Istituto
d’ Istruzione Superiore
Ugo
Mursia, Carini (PA)
L’Acqua
risorse e simbolo di ieri, di oggi, di domani
Anno
scolastico 2004-2005
|
Classe |
Insegnante |
Tematica |
|
I B LICEO |
Cuccio C. |
Proverbi Siciliani sull’acqua |
|
I G IPSSAR |
Cuccio C. |
Menu del giorno a base di acqua |
|
IV B LICEO |
Ganci V. |
Miti Siciliani |
|
IV B LICEO |
Bevacqua A.M. |
Myths and legends on water |
|
III B LICEO |
Demma G. |
L’Acheronte, fiume infernale |
|
V B LICEO |
Mulè E. |
Le centrali idroelettriche |
|
II B LICEO |
Perricone B. |
Salvaguardia dell’ acqua: uso
domestico e aspetti giuridici |
|
IV B LICEO |
Fogazza L. |
Approfondimenti scientifici |
|
III C LICEO |
Fogazza L.- Spatafora T. |
Proprietà nutritive dell’ acqua |
|
IV B IPSSAR |
Tulumello C. |
Proprietà nutritive dell’ acqua |
|
III B LICEO |
Bevacqua A. M. |
The Ballad of Lord Randal, Bob Dylan’ s version: “A hard rain’s a-gonna fall” |
|
II B LICEO |
Bevacqua A.M. |
Water and grammar rules |
WATER
Together with air,the
element essential to life. The main constituent of all
organisms- animal or plant. Water- seemingly available
for all, and yet inaccessible to so many. Water- a
source of life when used to refresh and soothe; a deadly threat when
overabundant or simply lacking. We encounter water everywhere- in the
home and in industry, in our leisure time and in hygiene, in navigation and in
quenching our thirst; and everywhere it is such a fragile commodity. By means
of dames and ducts, taps and bottles, man has domesticated water- a major
achievement of old and modern civilisation. But when you tame something, you
become responsible for it- forever. So man has a responsibility- for the water
he has already polluted, for the water he has wasted and for the drinking water
which more than 1,500 million of his fellow-men are lacking. He is also
responsible for the water which he will be leaving to posterity, whether he is
a political decision-maker, an industrialist or an ordinary consumer, because
the water of all of us is the water of each of us. Accordingly, there is no
alternative- man must think again about his attitude to water and the place of
this vital fluid in the planetary cicle, and his
actions must follow the only rational, viable course.
INTERDEPENDENCE
Interdependence is a fundamental law of nature. All
phenomena, from oceans to forests, are dependent one upon the other. Every
human being is part of the community of life, which is made up of all living
creatures. But interdependence also takes many other forms.
" We are
part of the earth and it is part of us. The perfumed flowers are our sisters:
the deer, the horse, the great eagle, these are our brothers. The rocky crests,
the juices of the meadows, the body heat of the pony, and man- all belong to
the same family. ... We know that the white man does not understand our way.
One portion of the land is the same to him as the next, for he is a stranger
who comes in the night and takes from the land whatever he needs. The earth is
not his brother but his enemy, and when he has conquered it, he moves on. He
leaves his fathers 'graves behind and he does not care. He treats his mother,
the earth, and his brother, the sky, as things to be bought, plundered, sold
like sheep or bright beads. His appetite will devour the earth and leave behind
only a desert... The earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth.
This we know. All things are connected like the blood which unites one family.
All things are connected. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. ...
Continue to contaminate your bed and you will one night suffocate in your own
waste".
Literary text no. 1
The Waste Land
Here is no water but
only rock
Rock and no water and
the sandy road
The road winding
above among the mountains
Which are mountains
of rock without water
If there were water
we should stop and drink
Amongst the rock one
cannot stop or think
Sweat is dry and feet
are in the sand
If there were only
water amongst the rock
Dead mountains mouth
of carious teeth that cannot spit.
