Pinocchio: an Italian graded reader at level A2

Glossary

abbecedario · ABC book, primer ((sin. libretto, sillabario))

Il primo libro dei bambini, con le lettere e le parole per imparare a leggere.

A book with which children learn to read the first letters and words.

Geppetto sells his coat (in the depth of winter) to buy Pinocchio the primer, and Pinocchio sells it in turn to go to the puppet theatre. It is the act that ruins everything, and it is told in two lines. In 1883 the primer was the first book a poor child ever held, and an old man's coat in winter was life itself. Collodi doesn't explain: he expects the reader to understand.

bosco · woods, forest ((sin. foresta, selva))

Un posto con molti alberi vicini.

A place with many trees, where plants grow and wild animals live.

In Pinocchio the wood is where the bad things happen: the assassins, the rope on the Great Oak, the closed white house. In Italian fairy tale the wood is always where the child gets lost and comes out someone else. Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel, Pinocchio: they go in as children, they come out changed. It is the world outside the front door.

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

Una cosa non vera che si dice a qualcuno.

Something untrue told to someone to hide the truth.

In this book lies aren't a detail: they are the way Pinocchio gets himself into trouble, every time. And the book does an odd thing with them: it makes them VISIBLE. The nose grows, everyone sees, nothing can be hidden. It is a fairy-tale punishment, comic and cruel at once: in the real world lies don't show on your face, and perhaps that is why we tell so many.

burattino · puppet ((sin. pupazzo, marionetta))

Un pupazzo di legno che si muove con i fili o con la mano.

A small figure made of wood or cloth that moves with hands or strings.

The word of the title, and the word of the book. Pinocchio isn't a boy who behaves like a puppet: he IS a puppet, of wood, who wants to become a boy. The whole book lives in that difference. A wooden figure that wants to be alive, and to be alive it must learn the things the living have to learn: obeying, working, telling the truth.

capriccio · whim, tantrum ((sin. voglia, sfizio))

Il volere una cosa solo perché la si vuole, senza motivo.

A sudden desire without reason, often of a child.

Pinocchio is full of whims: he wants pears without the skin, wants the theatre instead of school, wants the Land of Toys. And Geppetto almost always gives in. The book doesn't blame the child: it blames the whim itself, which is never satisfied, and always asks for more. A boy who has been given everything still wants the Land of Toys.

The glossary contains 26 entries in all