An Italian Education

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My editor is concerned that I may have used too many Italian words in this book. I am concerned myself. Rereading now, I see there are one or two, or sometimes three on every page. Even the chapter headings are in Italian. Clearly I should say something in my defence.

My first idea was that I might offer a little glossary. But this would be no solution. For if each of the words could be explained with a simple alternative in English, then I would never have felt inclined to leave them in Italian in the first place. I have been a translator for many years and one of the most galling aspects of that galling job is to realise, on translating a word, that you have offered only a tiny fraction of its meaning, only an empty semantic shell, since so often surface meaning is nothing more than the stony outcrop of a great mass of cultural bedrock beneath. Thus, if I write ‘sacrifici’ in Italian, you will immediately guess that it means ‘sacrifices’, but unless you have lived in Italy you cannot imagine how often and in how many ways that word is used here, how it seals a crucial joint in the Latin mind frame, offers a vital stepping stone in the Catholic search for good conscience.

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