Traduzioni inglese

1. ARTICOLO DI UMBERTO ECO

The other day I was reading Eco’s latest article published in this newspaper, where Umberto writes

about books, of their possible technological changes and of their permanent utility and necessity.

And he speaks with words that struck me, of the importance of private libraries that occupy a part

of a room or house. It doesn’t matter, says Eco, if many of those books have not been read yet by

those who have collected and catalogued them; however, they’re present and make their presence

felt in indirect and mysterious ways; their thoughts and stories circulate among the people who live

in that house, and settle in their lives to such a point that, when they decide to read them, they

realize they already know many of the stories and characters as they’re already part of the air that

filters in that room and in the memory of those who live there. Unfortunately, private libraries are

rarer and rarer and I’m not talking about/I’m not referring to large/extensive/great, select

collections, I’m certainly not talking about/referring to those collections of the size and quality that I

have seen in Eco’s house and in the houses of those few friends who live among books and for

books. I’m not even talking about/referring to that large number of people struggling to survive

among financial straits and worries, even though I have often seen the great pleasure with which

they read and keep those few books, even just one, they (have) happened to come across. I’m

talking, instead, about the people who are said to belong to the ruling class, specialists,

professionals, managers. If you go into their houses, you may wander among tasteful, sometimes

precious objects, but in no part of the house will you find a bookcase, a shelf, any trace of books

that are not strictly pertinent to their jobs/work. Our supposed ruling class does not read, knows

nothing about the classics or at most has some vague recollections from school times. This is the

truth and this is why this country doesn’t have a ruling class and has a such short memory of itself

and its own identity.

2. ESSERE O NON ESSERE

To be or not to be, Hamlet was torn by the doubt. Wish you were here, sang Pink Floyd. And

thousands more examples of phrases, words, moments of silence, images of space and distance

and existential conflicts multiply in the mind. Yet a curious, but legitimate doubt arises: at a time

then you can attend a conference via the internet, you can access all the libraries of all the cities in

the world at the cost of a local phone call, you can send faxes and messages even from a tropical

island, you begin to/may wonder whether it still makes sense to talk about place, whether it still

makes sense to refer to the concept of existence as it was taught and explained to us at school.

Does to exist/existing really mean to be/being with your body in a particular place at a particular

time? Or instead have new technologies, that are so overwhelming/life-changing and fast moving

that they even seem to have escaped the control of their creator/their creator’s control,

modified/revolutionised our perception of the world to such a point that they have changed the idea

we have of ourselves? I realise it is not an easy question/a doubt not to be taken lightly and

however philosophical it may seem at times, it is in actual fact highly pragmatic. We become aware

of it in our daily life, in the problems we have to face every day at the office, at home, with friends

and in matters of the heart. We no longer have to travel to discuss business because we can

communicate perfectly well over the internet without the risk of verbal misunderstandings that we

run when using the phone. Everything is there, written in black and white. And what’s more, we can

treat ourselves to a long weekend in the mountains or at the seaside since the work we have to

finish will be completed by the computer, that strange machine that has now become intelligent as

it reasons even without the constant control of the user. And if we have to send or receive urgent

information, if we have to be contacted at all costs, then there is the magic mobile phone which is

now able to show us the number of the caller, giving us the opportunity to ignore annoying calls/not

to take the call/not to answer. So no one has to stay at home waiting for phone calls any more, no

one has to be stuck to the office chair waiting for reports and accounts.

3. RISTORANTI

At least fifty or so of the most renowned French, American and Japanese restaurants have already

stopped taking bookings for the 1999 New year’s Eve dinner. Everywhere is fully booked. There

are still two years to go before the beginning of the Third Millennium but, apart from the far-seeing

party-goers, there doesn’t seem to be much interest in the event. At most a hint of curiosity in front

of the billboard on Beaubourg in Paris and the giant clock on the Rockefeller Center in New York

which are counting down the minutes left until midnight 1999. Where are the fears, the anxiety and

the terror that one thousand years ago shook the world? Perhaps man has become indifferent,

sceptical. Perhaps he believes he has seen everything and there is nothing that makes him feel

emotions/there is nothing worth getting excited about any more. It may be so. Certainly we have

nothing in common with our ancestors of the year 999. Despite our doubts we can easily consider

ourselves lions compared to those distant ancestors. Let’s see what was happening ten centuries

ago at the dawn of the year 1000. Above all we find man terrified by the imminence of the/

imminent end of the world. A thousand, no more than a thousand – do you remember the curse?

