Caterina e l'asino - Catalina e l'ase - Caterina Ramonda

Caterina e l'asino - Catalina e l'ase - Caterina Ramonda

Children's book from 4 years, bilingual edition Occitan - Italian.

The story of Catherine and the donkey is a tale of the Occitan tradition, narrated here by Caterina Ramonda in a bilingual (Occitan - Italian) version, with illustrations by Marco Bailone.

The two authors are from the Alpine valleys of south-western Piedmont, the Valadas Occitanas, which also represent the eastern boundary of Occitan's linguistic space. Occitania from here, from the Alpine valleys of the Italian state, extends to the west, throughout the Mezzogiorno of the French state, as far as Val d'Aran in the Pyrenees (Spain). A vast area rich in traditions.

The tale presented here is mainly known on the other side of the Alps (in France), but it is also a dear story for Ramonda, who is native of Val Varaita and who preserves its memory. In addition, tales work just like people do. And the seasonal migrations of the valleys of Piedmont towards France are stories of families of these communities, even in the last decades. Recovered from memory and compared with existing printed versions, this story offers the reader a new lesson based on the text published by Jean-Luc Domenge, Félibre de Draguignan, in Les contes merveilleux de Provence, a collection published in 2003 but based on research carried out between 1985 and 2000 in the Var and in the Alpes de Haute-Provence. For this tale, Domenge uses as a source, in turn, a script by Alfred Matheron: "Catarinet so maridè emé l'ai". The story summarized by Matheron, played on a double register of French and Provencal language, is included in the unpublished manuscript "The Village, customs and customs of Central Provence (North of the department of Var) in use at the dawn of the twentieth century 1929) "preserved in the Departmental Archives of the Var.

The young Genoan editions Egnatia Anila Al-Hasa, whose purpose is, inter alia, to give voice to many languages, to help discover the cultures of different peoples, began its activities with a series of bilingual children's books. The "Fiabe in Viaggio" collection is dedicated to traditional and popular tales (rather European), offering the original language next to the Italian translation: it was the turn of Occitan.

The delightful drawings by Marco Bailone and the careful editing of Anselmo Roveda, make the story exciting for small readers. For the linguistic realization (with the text in Italian beside, well integrated in the illustrations), the adaptation to the Occitan alpine of Caterina Ramonda, expert and author of children's literature, made the text in the space of the Occitan valleys of Italy.

The volume also contains a few pages devoted to the history and culture of the Occitan language, and the classic spelling of Occitan, which were carried out by the Espaci Occitan de Dronero, in order to offer young readers and their families, a simple and immediate contextualization of the tale in geography and European history.

Caterina Ramonda (Author), Anselmo Roveda (Editor), Marco Bailone (illustrations).

Collection "Fiabe in viaggio", editions Egnatia.

Italian:

La storia Caterina e /'asino è una fiaba della tradizione occitana, qui narrata da Caterina Ramonda in una versione, bilingue, di misura utile a diventare albo illustrato grazie al segno di Marco Bailone. Entrambi gli autori provengono dalle valli alpine del Piemonte sud-occidentale, da quelle Valadas occitanas che rappresentano anche il limite orientale dello spazio linguistico d'oc. L'Occitania da qui, dalle valli alpine dello Stato italiano, si estende verso ouest, lungo tutto il Mezzogiorno dello Stato francese, fino alla pirenaica Val d'Aran, compresa invece nello Stato spagnolo. Uno spazio ampio, ricco di tradizioni. La fiaba presentata è diffusa prevalentemente nel versante transalpino, in Francia, ma è un racconto caro anche a Ramonda che è di casa in Valle Varaita e ne conserva memoria da dicitori del posto. Del resto le fiabe camminano, esattamente come le persone. E le migrazioni, pure stagionali, dalle valli occitane di Piemonte verso la Francia sono dentro aile storie delle famiglie di queste comunità anche in decenni relativamente recenti. Recuperata dalla memoria e confrontata con versioni a stampa si offre ora al lettore in una nuova lezione che fa tesoro del testo pubblicato da Jean-Luc Domenge, felibro di Draguignan, in Les contes merveilleux de Provence, raccolta pubblicata nel 2003 ma basata su ricerche sul campo effettuate tra il 1985 e il 2000 nel Var e nelle Alpi di Alta Provenza. Per questa fiaba Domenge utilizza come fonte, a sua volta, uno scritto di Alfred Matheron: Catarinet si maridè emé l'ai. La fiaba riassunta da Matheron, giocata su doppio registro linguistico francese e provenzale, è compresa nel manoscritto inedito Le Village, mœurs et coutumes de Provence Centrale (Nord du département du Var) en usage à l'aube du XXème siécle (1929), oggi conservato presso gli Archives départementales du Var.