Arnon, it's a clear threat: Brush your hair or the Camorra will blowdry you to death!

The message is probably: if you write nasty things about Naples, you will have to clean the city with this hairbrush as a punishment. And they are still rather merciful to you because normally you have to do the job with only a toothbrush.

This was a funny entry.

Are there any hairs left in the brush?

@Arnon

Has one of your works ever been victim of such a trap in translation?

If the brush is a metaphor for you, because of your abondant curls, the scene becomes sinister.

It's a special code: If you brush your hair you'll get a blowjob

I think The Camorra knows your hair is your most precious possession.

TeethPaste in Trieste

Arnon, I'll personally manage about somethin more curious in Trieste. What taste of ice cream do you prefer, by the way?

Valerio

Lemon and coffee.

Pablo

Both my English and German translator are excellent.
I have been told the other translators are good as well.
But of course each language has its own difficulties. How do you translate the word "drugstore" into Italian?

Sander

I count on you when it becomes dangerous here.

Arnon

No worries, they'll never know what sat on them

@Helen
You seem to be a naughty girl too, but - bad luck for me - I am a very serious man. (Lately I was with a girl and I told her in a serious melancholic mood “Ah, you are beautiful flower” and the naughty Tom boy replied “Then you are my tree”.)

The hairbrush is obviously intended for "residents" without luggage: those who occupy the room for a few hours with the mere objective of using it as a place to perform acts of a sexual nature. Typically the man will wash after the performance to avoid his wife noticing any scent of an unknown woman. The hairbrush is provided as a courtesy so he does not have to go home with a "woolly hair-do".

Perhaps you might have noticed strange moanings, groanings and odd banging and rattling. A shot will probably mean a performance has been interrupted by a jealous husband.

Arnon

Some terms are difficult to translate, indeed. I wouldn't immediately know how to translate drugstore, since it's not the same as a pharmacy.

I recently read a translation of an old book by Graham Greene, the translater sometimes used a footnote: 'Een echte lijvengraaister'*
-- * Onvertaalbare woordspeling. 'Body-snatcher': 'lijkendief', maar 'body' betekent zowel 'lichaam' als 'lijk'.

I found it strange that he used the word 'lijvengraaister', instead of just leaving 'body-snatcher' in the text, since he explains it in the footnote anyway.

Some years ago, I read a translation of a book by Allan Sillitoe. The original must have been in an English dialect, since the translater often used a sort of 'Flodder'-Dutch ('Hij heb'...) in the translation, to make clear that these characters were marginal. It stood in the way of the story and ruined the book. Maybe it was the same in the original language, I don't know.

I wonder if a translation ever saved a book or made it better.

Sander
You"re right. Naughty but I try to have a good heart. A real maffia man from Naples Franco gave me a present. A book from Luigi Pirandello "Liola Cosi e ( se vi pare) A Helen: "La gentilezza non si erediti: la nobilta risiede non nel sangue, come la conceptivano gli antichi, non e privilegio di castor, ereditario, ma e devuta al "valore"alle doti dell'animo, a richezza spirituale, Grazie! Con tutta la mia stima. "Franco.
Isn't this a deep thought fom a Napolitain maffiaman. I don't know if he's still alive being a weapon merchant.

Free translation: De hartelijkheid erft men niet. De nobelheid zit niet in het bloed, zoals in de oudheid wordt gezegd. Het is niet een privilege van bepaalde kasten. Het is niet erfelijk, maar komt uit de waarde , uit de gave van de geest, uit de geestelijke rijkdom.
True story

@Helen
A nice quote. Nasty persons are not the privilege of one group. (not an average experience and gift, by the way)

Drugstore = Drogheria

Drogheria is perfect for Drugstore. Drogherias almost does not exist anymore in Italy. Are Drugstore the same they were in USA ? I don't think so.

So the point is: when the novel was setted?

by the way, whein you are in Trieste, Arnon, I'll get you to the oldest drogheria in town ( actually one of the oldest of this old country...

Valerio

According to my Italian translator, Franco Paris, “drugstore” (“drogisterij” in Dutch) is difficult to translate into Italian. If I’m not mistaken the word appears in “The story of my baldness”, which is set in Vienna at the end of the last century.
I'll be arriving in Trieste on Tuesday early afternoon.

Sorry Jan
By accident ( or stupidness) I addressed the answer to Sander. Yes it was a quite unordinary and unexpected gift but still very special to me. When I wrote this comment, I thought how special to see a real chamorra writing in this blog. By the way this man was very intellectual and erudite but also cold criminal . Quite a contradictio but it can happen.

uh, drugs/stores sex and r'n'r

As mr Paris sure know, Vienna and Trieste were cousins. So what?
TOSO, the one and only surviving drogheria in town ( and close to the best winery !! ) could be a remarkable site to visit...

I'm reading "baldness". THAT family could have been a triestine variation of the alta borghesia viennese...

@Helen
No problem, I assume you were mistaken.
A cold heart can go very well with great intellectual capacities and erudition, you surely know about the psychopathic personality.

@ Jan
It's an opportunity. Maybe you're right. Could be possible. But sometimes people change and become better persons as they were before. So I give it the profit of the doubt.

sex and brush

Well, the hotel people saw your hair and were dangerously impressed, that s why they put it there.
What`s more interesting is that a lot of people commenting here find something very sexual in this brush......