Preachers used to go/went from pulpit to pulpit interpreting the tremendous prophecies of St John’s

Apocalypse. That atrocious, mysterious chapter 20 which marked the end of Christ’s temporal

reign during which Satan was reduced to chains/enchained. A reign of a thousand years after

which, with the advent of the celestial reign, the universe created by God was to disappear in a

vortex of tribulation, horror and anguish immediately followed by the Universal judgement. At that

time, the problem was to establish whether the thousand years were to be calculated from the day

of Jesus’s incarnation or from the day of his death and resurrection. In the first case, the end was

the year 1000, in the second 1033. So that there could be no doubts, the whole decade before the

new (and definitive) millennium and the following three were terrifying even because nature too

played its part.

4. IL PERICOLO CINESE

The “Chinese danger” has led the world to the brink/to the edge of a commercial war. Not only in

Italy, but also in France and even in the most developed economy in the world/on earth, the USA,

are reactions of rejection towards the invasion of Made in China imports multiplying. (Reactions of

rejection towards the invasion of Made in China imports are multiplying not only in Italy, but also in

France and even in the most developed economy in the world/on earth, the USA). At present/at

this time, it is above all/especially the industrialists and trade unions of the textile sector who are

protesting because it is the one most affected by the liberalisation of international exchanges that

st

began/came into effect on 1 January this year. But many other industrial sectors have already laid

down their arms in the face of Made in China products. If we do not hear protest from the

electronics or computer/IT industries , it is simply because Italy stopped producing TVs, computers,

DVD players and mobile phones some time ago: these have been an Asian monopoly for years.

The entry of one billion, three hundred million Chinese into the global economy cannot be painless.

It is a revolution we have to adapt to and adaptation is in some cases painful. But it is dangerous to

cradle/cherish illusions. Differences from one to ten in production costs between China and Italy

cannot be remedied/made up for. In the face of differences of this kind, there is nothing

protectionism can do. Trade protectionism may even be dangerous for industrialists. It makes them

believe/it deceives them into thinking that they can survive without innovating and in the end/long

run it makes them weaker. The most dramatic example (that happened) in Italy is the Fiat car

industry. For years/for decades it was the European car industry most protected by the state

against foreign threats and the result was an inexorable decline in competitiveness.

5. IDENTITA’ E ANIMA

It is difficult to accept that our identity, given by thoughts anchored in/to feelings, values, ambitions

and the sense of life, is only the result of a network of neurones which exchange chemical

messages. There is nothing poetic, either, in considering/ it is just as unpoetical to consider the

relation between people dear to each other/ who care for one another only as a connection

between brains that passes through the senses. Perhaps that is why man (has) thought that within

him there is something superior to matter, a spiritual entity able to give each of us an identity, to

elaborate/formulate thought, to experience and understand emotions and establish values. So he

(has) turned to the concept of a/the soul. (The same concept gave rise to the idea of) Ghosts, the

souls of people who have died in the past and the various uses of the word ‘spirit’, widely used

even by those who have a materialistic view of the world, to define immaterial elements such as

the character of a person, the identity of a people or a message of a work of art. So what is the

soul? Does it really exist? Does it survive the body? Can it even be reincarnated, as many religions

(even some branches of Christianity in the past) claim? The great anthropologist, Claude Levi-

Strauss, used to say that sometimes a scientific definition of reality is not important. Whether the

soul is a myth or not, what matters is that its concept offers/gives us a key to understanding the

mysteries of existence. In the history of the soul, there is no lack of some surprising aspects/The

history of the soul is not short of some surprising aspects. For a long time, the Jews did not believe

in the immortality of the soul – at most in vegetative presences wandering on the Earth. Only later,

especially during the period of their exile to/in Babylonia, did they come to accept the idea of the

immortality of the soul and of paradise as a reward for the righteous/just.

Did the idea of the immortality of the soul and of paradise as a reward for the righteous/just come

to be accepted.

6. IL WEB

The web is a place/space of great freedom, but it may also be full of real dangers even though they

come from a virtual world. One of these dangers is falling victim to a cybercrime. Whoever surfs

the Net may come across intrusions into his computer by some cybercriminal who uses special

programmes (which can be found on the Internet too) to collect confidential data or infect the

computer with viruses or ‘Trojan horses’ which are a