Here one can neither
stand nor lie nor sit
There is not even
silence in the mountains
But dry sterile
thunder without rain
There is not even
solitude in the mountains
But red sullen faces
sneer and snarl
From doors mud
cracked houses
If there were water
And no rock
If there were rock
And also water
And water
A spring
A pool among the rock
If there were the
sound of water only
Not the cicada
And dry grass singing
But sound of water
over a rock
Where the
hermit-thrush sings in the pine trees
Drip drop drip drop drop drop drop
But there is no water
From T.S. Eliot, The
lines
331-358
Literary
Text no.2
The Canterbury
The
Prologue
When in April the
sweet showers fall
And pierce the
draught of March to the root, and all the veins are bathed in liquor of such
power
As brings the
engendering of the flowers,
When also Zephyrus
with his sweet breathe
Exhales an air in
every grove and heath
Upon the tender
shoots, and the young sun
His half- course in the sign of Ram
has run
and the small fowl
are making melody
that sleep the night with open eye
(so
nature pricks them and their heart engages)
Then people long to
go on pilgrimages
And Palmers long to
seek the stranger strands
Of far-off Saints,
hallowed in sundry lands,
And specially, from
every shire’s end
In
To seek the holy
blissful martyr, quick
To
give his help to them when they were sick.
From “The
Geoffrey Chaucer
Literary Text n. 3
Laudes Creaturarum
Altissimu, onnipotente, bon Signore,
Tue so le laude, la Gloria e l’honore et onne
Benedictione.
Ad te solo, Altissimo, se konfano,
et nullu homo ene’ dignu te mentovare.
Laudato sie, mi’ Signore, cum tucte le tue
creature,
specialmente messor lo frate sole,
lo qual è iorno, et allumini noi per
lui.
Et ellu è bellu e radiante cum grande
splendore:
de te , altissimo, porta significatione.
Laudato si’, mi Signore, per frate vento
Et per
aere et nubilo et sereno et onne tempo,
Per lo quale a le tue creature dai
sustentamento.
Laudato si’, mi Signore, per sor’ acqua,
la quale è multo utile et umile et
preziosa et casta.
Laudato si’, mi Signore, per frate focu,
per lo quale ennellumini la nocte:
ed ello è bello et iocundo et
robustoso et forte.
Laudato si’, mi Signore, per sora nostra
matre terra,
la quale ne sustenta et governa,
et produce diversi fructi con coloriti fiori
et herba.
Laudato si’, mi Signore, per quelli ke
perdonano per lo tuo amore et sostegno infirmitate et tribulatione.
Beati quelli ke ‘l sosterranno in pace,
ka da te, Altissimo sirano incoronati.
Laudato si’, mi Signore, per sora nostra
morte corporale,
da la quale nullu homo vivente po’ skappare:
guai a quelli ke morranno ne la peccata
mortali;
beati quelli ke trovarà ne le tue
santissime volutati,
ka la morte seconda no ‘l farrà male.
Caudate e benedicete mi’ Signore et
rengratiate
E serviateli cum grande humilitate
“Cantico Di Frate Sole” di Francesco d’Assisi
Literary Text no. 4
La pioggia nel Pineto
Taci. Su le soglie,
del bosco non odo
parole che dici
umane; ma odo
parole più nuove
che parlano gocciole e foglie
lontane.
Ascolta. Piove
dalle nuvole sparse.
Piove su le tamerici
salmastre ed arse,
piove su i pini
scagliosi ed irti,
piove su i mirti
divini,
su le ginestre fulgenti
di fiori accolti,
su i ginepri folti
di coccole aulenti,
piove su i nostri volti
silvani,
piove su le nostre mani
ignude,
su i nostri vestimenti
leggieri,
su i freschi pensieri
che l’animo schiude
novella,
su la favola bella
che ieri t’ illuse, che oggi m’illude,
O Ermione.
Da
“Alcyone” di Gabriele D’Annunzio
Literary Text no. 5
Piove
Piove
non sulla favola bella
di lontane stagioni,
ma sulla cartella
esattoriale,
piove sugli ossi di seppia
e sulla greppia nazionale.
