Glossary entry

Italian term or phrase:

un tempo leggere nelle passeggiate

English translation:

(the contact of our hands) once lighly laced as we strolled,

Added to glossary by Maria Burnett
Feb 26, 2011 18:35
13 yrs ago
1 viewer *
Italian term

un tempo leggere nelle passeggiate

Italian to English Art/Literary Poetry & Literature novel set in Russia
I wonder about un tempo leggere. Could it be a typo?
Poi, lentamente, i baci e gli abbracci si fanno più rari, la mano nella mano, un tempo leggere nelle passeggiate o nei cinema, diventa un disattento struscio dei mignoli… non mi basta, dicevo io. Lei negava questo cambiamento, nascondeva con disagio i problemi suoi e nostri, diventava aggressiva.

Discussion

zerlina Feb 26, 2011:
penso al romanzo di Lalla Romano "le parole tra noi leggere", preso da un verso di Montale. Il 'leggere' qui penso vada preso come sostantivo, dai gesti prima delicati ora sti mignoli disattenti... aarrgh!
Le parole tra noi leggère - Lalla Romano

Il titolo, tratto da un verso di Montale, rimanda alla difficoltà di comunicare ... Ho letto, per ora, soltanto "Le parole tra noi leggere" e dopo questo incontro con ... Mi piaceva indovinare nei suoi occhi molte cose, molte storie: ...
www.italialibri.net/opere/paroletranoileggere.html -

Comunque, non butta subito questa opzione a mare!
Gian Feb 26, 2011:
leggere = leggiero = light forse si riferisce a mani; la mano nella mano diventano due mani leggiere; poi segue un verbo al singolare "diventa" come se si riferisse all'azione del disattento struscio dei mignoli
Peter Waymel Feb 26, 2011:
probably an error Hello Mary,
My guess is it's an error. My wife is Italian and I had her look at it; she said it doesn't make sense as is. My guess is perhaps "leggere" is an error and should be "legiere" and that a second word (perhaps "carezze", "abbracci") is missing. That's my best guess!
(who reads at the cinema? ;))
Peter Waymel

Proposed translations

+5
26 mins
Selected

(the contact of our hands) once lighly laced as we strolled,

... has twindled to an absent-minded brushing of our little fingers



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Note added at 28 mins (2011-02-26 19:03:06 GMT)
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ooops, typo: has dwindled
Peer comment(s):

agree Ernestine Shargool : Perfickly put! Makes me twingle. ;-X)
23 mins
thankth thweetie x
agree manducci
46 mins
thanks manducci :-)
agree Maria Sometti (Anishchankava)
14 hrs
grazie Maria :-)
agree P.L.F. Persio
15 hrs
grazie cara x
agree potra : Beautiful
17 hrs
oooh! thanksissimi potra :-))
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
+6
19 mins

leggère meant as an adj (leggero)

What I believe the author means is "le nostre mani leggère", and not léggere (=reading). The sentence is not gramatically correct ("mano" is in the singular, for instance, and the adj is plural) but I am pretty sure it refers to "holding hands lightly" since after he/she talks about the "struscio dei mignoli".
I hope this helps!
Peer comment(s):

agree Ernestine Shargool : Exactly. Was just posting the same. P.S. agree with Jim that the plural is correct.
2 mins
agree James (Jim) Davis : Yes, arguably the plural adjective is correct "mano (1) in mano (2)"
5 mins
agree Sarah Jane Webb : sorry, you weren't there when I started posting (which took me rather a long time)
17 mins
agree Oliver Lawrence : and with Jim
34 mins
agree Maria Sometti (Anishchankava) : mano nella mano presumes there were 2 hands, so the adj is reasonable
14 hrs
agree P.L.F. Persio
15 hrs
Something went wrong...
1 hr

the casual hand-in-hand ..... becomes a superficial brushing of the little fingers....

the author might refer to a caring casual movement of looking for each other...? just an attempt to read the sentence under a different light
Something went wrong...
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