mai
E' il buio addosso a noi

太陽永不升起，黑暗籠罩我們。這就是自由？還是，這只是令我們的人性，令我們的人格，陷入一個黑暗的時期？

最後，在結尾裡，Laura 以一個強烈的呼喊，做為本歌終結：

[D]immi che cos'è la libertà... cos'è?

告訴我什麼是自由 ... 那到底是什麼呢？相當棒、相當有力的結尾。

一開始，我會覺得這首歌有點強烈，有點難以下嚥；那些痛苦，那些憤怒，那些疑問。可是，當你開始反問自己、開始憎恨我們那醜陋的一面、開始在心裡默默呼吼後，你會發現，其實這首歌，就真的很讚！你會立即愛上它的！

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這裡有一些 Youtube 上找到的影片：

LAURA PAUSINI Donde el Aire es Ceniza TG
一小段報導，附有 Laura 的訪問喔～


Dove l'aria è polvere
歌迷做的影片，有葡文字幕。有的圖可能會令人感到不安。

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關於 Ali Ismail Abbas，可以參考：

• Wikipedia: Ali Ismail Abbas
• BBC NEWS | Have Your Say | My Iraq: Ali Abbas

關於 Laura：

• Official Website
• Wikipedia: Laura Pausini

關於這張專輯：

• Amazon
• Warner Music Italy
• Wikipedia: Resta in ascolto

Artist: Laura Pausini
Album: Resta In Ascolto (2004)

«Dove L’Aria E’ Polvere» is a song about an Iraqi boy, Ali Ismail Abbas, whose arms and entire family were taken away by American missiles.

The song begins with l'aquila, which means the eagle:

Cronaca del giorno in cui
L'aquila volò
Su confini dove l'aria è polvere

I spent some time figuring what l'aquila refers to. At first, I thought l'aquila could be the missile that hit the boy's house. I am quite sure about this because Laura described the missile as a big metal bird (grosso uccello di metallo). However, don't you think that a eagle reminds you of something, or, a country? You know what I mean, right?

Besides the eagle, here, it tells us where the event happened: dove l'aria è polvere, literally, where the air is dust.

After this, the song tells us what happened to the boy: the eagle took away the boy's arms. Then, the chorus begins:

Ed un soldato raccontò
Di come il cielo si oscurò

A soldier speaked of how the sky darkened. Does it really mean that the sky grew dark? Or, is it trying to tell us that our reason, our mind, and our relationship were darkened by this violent, unreasoning act?

E in terra pianse lacrime
Urlando ruggine

The soldier then cried on the ground, shouting. Have you ever thought that a soldier may cry as well?

Then, Laura asks us a simple but meaningful question:

Ma che cos'è la libertà?
E che significato ha?

What is freedom? Is this the freedom that promised to bring to us? And freedom, what does it mean?

In the second verse, it says that the eagle sacrifices its heroes and displays its "stars" and trophies. But sadly:

Il bambino è orfano di casa e di poesia
Per l'indifferenza che
La guerra ha dentro sé

The boy is now an orphan, without home and without "poetry." (You may check my previous post for the meaning of the word poesia.) He became an orphan because of the indifference that war has in itself. How sad, and how cruel! War turns people cold-blooded!

Then, in the chorus, a similar question is asked:

Ma che cos'è la verità?
E che significato ha?

This time, the question is: What is the truth? And what does it mean? Honestly, this is a serious question. What is the truth? Is it what they tell us on TV? Or is it what we read in the newspaper? Does it give us both sides of the story? Can we trust it? How should one judge?

Then, in the 3^rd chorus, after the questioning:

E' il sole che non sorge mai
E' il buio addosso a noi

The sun never rises. The dark is upon us. Is this freedom?

Then, at the end, Laura ends the song with a strong question:

[D]immi che cos'è la libertà... cos'è?

Tell me what freedom is... what is it? Great ending.

