Inspiration in my Barese Dialect In my researches on my dialect I couldn’t find a real word that could be translated as inspiration: abstract words are the most difficult to remember and common people don’t need this sort of words in their daily life. But asking to educated people from Bari the first word or phrase in dialect they would connect with the concept of inspiration,
Lucia Zambrini

My father was the first one to whom I asked this question. He answered with the word "dillirie" «delirium, raving, frenzies», . We were having dinner, altogether, as we usually do at our place. He was a bit uncertain at the start, but then he grew more and more confident, as always: he would defend his theory till his death! You know, my father never thought that I could have felt something similar to inspiration in my life, because he has got very clear ideas of what an artist is and doesn't consider me one, either. I gave him the painting with the flowers and the sun last year. Then he was very happy with the article and said that I should start a market in US with my paintings! He goes from one excess to the other. I think he relates inspiration with madness. And I certainly do, as well. My most inspired moments happened in a very unbalanced period of my life, although I would have never admitted that I was raving at that time.

The second person was my friend Gianna Elisa, the one with the American cousin. We were in her car, looking for a parking by night near the historical center of Bari, to have the classical walk on the promenade and along the walls of the old town with hundreds of other Barese people during spring and summer time. She thought that "prisce"  « joy, pleasure»  was a good translation and also a typical Barese word. It doesn't have a direct correspondence in Italian, the translation in Italian would be "gioia". I would relate this word also with the concept of pleasure: actually the two words are pronounced in quite a similar way.

The last one was one of our neighbors. My father advised me to go to him, because he is an actor who plays in dialect. So I went to ring at his place one evening while having a walk with my dog. This guy has got a bitch who likes playing with my dog, so while we were talking in the garden the dogs were saying hello in quite a friendly way. He told me that a few days before he was talking with a friend about some funny dialectal phrases connected with inspiration, in his opinion. He said that it was something appetizing, but he didn't remember the exact sentence. He also told me that he mostly plays in Neapolitan dialect: that was why he didn't have a ready answer. I said that it was not urgent and I left.

Some days later, I was again walking with my dog in the evening and he stopped his car near me and told me the sentence: "se mettì appetetuse appetetuse" and that he had been talking about it to his friends and they were all looking for better translations!  The literal translation being something like «he got into an appetizing state/mood», actually meaning that «he started working in a will».   Then he advised me to go to our national library and read some books by Alfredo Giovine: he is one of the people who looked into our folkloristic traditions more than others and he created an archive of them. He also wrote some beautiful poems in dialect, apart from studying everything produced by our common people. I met my neighbor yesterday having a walk with his one month old child: I told him that I went to the national library and looked at some of A. Giovine's books and that I sent you the article in English. He said that he would have liked to read it, but in Italian.
 

Finally I found a collection of senètte, a sort of rough, unrefined, prosaic, very short poems titled U spassatìimbe, «pumpkin seeds, roasted broad beans and chick-peas» (passatempo meaning in Italian pastime, recreation, hobby) that people in Bari use to eat to waste their time. What surprised me more was the Italian subtitle of this collection: La musa analfabeta del popolino barese, «the illiterate muse of the Barese common people».

Choosing one senètte that represents all of them seemed an impossible effort: every subject on which the man of the people could expose to ridicule someone, inspired one of these “poems”. In the end, thinking of the themes of birth, recurring in my researches on the Camenae, the name Nicola, the name of our patron saint, and the sea, I chose one of them: Colètte and then another coming from an elaborated fragment of a popular song, Ndèrr’a la lanze. First I’ll give the original dialectal version, then the one in Italian and at the end the one in English.

(U pulpe rizze, the curly octopus, is a Barese titbit. The coastal octopus and not the one coming from deep waters, subjected to beating, skinning, removal of the ink gland and curling; after this treatment, that can last about two hours, it becomes very delicious and tender, so that people usually eat it raw.)


 

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What do you think about encouragement and inspiration? Have you noticed that when people like what you do or give you an emotional encouragement that it inspires you?

yes, encouragements and feedback in general are quite important in the process of inspiration for me. I react in a different way, so I get a different kind of inspiration, according to the nature of feedback I receive or I don't receive. Not getting the feedback I expect for something I consider important might be very inspiring for me: I struggle to receive it in a new way, and then another, till I succeed or I decide that maybe is not so important and so I give up: when I give up after struggling a lot is often the time when I receive the feedback/the encouragement I was waiting for.

I have been recuperating from my surgery. I usually have great health but this last month I've dealt with the hernia surgery and Kidney Stones. I've had a couple of interesting experiences related to inspiration and near death experiences resulting from these experiences. I'm writing down this experience and will email you a URL link to the story shortly. I'm looking for some art to illustrate it.  Since I don't think I can send email to you with images in the text, I'm placing it on a webpage. It should be another day or so before I finish it. I think since you liked the videos, it inspires me to do  more. ;-)

Being sick and feeling close to death was very inspiring for me, as well in the past. That sensation was even heightened by the fact that I was alone: no one who really cared for me was close to me, apart from the thought of my dead dear ones. Closeness to death was maybe more inspiring than love to me: when you are at the threshold of life you can look at everything you are leaving behind in a new way. And life with its intricacies, fantastic coincidences, simplicity is like infinite harmony that has to continue even after. When you come out of this sort of experience, everything becomes
easier: you might even do something you would have never thought of doing before. Not fearing death might also lead to very dangerous behaviors for others.
 

Do you think the Camenae tell you something about inspiration?

What inspired me most in the legend of the Camenae, as I have already told you, is their connection with the concept of birth. This certainly comes from the fact that I'm in the fertile period of my life, but also I consider quite inspiring the link of inspiration and birth: everything we do, every action, everything we produce, might be considered as our child. It enters the world of life.

Camenae can be considered the Italic counterparts of the Muses. Their name comes from the Latin word carmen meaning first song, then sound of voice or musical instruments; finally poem, oracle, prophecy, spell. So they were goddesses of predictions, song, spells, poetry and were connected to springs and sources. Last but not least they were venerated by women as protectresses of birth, a sort of divine obstetricians.

All these aspects, even the not strictly artistic ones, can be related to
inspiration: their prophetic gift and their magic virtue coming from spring water alienated people from their reason in the same way as inspiration is often said to provoke delirium and madness; springs and sources, some of the original starts of nature, are a good metaphor of inspiration; their sacred help in giving birth can be linked with the catalyzing role of inspiration in creating an (art) work.