In addition to the word Gregory mentions,
lasso is also used for "alas" in Italian. Etymologically, there’s a slightly different sense between
aimè and
lasso. The former comes from a combination of
ai, an onomatopoeic expression of pain, and
me, the pronoun “me.”
Lasso comes from Latin
lassus, “tired,” so there’s a sense of extended suffering and weariness from it.
I find in
Webster’s that our
alas has the same root:
ah for the spontaneous sigh,
las for weary.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Maryann Corbett
Andrew, what Italian expressions raise the question? Could we investigate how (for example) John Ciardi handled them? He was big on using contemporary English in his translations of Dante.
|
That's a good question. I wonder what Ciardi does use.
The line I was thinking about for this--although it’s not the only one--is “Quantunque volte, lasso! mi rimembra,” which translates literally as “Whenever, alas! I remember.”
I think this thread is convincing me to go ahead and use
alas, although I’d do it without the exclamation point, putting a comma there instead.
Threaded Mode
