La coscienza di Zeno: an Italian graded reader at level A2

Glossary

affare · business ((sin. commercio, negozio))

Un lavoro in cui si comprano e si vendono cose per guadagnare.

Work in which things are bought and sold to make money.

Business, in this novel, isn't work: it's a test of manhood. A man who can do deals is a man. Zeno cannot do deals, and ends up making money anyway, by accident, without ever understanding how.

bugia · lie ((sin. menzogna, falsità))

Una cosa detta al posto della verità.

Something said in place of the truth.

Zeno lies on every page, and not to us: to himself. Every time he explains why he did something, he is quietly acquitting himself. The reader sees it. He never does. That gap is the entire book.

coscienza · conscience ((sin. consapevolezza, morale))

Il sapere dentro di sé quello che si è fatto, e se era bene o male.

Knowing inside yourself what you have done, and whether it was right or wrong.

The word in the title carries two meanings in Italian at once: knowing, and feeling guilty. Zeno has both in abundance, and neither is any use to him. He knows exactly what he's doing wrong: and does it again.

diagnosi · diagnosis ((sin. giudizio medico, verdetto))

Quando il medico dice quale malattia abbiamo.

When the doctor says which illness you have.

Every doctor in this novel is wrong. They hand Zeno the names of illnesses and he accepts them with delight: because an illness with a name is the perfect reason to change nothing.

eredità · inheritance ((sin. lascito, patrimonio))

I soldi e le cose che restano ai figli quando un genitore muore.

The money and things left to the children when a parent dies.

Zeno lives on his father's money and has never really worked. That is what lets him be the way he is: his illness is expensive, and he happens to be able to afford it.

fallimento · failure ((sin. rovina, disfatta))

Quando una cosa va male e finisce nel modo peggiore.

When something goes wrong and ends in the worst way.

Zeno fails at everything: his studies, business, marriage, the cure. And he outlives every man in the book who succeeded. The novel is full of strong men who come to bad ends, and one weak one who simply keeps going.

gelosia · jealousy ((sin. invidia, sospetto))

La paura che la persona amata ami un altro.

The fear that the person you love loves someone else.

Zeno is jealous over a woman who isn't his, on account of a man who is his friend. And his jealousy leads nowhere: it doesn't make him act, doesn't make him change. It just makes him ache slightly, and write it down.

The glossary contains 24 entries in all