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by SteveM
Hi Marco, using yours as crib I have had a go myself as an exercise -
I have had a few problems and still not sure I have understood it quite right.
I don't understand the no'/non in non che i confortini and No' abbiam carte for example - and I don't know where you get nuts from in the last line? Re: 'without man', I wonder if that could mean 'not a court card'? So you can guess 'higher', 'lower' or 'not a court card'?
The Song of the Sweetmeat Sellers
Ladies, we have candied plums and sweetmeats!
If you want some, ours are the best.
We need not show how to make them,
it's too much trouble, a waste of time,
and she who wastes time, as many do,
ends up eating alone from little pots.
When it’s your time, do what you want to,
don't feel embarrassed or dirty:
who hasn’t the goods beg a neighbour;
good neighbours give to each other.
This thing we young men make an art of:
it's enough that our sweetmeats are good.
Don't hang around to be given one:
you should spend your money and play.
We've got cards and could play basset:
it needs one to raise, another to bet;
then again and again back and forth throw
the cards; you guess mine, or I take yours.
Declare "without man", "above" or “below”
and shake with longing from head to toes
until it comes, and when it comes you'll see
the funny faces of the pussies that moan.
Whoever's below will then glower,
wiggle and make monkey faces;
all they had gone, they pout, roll their eyes,
the miserable wretches even cry.
Who overcomes, they jump in sweetness,
mock and sneer, splashing all over you;
but to have faith in fortune is crazy,
in time by turn the bender will be bent.
This basset is a very quick game;
you can play it standing up, any place;
its only sore point, it doesn’t last long;
but it often pleases those with small cups.
There is flush*, which is a cursed* game:
and those who want to come out clean
bid little by little, are prudent and mean;
these days even farmers do the same.
Whoever puts his all in a bid,
if a flush arrives, is in a sorry plight;
seeing him, he looks like a man maimed:
that Sforza Bettini be damned!
Pull out is a poor game, pinch is often
used, and straight up no one regrets.
Those with a good hand do what they want;
as do those with a large stock of florins.
If you want to play as we have shown,
we are happy to stake all we have
in a bid, here and now between yours,
right up to the box, with our sweetmeats.
* Berricuocoli I am reading as 'berricocoli' 'apricock-plums'. (Florio)
The Apricock-plums, they are of several Sorts.; the white Sort, which is large, round, and of an extraordinary rich Flavour, and is accounted one of the best Plums: The red, this is like the Imperial-plum, is larger than the following, and has the Flavour of an Apricock. The yellow, which is large and long, but not so large as the former, having a dry Flesh. (Miller)
However, I have seen berricocoli translated into Spanish as 'confites' (Casas) -confites - a candy treat consisting of dried fruit , nuts , seeds or spices coated with caramel of sugar - so have combined the two sources to come up with candied plums. Plums and sweetmeat(s) are both common euphenisms for sexual organs (testicles and penis) in keeping with the nature of the original.
Re: women/ladies ~ when addressing women it's more customary in english to say 'ladies'.
*Flusso (Flow) - As well as meaning a 'flush' at cards, it also means ‘a woman’s monthely flowers'. (Florio) I have chosen 'curse' here in preference to damned - as the word play being made here with coming out clean, unstained or looking 'like a wounded man' is to la maledizione delle mestruazioni which is rendered 'the curse of menstruation' in english. I know I may be reading this wrong as at the Tretre site they seem to be (over) emphasising reading some sort of 'dirty flow' from the act of sodomy here - I think it is more ambiguous than that.
Florio's 1611 Italian/English Dictionary: Queen Anna's New World of Words
Philip Miller 1724 The gardeners and florists dictionarym or a complete system of horticulture.
Cristóbal de las Casas 1570 Vocabulario de las dos lenguas toscana y Castellana
Last edited by
SteveM on 16 Jul 2011, 06:08, edited 54 times in total.