Piove
sulla Gazzetta Ufficiale
qui dal balcone aperto,
piove sul Parlamento,
piove su via Solforino,
piove senza che il vento
smuova le carte.
Piove
in assenza di Ermione
se Dio vuole,
piove perché l’ assenza
è universale
e se la Terra non trema
è perché Arretri a lei
non l’ ha ordinato.
Piove sui nuovi Epistemi
del primate a due piedi,
sull’ uomo indiato, sul cielo
ominizzato, sul ceffo
dei teologi in tuta
o paludati,
piove sul progresso
della contestazione,
piove sui works in regress,
piove
sui cipressi malati
del cimitero, sgocciola
su la pubblica opinione.
Da
“Satura” di Eugenio Montale
Literary Text 6
Text
no.7
Water
reflects our future
The water of all of us is the water of each of us
Together with air, the element essential to life.
The main constituent of all organisms- animal or
plant. Water-seemingly available
for all, and yet inaccessible to so many.
Water- a source of life when used to refresh and
soothe; a deadly threat when overabundant or simply lacking.
We encounter water everywhere- in the home and in industry, in our
leisure time and in hygiene, in navigation and in quenching our thirst, and
everywhere it’s such a fragile commodity.
By means of Dams and ducts, taps and bottles, man had domesticated
water- a major achievement of old and modern civilization.
But when you tame something you become responsible for it- forever.
So man has responsibility- for the water he has already polluted, for
the water he has wasted and for the drinking water which more than 1,500
million of his fellow men are lacking.
He is also responsible for the water which he will be leaving to
posterity, whether he is a political decision maker, an industrialist or an
ordinary consumer, because the water of all of us is the water of each of us.
Accordingly there is no alternative- man must think again about his
attitude to water and place of this vital fluid in the planetary cycle, and his
actions must follow the only rational, viable course.
The Council of
Text no.8
Some
things to know about water
Most of the Earth’s water is
undrinkable. If a large bucket of water were to represent the seawater on the
planet, an eggcup would represent the amount of water locked in ice caps and
less than a teaspoonful would be all that was available as drinking water.
Water is continuously recycled as a result of evaporation driven by solar
energy. This cycle is estimated to consume more energy in a day than that used
by human-kind over its entire history.
About 6,000 children die every day from diseases associated with lack of access
to safe drinking water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene. At any one
time, half of the world’s hospital beds are occupied by patients suffering from
water-borne diseases. Many more people die from diarrhoeal diseases than fro
HIV/AIDS.
About 70 percent of freshwater goes to irrigation but in some places half or
more of it never reaches the fields because of leaks and evaporation. Irrigated
land in the developing world is expected to increase by 20 percent and water
withdrawals for irrigation by 14 percent in the next 25 years, since irrigation
increases the yield of most crops by 100 to 400 percent. It takes,
1,000 times more water to grow food for an individual than to meet that
person’s needs for drinking. It takes one cubic metre of water to produce a
kilogram of wheat. And it costs 90 US cents to desalinate a cubic metre of
water, making sea water an unlikely source for food production.
Most of the cities where large numbers of people live without taps and toilets have plentiful water supplies. And in
cities with water shortages, there are rarely any restrictions on water use for
the rich. Water for household use represents only about eight to ten percent of
total water consumption.
Half of Africans, 300 million people have no access to safe water; 66 percent,
or 400 million, have no access to hygienic sanitation.
About 90 percent of fish species depend on coastal wetlands, which are
everywhere in steep decline. An estimated 95 percent of the wetlands in
Regions that are pumping out ground water faster than aquifers can be recharged
include the western
Some of the world’s freshwater resources are simply disappearing. They include
the
Fears about the safety of tap water have led millions of Americans to switch to
bottled water – about one quarter of which comes straight from the tap. One
make of “spring water” was found to come from an industrial plant next to a
hazardous waste site. Bottled water is actually less tightly regulated than tap
water, but costs hundreds of times more, without taking into account the cost
of transport and plastic.
