pater piccule

pater noste piccule piccule scenne a ciele cu nu striccule penta palomma che a ciele scenniste mpizze la purtaste na piante r'aulive addò la pusaste mieze a chella vie addò se parturisce la Vergine Maria. I am going to repeat this short prayer: pater noste piccule piccule scenne a ciele cu nu striccule penta palomma che a ciele scenniste mpizze la purtaste na fronne r'aulive addò la pusaste? mieze a chella vie addò se parturive la Vergine Maria. I was very intrigued by this short prayer because it has extraordinary characteristics, in my opinion, for the artistic and stylistic quality of the prayer itself. And this intrigued me because popular culture has always been considered, in general, as a minor culture and in this poem, instead, I notice a very high quality. Let’s start reading it and it starts with “pater noste piccule piccule”, the first sentence in which the first word pronounced is "Pater", "Pater" is in a dialectal poem, you can see immediately that it is a Latin word, Latin is the official language of the Church, as well as the Pater noster, but it is only taken as reference because soon after that it says “noste piccule piccule” in dialect, so this is a synthesis, we may say, of the official culture of the Church and the culture of the popular language. Then “scenne a ciele cu nu striccule”, he comes down from the sky with a splash of water. It is the baby Jesus who is Pater noste piccule piccule that comes down from the sky with a splash of water. The sentence that follows is “penta palomma che a ciele scenniste”, penta palomma is another subject, which is actually the “Holy Spirit” according to the official character of the Church, but here it is called “penta palomma” where penta means turkey, a farmyard animal, a popular animal which becomes one thing with the dove, the palomma, therefore there is another synthesis of these two cultures, the official culture of the Church and the popular culture. Then “mpizze la purtaste na fronne r’aulive”, in your beak you brought an olive frond. In the recording we can hear “na pianta r’aulive”, but it is the same; in other testimonies of this short prayer, we can hear “fronne”, it is about an olive foliage, which represents the symbol of peace in the world, the hope for salvation. Then “addò la pusaste?". There comes another subject who... a subject who says such an immediate thing: Addò la pusaste?" Where did you lay this olive foliage you Holy Spirit? Why such an immediate question, so vehement, so fast, so rapid? Because it’s Humanity that wants to ask, wants to know in an absolute way where this olive foliage is laid. And the answer is “Mieze a chella vie addò se parturive la Vergine Maria". "Mieze a chella vie, mieze a chella vie" is it isn’t simply a place, no place is indicated. In the popular language, “mieze a vie” (“in the middle of the road”) means that a person has lost everything, has lost his family, has lost his things, has lost…and is at the mercy of the elements. This recalls the experience of the Madonna who delivered her baby in the middle of the road, and this delivering in the middle of the road brings very close to popular experiences. Another very important aspect of this poem is its musicality. If we look at the first sentence: “pater noste piccule piccule e scenne a ciele cu nu striccule”, the second sentence is almost identical between “piccule and striccule”. In the other sentences there is: "scenniste", which recalls: “mpizze la purtaste, scenniste e purtaste”, but “purtaste” is linked again to the sentence that follows where it’s being asked "addò la pusaste?". The words “purtaste” and “pusaste” are almost identical. Then there is: "na fronne r'aulive" and "addò se parturive", “aulive” and “parturive” which is another rather musical association. Then: “mieze a chella vie” and “la Vergine Maria”, “la via” and “Maria”, but it’s also at the beginning of the sentence: “addò la pusaste” and “addò se parturive”, where there is another association which musically speaking is interesting, therefore the musicality is distributed, we could say, not only at the end of the sentence, but also at the beginning and in the middle of the sentence, that brings the way of listening to musicality to greater dynamics, greater participation to this event. That is as far as it concerns the musicality. Another important aspect concerns verbs and the first verb is "scenne a ciele cu nu striccule". All the other verbs are in the past tense, only this first verb is in the present tense “scenne”. The present tense is the Sacred tense, of the Sacred ritual, the Sacred tense is always present because every time the Ritual takes place, the Story also takes place, even if two thousands years have passed by, the event is taking place in this moment. The event here is the event of the birth of Christ, but also the death of Christ, when he dies everybody feels as if it was happening in that moment, so it is always present, the Sacred tense in any aspect of the Sacred is always in the present tense, but the rest of the poem is all in the past tense, because "scenniste", "purtaste", "pusaste", "parturive" are all in the past tense, and here there’s another synthesis of the Sacred Tense of the official aspect of the Ritual of the Church and the tense of the popular narration which is in the past, where these two things, even if it doesn’t look like it, are connected. Then these verbs also have a transitive movement, an action movement, they are all verbs of movement, "scenniste", "purtaste", "pusaste", "parturive" are all verbs of movement, there’s also "addò la pusaste" which is also a movement tense even if it creates a moment of suspension, whilst everything takes place there is this question that creates this moment of suspension, but it is in any case a verb of movement, up to: "mieze a chella vie addò se parturive", the last verb is also a verb of movement, but it is an intimate movement, a circular movement which takes place within, in the body of Mary. And this action, which ends in “parturive” in the body of Mary, it is as if the whole poem almost touched the body, feeling the body that delivers, feeling the Sacred as close as possible, as if to say: We all feel like Mary's children.