Luguria - The Seaman Longing for Land

"Lenta e rosata sale su dal mare

la sera di Liguria, perdizione di cuori amanti e di cose lontane.

Indugiano le coppie nei giardini, s'accendon le finestre ad una ad una

come tanti teatri.

Sepolto nella bruma il mare odora.

Le chiese sulla riva paion navi che stanno per salpare.

- Vicenzo Cardarelli, 'Liguria'

Translation:

Languid and pink, she rises from the sea,

the evening of Liguria, perdition of loving hearts and far-away things.

Couples linger in the garden, the windows light up one by one,

like many theatres.

Buried in the mist, the ocean breathes.

The churches on the waterfront are ships about to set sail.

There is a word in Portuguese that is almost impossible to translate: saudade. Saudade is more than longing or nostalgia, more than missing someone or something. It can be a term of affection, for someone that see again after a long absence, and it is not only tied to our heart, but to our soul. If there be a region in Italy embodied by this painful tug and pull and incongruous sense of place, it is Liguria.

Surrounded on its entire western side by the waters of the Mediterranean, and a seafaring people who have over the centuries traded far and wide, from Africa to Asia and back, one would presume their diet include fish and mollusks along with spices from various voyages across the globe. Ligurian gastronomy instead speaks of earth - animals of the land, herbs from the fields and nothing exotic. Saudade, longing if we have to choose an equivalent English word, is written into the region's very cuisine. After long trips across the ocean, when Ligurians are home, they leave their boats in the port, and do not bring them to the kitchen table, figuratively speaking.

The symbol of Genoa, Liguria's biggest city, is the lighthouse, or that which indicates home to those out at sea. In the local dialect, 'mare' (sea) and 'male' (bad) are the same word, 'ma'. When the ships dock, Ligurians say they have reached 'salvamento', or 'safety'. Land equals salvation. Whereas Venetians, an equally seafaring folk, live their waters with an opportunistic eye. For the Genovese, the ocean is an obligation. In fact, the classic Ligurian expression for someone digraced speaks volumes: 'essere a pane e pescetti', or 'to be reduced to bread and small fish'.