Barga is known as artcity because of the many creative people living or working here but sometimes those bursts of creativity can take people by surprise.
A good example of an out of the ordinary event can be found this morning in the city.
Somebody has been attaching square yellow sticky labels (post its) with excerpts of poetry to signs and doorways in the narrow streets of Barga Vecchia.
It has to be said, not exactly contemporary poetry is it in fact dates back to the late 13th century.
Cecco Angiolieri (c.1260-1312) S’i’ fosse foco, arderei ’l mondo—Sonnet 86
S’i’ fosse foco, ardere’ il mondo;
s’i’ fosse vento, lo tempestarei;
s’i’ fosse acqua, i’ l’annegherei;
s’i’ fosse Dio, mandereil’en profondo;
s’i’ fosse papa, serei allor giocondo,
ché tutti cristïani embrigarei;
s’i’ fosse ‘mperator, sa’ che farei?
a tutti mozzarei lo capo a tondo.
S’i’ fosse morte, andarei da mio padre;
s’i’ fosse vita, fuggirei da lui:
similemente faria da mi’ madre,
S’i’ fosse Cecco, com’i’ sono e fui,
torrei le donne giovani e leggiadre:
le vecchie e laide lasserei altrui.
If I were fire, I’d burn up the world;
if I were storm, I’d raise a giant swell
and drown it all; if I were God I’d hurl
this rat’s-ass circus all the way to hell.
If I were pope, how happy I would be!
I’d cheat the Christians blind and suck their blood.
To serve as emperor I might agree,
so I could chop off everybody’s head.
If I were death, I’d go to see my dad—
of course with mother I would do the same.
If I were life, I’d run from them like mad.
If I were Cecco, as I was and am,
I’d take the lovely and the lively dames
and leave for you the ugly and the sad.
Cecco Angiolieri (1260-c.1312) was a Sienese poet. He is best remembered for his wonderful sonnet “S’i fosse foco”.
The poem is interesting from a philosophical point of view as it is a series of nine subjunctive conditionals.
While the first eight have false (in most cases, necessarily false) antecedents (“if I were fire,” “if I were death,” etc.) the final conditional has a true, indeed a necessarily true, antecedent (“if I were Cecco”).
The strangeness of a subjunctive conditional with a true antecedenct is emphasised because Cecco inserts after it the only verbs (literally, “as I am and was”) in the poem that are not subjunctives or conditionals.
All the notes have been signed “wee man” which could allude to a Scottish connection but the overlapping double v’s in W are definitely not the way to write that letter in the english speaking world …. so, a mystery this morning …. who is the wee man ?