Italian–English parallel text
Il fascio di bastoni
The Bundle of Sticks
Aesop
A free bilingual English–Italian edition: the Italian translation with the English original beside it, paragraph by paragraph. Read it online, or download it as a dual-language ebook.
Opening the reader…
Un certo padre aveva una famiglia di figli, che litigavano continuamente tra loro.
A certain Father had a family of Sons, who were forever quarreling among themselves.
Nessuna parola che potesse dire serviva a qualcosa, così cercò nella sua mente un esempio molto eclatante che facesse loro capire che la discordia li avrebbe portati alla sventura.
No words he could say did the least good, so he cast about in his mind for some very striking example that should make them see that discord would lead them to misfortune.
Un giorno, quando il litigio era stato molto più violento del solito e ognuno dei figli se ne stava imbronciato in modo scontroso, chiese a uno di loro di portargli un fascio di bastoni.
One day when the quarreling had been much more violent than usual and each of the Sons was moping in a surly manner, he asked one of them to bring him a bundle of sticks.
Poi, passando il fascio a ciascuno dei suoi figli a turno, disse loro di provare a spezzarlo. Ma sebbene ognuno ci provasse con tutte le sue forze, nessuno fu in grado di farlo.
Then handing the bundle to each of his Sons in turn he told them to try to break it. But although each one tried his best, none was able to do so.
Il padre allora sciolse il fascio e diede i bastoni ai suoi figli affinché li spezzassero uno a uno. Cosa che fecero molto facilmente.
The Father then untied the bundle and gave the sticks to his Sons to break one by one. This they did very easily.
“Figli miei”, disse il padre, “non vedete quanto sia certo che se sarete d’accordo tra voi e vi aiuterete a vicenda, sarà impossibile per i vostri nemici farvi del male?
“My Sons,” said the Father, “do you not see how certain it is that if you agree with each other and help each other, it will be impossible for your enemies to injure you?
Ma se sarete divisi tra voi, non sarete più forti di un singolo bastone in quel fascio.”
But if you are divided among yourselves, you will be no stronger than a single stick in that bundle.”
L’unione fa la forza.
In unity is strength.
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