At first, I found this song a little bit sharp. The pain, the anger, and thouse powerful questions, they make it a bit hard to swallow, at the beginning. But, after you start questioning yourself, hate how ugly we have become, and shout the anger secretly in your heart, you will find that the song is actually fabulous. And you will start to love it immediately.

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Here are some related clips on Youtube:

LAURA PAUSINI Donde el Aire es Ceniza TG
A brief reportage of the event with a short interview of Laura


Dove l'aria è polvere
A fan-made video with Portuguese subtitles. Few of the pics can be unpleasant and even terrifying.

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For more about Ali Ismail Abbas:

• Wikipedia: Ali Ismail Abbas
• BBC NEWS | Have Your Say | My Iraq: Ali Abbas

About Laura:

• Official Website
• Wikipedia: Laura Pausini

About the album:

• Amazon
• Warner Music Italy
• Wikipedia: Resta in ascolto

Quanto? Quando? T or d?

Language: English | 中文

Few days ago, during the Italian class, a student (Italian: studentessa) from Mainland asked our teacher, Cecilia, "Excuse me, what's the meaning of Quan[t]o?"

I knew she wanted to ask quando. But the problem is, she couldn't produce the d sound. You know, in Mandarin, there is no d sound. Or, in other words, they don't know what d is. So, what they do is just substitute the d sound with the unaspirated t sound, or, more precisely, they think the unaspirated t sound is d.

Anyway, Ceci replied, "Quanto? Hom much. Or how many."

Then, the girl asked again. This time, she tried it harder, "No, quan[t]o! Quan[t]o!" (Ironic, though, that the harder she tried, the clearer that the sound was a t! Yes, yes, it was unaspirated, but, sadly, it was a t, no matter how hard you tried!)

"Quanto?"

"No. Q-U-A-N-[T]i-O."

"Oh, QUANDO! That means when!"

Well, I never had supposed this would happen. It's quite fun, though. It just shows that Italian has good ear to distinguish voiced and voiceless consonants, and that many Chinese don't know the difference. (Actually, I never really awared of the difference between voiced and voiceless consonants, until I was 19 or 20. Even so, I still think I am very lucky.)

前幾天，在上義大利文課的時候，一個大陸來的女學生問老師："Excuse me, what is quan[t]o?"

我知道她想問 quando，可是問題是，她不知道什麼是 d。我想這不能怪她，畢竟，普通話、廣東話等這些漢語裡，都沒有 d 這個音。所以，大部份以這些語言當母語的人，都會以為 d 代表的是一個不送氣的 t 音。

嗯，然後老師就說："Quanto? It means how much, or how many."

女學生說："No. Quan[t]o. Quan[t]o!"

嘿嘿，真的是太有趣了。她越是用力去那邊發那個不送氣的 t (國語裡的ㄉ)，就越是展現出她在發的是個 t，而不是 d。

所以，老師就疑慮地問："Quanto?"

這次，這位女學生就乾脆拼出來了："No. Q-U-A-N-[T]i-O."

老師這才了解："Oh, QUANDO! It means when!"

哈，這實在是太有趣了，一個能夠輕易辨別出 voiced 跟 voiceless 子音的義大利人，碰上一位不會發 d 的、以中文為母語的學生，竟然會發生這種事情！我應該早就想到了啦！我怎麼沒有想過這種事情呢？

Few days ago, during the Italian class, a student (Italian: studentessa) from Mainland asked our teacher, Cecilia, "Excuse me, what's the meaning of Quan[t]o?"

I knew she wanted to ask quando. But the problem is, she couldn't produce the d sound. You know, in Mandarin, there is no d sound. Or, in other words, they don't know what d is. So, what they do is just substitute the d sound with the unaspirated t sound, or, more precisely, they think the unaspirated t sound is d.

Anyway, Ceci replied, "Quanto? Hom much. Or how many."

