Walter Simmons versione in dialetto siciliano di Marco Scalabrino

Walter Simmons

by Edgar Lee Masters

My parents thought that I would be
As great as Edison or greater:
For as a boy I made balloons
And wondrous kites and toys with clocks
And little engines with tracks to run on
And telephones of cans and thread.
I played the cornet and painted pictures,
Modeled in clay and took the part
Of the villain in the “Octoroon.”
But then at twenty-one I married
And had to live, and so, to live
I learned the trade of making watches
And kept the jewelry store on the square,
Thinking, thinking, thinking, thinking,—
Not of business, but of the engine
I studied the calculus to build.
And all Spoon River watched and waited
To see it work, but it never worked.
And a few kind souls believed my genius
Was somehow hampered by the store.
It wasn’t true. The truth was this:
I didn’t have the brains.

Versione in dialetto siciliano
di Marco Scalabrino

Me matri e me patri pinsavanu chi ju avissi divintatu
granni comu a Edison o chiù ancora:
pirchì di picciriddu facia palluni
e cumeti di vampa, jochi miccanici
e machinari chi currianu supra li binari
e telefuni cu li lanni e lu lazzu.
Sunava la trumma e pittava,
mpastava la terracotta e ricitava macari a tiatru.
Ma poi a vintun’anni mi maritai,
avia a campari e, accussì, pi campari
mi misi a fari lu riluggiaru
cu la putia a centru di la chiazza,
sempri però pinsannu, pinsannu arrè e ripinsannu
no a l’affari, ma a dda machina
chi strumintiava notti e jornu e strumintiava di custruiri.
E tutta Spoon River aspittava e taliava,
taliava e aspittava di vidirila funzionari.
Ma nun funziunau mai.
E allura napocu crittiru chi era lu nicoziu
a frinari lu me geniu.
Nenti di chiù fausu! La virità vera
è chi mi mancava lu ciriveddu.