pater piccule
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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.