This site uses cookies.
Some of these cookies are essential to the operation of the site,
while others help to improve your experience by providing insights into how the site is being used.
For more information, please see the ProZ.com privacy policy.
Freelance translator and/or interpreter, Verified member
Data security
This person has a SecurePRO™ card. Because this person is not a ProZ.com Plus subscriber, to view his or her SecurePRO™ card you must be a ProZ.com Business member or Plus subscriber.
Affiliations
This person is not affiliated with any business or Blue Board record at ProZ.com.
Italian to English: Program notes on Beethoven's chamber music Detailed field: Music
Source text - Italian A chi gli chiedeva di esprimere un giudizio su Beethoven il vecchio Haydn rispose: «Le prime sue cose mi piacquero, ma ora scrive solo “fantasie”». Era stata la sua reazione all’ascolto dei Trii che l’editore Artaria stava per stampare a gettare le prime ombre sul rapporto con l’indocile allievo: Haydn aveva sconsigliato la pubblicazione del brano conclusivo della piccola raccolta e il sospettoso Beethoven attribuiva le riserve del maestro al desiderio di intralciare il successo di un rivale in ascesa. La buona fede di Haydn era invece assoluta, in quanto la carica di drammaticità presente nei due movimenti estremi del Trio in do minore restava remota dalle sue concezioni estetiche. Dal canto suo, Beethoven era convinto di avere imboccato una strada maestra giusta in quelle pagine; il seguito della sua carriera gli avrebbe dato ragione, in quanto l’individuazione della drammaticità a suo avviso connessa alla tonalità adottata lo avrebbe portato a comporre in do minore la Sonata patetica, la VII Sonata per violino e pianoforte, il III Concerto per pianoforte e orchestra, l’ouverture Coriolano, la V Sinfonia, la Sonata op.111.
Translation - English When asked his opinion of Beethoven, the elderly Haydn would respond «I liked the first things he wrote, but now he only writes “fantasies”». His reaction after listening to the Trios about to be published by Artaria was what first created problems in his relationship with his unruly pupil: Haydn had warned against publishing the final movement of the small collection and a suspicious Beethoven attributed his Maestro’s reservations to a desire to hinder the success of an ascending rival. But Haydn’s good faith was absolute, insofar as the dramatic tone of the final movements of the Trio in C Minor was beyond the pale of his esthetic conceptions. From his own perspective, Beethoven was convinced to have taken the right path when he composed those pages; the development of his career would later demonstrate he was right, in that the identification of the dramatic element which he found to be intrinsic to the adopted tonality would later lead him to compose the Sonata pathétique, the 7th Sonata for violin and pianoforte, the 3rd Concerto for pianoforte and orchestra, the Coriolan Overture, the 5th Symphony, and the Sonata op.111 – all in C minor.
Italian to English: La componente servile nella fondazione di Taranto e Locri Epizefirii/Slavery in the accounts of the colonization of Taras and Locri Detailed field: History
Source text - Italian Teopompo rimanda al concetto di promozione degli iloti allo status di cittadini: gli iloti, secondo lo storico chiota, furono reclutati per impedire ai Messeni di notare che il numero degli Spartiati si era notevolmente ridotto e si misero a giacere al posto degli Spartiati morti, sostituendosi ad essi. La parola stibas, letto, non ha nulla a che vedere con il talamo nuziale a cui le unioni descritte da Eforo farebbero pensare. Le stibades erano letti di foglie o stuoie, sulle quali dormivano i soldati durante le campagne militari. Questa modalità di promozione ad uno status superiore doveva essere un tratto peculiare e permanente nelle società doriche: Teopompo documenta che a Sicione esisteva una categoria sociale (i katonakophoroi) simile a quella degli Epeunatti.
