collettivo culturale tuttomondo Gianni Rodari numeri
Gianni Rodari, da Favole al telefono, Einaudi, 1962
“Inventiamo dei numeri?”
“Inventiamoli, comincio io. Quasi uno, quasi due, quasi tre, quasi quattro, quasi cinque, quasi sei”.
“È troppo poco. Senti questi: uno stramilione di biliardoni, un ottone di millantoni, un meravigliardo e un meraviglione”.
“Io allora inventerò una tabellina:
– tre per uno Trento e Belluno
– tre per due bistecca di bue
– tre per tre latte e caffè
– tre per quattro cioccolato
– tre per cinque malelingue
– tre per sei patrizi e plebei
– tre per sette torta a fette
– tre per otto piselli e risotto
– tre per nove scarpe nuove
– tre per dieci pasta e ceci.
“Quanto costa questa pasta?”
“Due tirate d’orecchi”.
“Quanto c’è da qui a Milano?”
“Mille chilometri nuovi, un chilometro usato e sette cioccolatini”.
“Quanto pesa una lagrima?”
“Secondo: la lagrima di un bambino capriccioso pesa meno del vento, quella di un bambino affamato pesa più di tutta la terra”.
“Quanto è lunga questa favola?”
“Troppo”.
“Allora inventiamo in fretta altri numeri per finire. Li dico io, alla maniera di Modena: unci dunci trinci, quara quarinci, miri miminci, un fan dès”.
“E io li dico alla maniera di Roma: unzi donzi tenzi, quale qualinzi, mele melinzi, riffe raffe e dieci”.
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Gianni Rodari, from Telephone Tales, Enchanted Lion, 2019
“Shall we invent some numbers?”
“Yes, let’s. I’ll go first. Almost-one, almost-tw0, almost-three, almost-four, almost-five, almost-six.”
“That’s not enough. Listen to this one: a mega million times a billion, a tricyclon of squintillions, a googleplexity of centillions, and an octillion.”
“All right then. I’ll invent a multiplication table: three times one, a barrel of fun; three times two, Kalamazoo; three times three, coffee and tea; three times four, dinosaur, three times five, backward dive; three times six, stacks of bricks, three times seven, manna from heaven; three times eight, Alexander the Great; three times nine, Frankenstein; three times ten, and back again.”
“How much does this pasta cost?”
“Two slaps on the wrist.”
“How far is it from here to Milan?”
“A thousand new miles, one used miles, and seven lemon gumdrops.”
“How much does a teardrop weigh?”
“Depends. A willful child’s teardrop weights less than the wind, but that of a starving child weighs more than the world”
“How long is this story?”
“Too long.”
“Okay, then, let’s hurry up and invent more numbers. Here we go, in New York style: foist, secant, and toid, toitytoid and a hunnit and toid, a doity boid plus a noid is the woid.”
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Allow me to introduce you to the greatest Italian children’s book author of the twentieth century—Gianni Rodari, a journalist, life-long Communist, educator, and winner of the 1970 Hans Christian Andersen award.
His poems, short stories, and full-length fantasies influenced by linguistics, surrealism, and the desire for social justice, have been widely translated, but they are sadly little known in the English-speaking world. So why wait? Sample one of his highly inventive “math lessons” from Anthony Shugaar’s glorious translation of Telephone Tales (1980) illustrated by Valerio Vidali and published in 2020 in honor of the centennial of the author’s birth by the extraordinary independent children’s book publisher, Enchanted Lion. (by Andrea Immel)
collettivo culturale tuttomondo Gianni Rodari numeri