Then, the girl asked again. This time, she tried it harder, "No, quan[t]o! Quan[t]o!" (Ironic, though, that the harder she tried, the clearer that the sound was a t! Yes, yes, it was unaspirated, but, sadly, it was a t, no matter how hard you tried!)

"Quanto?"

"No. Q-U-A-N-[T]i-O."

"Oh, QUANDO! That means when!"

Well, I never had supposed this would happen. It's quite fun, though. It just shows that Italian has good ear to distinguish voiced and voiceless consonants, and that many Chinese don't know the difference. (Actually, I never really awared of the difference between voiced and voiceless consonants, until I was 19 or 20. Even so, I still think I am very lucky.)

Open or Close? | 開口或閉口？

Language: English | 中文

Recently, I tried to find out the meaning of the song, Un'Emergenza D'Amore, an Italian song of Laura Pausini.

I found out that, everytime I heard the line: Dentro le mie tasche, ovunque andrai, I heard a lovely sound from the word dentro. I spent little time to figure which part, and finally, it was the e of the syllable den-.

Then, it became quite confused. Was it an open e? Or, was it a close e sound? I decided that, though not 100% sure, it was a close e becuase it didn't match it when I tried to make it an open e.

You know, Italians are genius. They are native Italian Phonology Masters. Italian word doesn't have any accent on the stressed syllable, except that if it is the last syllable, to tell whether the vowel is open or close. Even so, just pay attention next time, you will find that they pronouce each word correctly. Open or close vowel, single or geminated consonants, 100% correct, no mistakes.

Of course Laura is one of the native masters. But anyway, I searched the word dentro from the online dictionary De Mauro (link), to make sure if I was correct, and, yes, I got déntro.

Amazing. I was impressed by their genius, again, and also, by the lovely sound of the word dentro. Just heavenly. Divina!

前不久，我在研究 Laura Pausini 的歌── Un'Emergenza D'Amore ──的歌詞。

每當聽到這句：Dentro le mie tasche, ovunque andrai，的時候，都會聽到一個很動人的聲音……我很驚訝，到底是哪個音，那麼動聽呢？後來，找到了，是 dentro 的 e。

接著，問題來了。那個 e，到底是開口 e 呢 ([ɛ])，還是閉口 e 呢 ([e])？

後來，我覺得那是閉口的 e。因為，當我把它發成開口 e 的時候，跟我聽到的聲音，有點不一樣。

有一點必須提出的是，義大利人真的都是發音大師。雖然義大利文裡，除了最後一個音節是重音外，重音都不會標出開口還是閉口，可是，義大利人還是能夠標準地發出。

他們真的很厲害，不管是開口音、閉口音，亦或是長子音，都發得相當清楚。可以說是，比字典還好用。

當然，這次也不例外。我上網查了查 (De Mauro)，得到的是：déntro。義大利人準確的義大利文發音，再一次，使我深感佩服。然後，那個 dentro 真的是莫名其妙的好聽！實在是太美妙了！

Recently, I tried to find out the meaning of the song, Un'Emergenza D'Amore, an Italian song of Laura Pausini.

I found out that, everytime I heard the line: Dentro le mie tasche, ovunque andrai, I heard a lovely sound from the word dentro. I spent little time to figure which part, and finally, it was the e of the syllable den-.

Then, it became quite confused. Was it an open e? Or, was it a close e sound? I decided that, though not 100% sure, it was a close e becuase it didn't match it when I tried to make it an open e.

You know, Italians are genius. They are native Italian Phonology Masters. Italian word doesn't have any accent on the stressed syllable, except that if it is the last syllable, to tell whether the vowel is open or close. Even so, just pay attention next time, you will find that they pronouce each word correctly. Open or close vowel, single or geminated consonants, 100% correct, no mistakes.

Of course Laura is one of the native masters. But anyway, I searched the word dentro from the online dictionary De Mauro (link), to make sure if I was correct, and, yes, I got déntro.

Amazing. I was impressed by their genius, again, and also, by the lovely sound of the word dentro. Just heavenly. Divina!