Contrariamente ad Antioco che, nel frammento esaminato sopra, dice che gli iloti erano gli spartani che si rifiutarono di combattere durante la prima guerra messenica, Eforo e Teopompo si rifanno ad una tradizione che data più indietro nel tempo (rispetto all’epoca delle guerre messeniche) la formazione dell’ilotia. Secondo Eforo la parola ‘ilota’ derivava da una città della Laconia chiamata Helos, che era stata conquistata dagli Spartiati in una guerra anteriore a quella messenica, chiamata ‘guerra di Helos’. Nel catalogo delle navi omerico compare Helos messenica (Il. II 594) dieci versi dopo la omonima lacone (584) e nell’antichità le due Helos furono giustapposte: Teopompo, contemporaneo di Eforo, dice che alcuni iloti provenivano dalla Messenia, altri da Helos in Laconia; le due città erano accomunate dal fatto che gli antichi abitanti achei della regione erano stati sottomessi dagli Spartiati.
Translation - English Theopompus calls attention to the idea of promotion of helots to the status of citizens: in fact, according to him, the helots were recruited in order to keep Messenians from realizing that the number of Spartans had dwindled so dramatically: they were made to lie down on the straw mats of the dead Spartans and take their place. The word stibas, bed, has nothing to do with a nuptial bed which Ephorus refers to when describing heterosexual cohabitation. The stibades in fact were beds of leaves or straw mats, on which solders lay down during campaigns. This way of being promoted to a higher status must have been a peculiar and permanent trait of Doric societies: Theopompus testifies, for example, that in Sicion there was a category (the Katonakophoroi) similar to that of the Epeunaktoi.
Unike Antiochus, who in the abovementioned fragment says that the helots were Spartans who refused to fight for their country during the first Messenian war, Ephorus and Theopompus sustain a tradition that set the origin of helotic slavery before the epoch of the Messenian wars. According to Ephorus, in fact, the word “helot” came from a Laconian town, called Helos, that had been conquered by Spartans in a previous war, called the “war of Helos”. In the Homeric catalogue of ships, the Messenian Helos is mentioned (Il. II 594) ten lines after the Laconian one (584) and in ancient times the two towns were closely correlated: the contemporary of Ephorus, Theopompus, says that some helots came from Messene, others from Laconia and the two towns were associated by the fact that ancient Achaean inhabitants of that territory had been subjugated by the Spartans.
Italian to English: Alle radici del Product Placement: il mere exposure effect/At the roots of Product Placement: the mere exposure effect Detailed field: Psychology
Source text - Italian La ricerca in ambito pubblicitario ha subito, nel corso dell’ultimo cinquantennio, una evoluzione verso soluzioni sempre più innovative ed accattivanti, con il chiaro obiettivo di produrre specifici comportamenti d’acquisto. Sovente però, la bizzarria dei "sentito dire" a proposito dei condizionamenti occulti, i cui effetti non sono dimostrati da rilevamenti empirici ed i cui risultati non hanno prodotto ricadute dimostrabili sui comportamenti degli individui, ha finito per coinvolgere molte delle azioni messe in atto dai pubblicitari in quella nebulosa nota come "stimolazione subliminale".
L'esposizione ripetuta di un prodotto al fine di associarvi una valutazione positiva è di fatto l’approccio più utilizzato in ambito pubblicitario. Una delle tecniche che si fonda su questo metodo è nota come product placement, nella quale compaiono, bene inquadrati ed in vista, marchi di auto famose, accessori, capi di abbigliamento, bevande, ed altro ancora, senza che si abbia la percezione di trovarsi innanzi ad uno spot pubblicitario. Apparentemente si tratta di un semplice uso di quel particolare oggetto da parte degli attori di un film e la presenza del marchio commerciale spesso non viene neppure notata dagli spettatori. Le aziende che utilizzano questo approccio pubblicitario sfruttano il cinema come vetrina promozionale, sostenendo parte dei costi di produzione in cambio di una adeguata visibilità dei loro prodotti all'interno dell'opera. Curiosamente tale approccio risale agli albori della cinematografia. Gli stessi fratelli Lumiere furono i primi ad inserire un detersivo all'interno di uno dei loro film già nel 1895. È però con la diffusione del cinema prima e della televisione poi, che tale approccio conosce il suo massimo sviluppo. Si pensi ad esempio ai film di 007, i quali, nel corso degli anni, sono diventati sempre più affollati di gadget quali, orologi, auto e prodotti tecnologici che hanno affiancato la loro immagine all’icona di turno dello "stile Bond".
