Annotations to James Joyce's Ulysses/Calypso/061
Annotations
[edit | edit source]Là ci darem (Italian) There we shall join [hands].[1] These are the opening words of the duettino Là ci darem la mano, Act I, Number 7 of Mozart's comic opera Don Giovanni, in which the Don, a sexual predator, begins his seduction of the peasant Masetto's young bride Zerlina. The opera occupies Bloom's mind for the rest of the day on account of the similarity between his and Masetto's predicaments:[2]
Là ci darem la mano,
(Vorrei e non vorrei,
Vieni, mio bel diletto!
(Mi fa pietà Masetto.)
Io cangierò tua sorte.
Presto ... non son più forte.
Andiam!
Andiam!
Andiam, andiam, mio bene. |
There we shall join hands,
(I would like to, and I wouldn't like to,
Come, my pretty beloved!
(I feel sorry for Masetto.)
I will change your destiny.
Quickly ... I am no longer strong.
Let's go!
Let us go!
Let us go, let us go, my darling, |
Voglio e non vorrei (Italian) I want to but I wouldn't like to.[3] Bloom has misremembered Zerlina's line. He will correct it in Hades, but he continually makes the same mistake throughout the day. It has been suggested that Bloom is thinking of a pair of lines spoken by Don Giovanni's servant Leporello in the opening scene: Voglio far il gentiluomo/E non voglio più servir (I want to be a gentleman/And I no longer wish to serve).[4] In Circe, two pages before repeating the mistake, Bloom addresses Molly with the words At your service.
Zerlina's Vorrei e non vorrei (I would like to and I wouldn't like to) might be more loosely translated as: I would like to, but I shouldn't, or Should I or shouldn't I?.
Wonder if she pronounces that right : voglio (Italian) The word voglio (I want to) is pronounced [ˈvɔʎo] in IPA, (vOLo in X-SAMPA, vawl-yo phonetically). Of course, this is all irrelevant to Molly, who won't be called upon to sing this word.
References
[edit | edit source]- ↑ Gifford (1988) 77.
Thornton (1968) 73. - ↑ Don Giovanni' Act 1, Scene 9.
- ↑ Gifford (1988) 77.
Thornton (1968) 73 - ↑ Don Giovanni' Act 1, Scene 1.