SAYINGS & ‘RE-SAYINGS’
SAYINGS & ‘RE-SAYINGS’
Water, wind, and scorching sun: a pinch of folk wisdom.
In the past, farming knowledge and tradition often relied on observing the sky and weather patterns to make decisions that frequently proved crucial in everyday life.
From these observations about the weather, proverbs and sayings were often born — ones whose meanings ring just as true about human nature and social relationships. For example:
“Acqua davanti e ventu darrè” draws on the symbolism of ships and ancient sailors, with the wind at the stern and the sea at the bow, cutting through it relentlessly. It’s a proverb urging us to leave behind those who prove false and malicious.
Other sayings lead us to reflect on that scorching sun which, for months on end, beats down on Sicily and, for better or worse, rules over everything.
A stern, unforgiving father, you might say! That same sun gives us our good crusty bread and the extraordinary dried figs and dried tomatoes (the latter also known locally as ‘chiappi’).
Here’s a saying that captures the magic of this heavenly body: “Sutta lu suli si maturanu li cosi” — underscoring just how essential the sun is to all of life, or perhaps simply suggesting, metaphorically, that things need time to truly grow and turn out well. A genuine lesson in rural wisdom that we should truly treasure in today’s hyperconnected world.
That same sun also gives us the traditional Sicilian ‘mostarda’ (made from fresh grape must) and the so-called ‘cotognata’, made from quinces at the end of the long summer season.
Perhaps paradoxically, this same benevolent star is also the sun that dries out and parches everything. In the celebrated novel The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, the Sicilian sun is described as a violent, absolute force. To quote just a couple of brief passages:
“The sun […] revealed itself as the true sovereign of Sicily: the violent, shameless sun, the narcotic sun […]”
“This climate which inflicts on us six months of fever at a hundred degrees: May, June, July, August, September, October — six times thirty days of sun bearing straight down on our heads.”
August is nearly upon us, and here’s what a well-known Sicilian proverb — always on my dear grandfather’s lips — has to say: “Austu è capu di ‘nvernu”, alluding to the fierce, inevitable afternoon storms that mark the end of the season.
Some sayings are tied to specific places, referring to Sicilian towns and cities where the weather can be especially extreme:
“Si voi pruvari li peni di lu ‘nfernu, lu ‘vernu a Missina, e la stati a Palermu.” (If you want to suffer the pains of Hell, try winter in Messina and summer in Palermo.)
And you? Between the frost of Messina and the blaze of Palermo, which way would you run?
And if we put it in culinary terms: which would you choose — arancini or arancine?
But that’s a topic for next time… Until then… ‘Keep hydrated!’
Originally shared on LinkedIn.