Translation - English Research in the field of advertising has evolved over the last fifty years and has found ever more innovative and captivating techniques clearly aiming to produce specific purchasing behaviors. Often however, the bizarre hearsay surrounding hidden messages – whose effects have not been demonstrated by empirical evidence and whose results have not had any demonstrable effect on people’s behavior – has managed to influence a great deal of advertising in the area known as “subliminal stimulation”.
The repeated exposition to a product in order to associate a positive affect to it is in fact the most common approach in advertising. One of the techniques based on this concept is known as product placement, where brands of cars, accessories, clothes, drinks, and other products appear clearly in video material without giving the impression of watching a commercial. Apparently the particular object is simply being used by the actors in a film, and often the presence of the commercial brand is not even noticed by the spectator. The companies which use this advertising approach exploit the cinema as a promotional showcase, assuming part of the production costs in exchange for adequate visibility of their products in the film. Oddly, this approach goes back to the beginning of cinematography. The Lumière brothers were the first to insert a detergent into one of their films back in 1895. This approach developed greatly with the proliferation of cinema first and television later. One need only think of the films with Agent 007, which over the years have become ever more crowded with watches, automobiles, and hi-tech products which cast their image alongside that of James Bond.
More
Less
Translation education
Master's degree - Washington University (Saint Louis, USA)
Experience
Years of experience: 34. Registered at ProZ.com: Aug 2010. Became a member: Dec 2010.
I discovered a passion and talent for language as a child in St. Louis, USA, and I was also a precocious pianist and percussionist. After taking degrees from the St. Louis Conservatory of Music and Washington University, I published articles on Poe and the French Symbolists and began my performing career. In 1982 I was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and began teaching English in France. I lived briefly in Germany and Switzerland, and I then obtained the position of tympanist of the Orchestra Sinfonica della Radiotelevisione Italiana (RAI) in Turin, and have now lived in Italy for almost thirty years. Currently I am Solo Tympanist of the Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana and Lecturer in English Language at the University of Palermo. I have worked as a part-time free-lance translator since 1990.
Professional profile
• Translation of scholarly articles for publication in academic journals of Linguistics, Psychology, Musicology, Classics, and Modern History
• Author of a bilingual volume dealing with phrasal verbs and ESL
• Organizer and instructor of TOEFL preparatory courses at the University of Palermo
• Consultant for students writing doctoral theses and grant proposals for international fellowships
• Translation of resumés of professionals from all fields.
• Official Translator (English to Italian) for the news documentary Mediterranea (RAI) of interviews with people actively involved in the Middle East peace process
• Staff Translator (Italian, French to English) for Mediterranea, a scholarly quarterly dedicated to historiography
• Self-employed as a free-lance translator, editor, and communications consultant
Why you should work with me
I commit 100% to the projects I get involved in.
I provide high quality idiomatic translations, and have a broad vocabulary base and a keen sense of semantics and cultural context.
I am constantly working with deadlines and pride myself on punctuality and respect for others.
I enjoy my work.
I use a range of tools, including CAT tools, to increase productivity and ensure quality and consistency in my translations.
I consult regularly with experts regarding the technical issues in the translations I undertake.
I am innately curious, and seek to develop my skills and knowledge in different subject areas.
This user has earned KudoZ points by helping other translators with PRO-level terms. Click point total(s) to see term translations provided.
Member since Dec '10
Expertise 
Portfolio