Mantovano Volante

Tazio Nuvolari is a legendary presence, always alive in the memories of motorsports enthusiasts and non-enthusiasts too. He’s the measuring unit of the fastest race and of the most exciting race which may be run.
A timeless legend, Mr Nuvolari was born one hundred and twenty-six years ago, on the Mantua territory and, already at six years old, he sped through the countryside, on his red moped. Little by little he acquired speed driving rumbling motorbikes and powerful four-wheel vehicles, challenging both rivals and fate, with his boldness and obstinacy.
A life lived intensely in vivid colours, where reality overcame imagination.

NUVOLARI
L’arivéva tal zéinch
se fè de dè
nir, pardénd i pézz.
L’arivéva s’un mógg
ch’é gévva tótt
e dòp ch’l’éra pass léu
l’éra finéid la chéursa.
“T’a l’è vést?” i gévvai
andénd a lètt
e quéi i arspundéva
a mèni, a brazi, a rógg
che al paróli l’éra gnént
par Nuvolari.

NUVOLARI
He arrives at five
early in the day
still dark, disseminating parts.
He arrived with a roar
which said it all
and as he went past
the race was done.
“Did you see him?” they inquired
when they went to sleep
and they answered
with hands, arms and shouts
that words were nothing
to Nuvolari.

“Because dialect was a language that I couldn’t lie with”. Nino Pedretti was a poet, translator and a teacher, this poem was taken from the book “Al vòusi e altre poesie in dialetto romagnolo”, (“Al vòusi and other poems in Romagnolo dialect) by Manuela Ricci, Einaudi Editore, 2007