The “clean” computer industry is one of the world’s
thirstiest. The production of a six-inch silicon wafer requires the use of
8,600 litres of water.
More than 45,000 large dams have been built and half of the world’s rivers have
at least one dam. Dams produce 19 percent of the world’s electrical power and
account for up to 40 percent of irrigation supplies. In
Text no. 9
Water. A limitless resource?
Rain, drought and downpours lead to us to the idea of water, a resource we take for
granted. But are we sure there is enough for all?
Let’s read what National Geographic tells us about it.
It evaporates fro the oceans, falls on the land, runs into the rivers
and flows back into the sae- water, a seemingly limitless resource. But only
2.5 percent of Earth’s water is fresh water and most of that is frozen in polar
ice and snow.
Of the available fresh water, only 0.6 percent is usable. Climate
change would redistribute where and when water is available, and rising sea
levels could turn coastal fresh water brackish.
The hydrological cycle yields a constant amount of water, but the
quality is deteriorating while the human population continues to grow. Some 80
countries already report shortage. More than a billion people do not have safe
drinking water, and 25.000 die every day from water- related diseases. As water
shortfalls intensify so will competition- among countries strung along a river,
for example- and violence may result.
Everyone needs at least 13 gallons of clean water a day for drinking,
cooking, sanitation, say water specialists. Yet a sixth of the world’s people must
do with less than that. dense population create
scarcity even in
Some water can be used again, though often it must be cleaned first.
But most water for irrigation, the biggest single use, cannot be recycled. In
the
From National Geographic,
April 2001
Text no. 10
What can we do to save the Planet?
In a short space of time we seriously have polluted the environment and
over-used the earth resources. But it’s not too late to change the situation.
We just live to change the way we live.
About two-third of the household litter can be recycled or re-used. Look
at the things you and your family throw away each week. Re-use or mend as many
things as you can. Recycle all paper, bottles, cans and plastics.
You can influence shops and manufactures by what
you buy. Complaints to
manufactures in the ‘80s made them produce aerosols without CFC gases. So,
whenever possible, try to buy eco-products which do not damage the environment.
Avoid over-packaged goods, too. They cost more and create a lot of
waste.
The way we travel has a serious impact on the environment. New road
systems destroy the land and cars pollute the atmosphere. Where possible, walk,
cycle or use public transport. If you have to drive, make sure your car uses
unleaded petrol. If it
doesn’t, get a catalytic converter which reduces exhaust fumes.
Conventional forms of industry cause a lot of pollution. Coal, oil and
gas produce harmful greenhouse gases and these natural resources will soon run
out.
So, scientists are looking at alternative forms of power. Solar and
wind power for example, may be cleaner and cheaper alternatives.
Text no.11
Interdependence
We are part of the earth
We are part of the earth and it is part of us.
The perfumed flowers are our sisters; the deer, the horse, the great
eagle, these are our brothers.
The rocky crests, the juices of the meadows, the body heat of the pony,
and man-all belong to the same family………
We know that the white man does not understand our way. One portion of
the land is the same to him as the next, for he is a stranger who comes in the
night and takes from the land whatever he needs.
The earth is not his brother but his enemy, and when he has conquered
it, he moves on.
He leaves his father’s graves behind and he does not care.
He treats his mother, the earth, and his brother, the sky, as things to
be bought, plundered, sold like sheep or bright beads.
His appetite will devour the earth and leave behind a desert………
The earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth.
This we know.
All things are connected like the blood which unites a family. All things
are connected. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth…..
Continue to contaminate your bed and we will one night suffocate in your own
waste.
Chief Sealth
MODULO DIDATTICO
Text n.1
Water reflects our future
The water of all of us is the water of each of us
Together with air,
the element essential to life.
The main
constituent of all organisms- animal or plant. Water-seemingly
available for all, and yet inaccessible to so many.
Water- a source of
life when used to refresh and soothe; a deadly threat when overabundant or
simply lacking.
We encounter water everywhere- in the home and in
industry, in our leisure time and in hygiene, in navigation and in quenching
our thirst, and everywhere it’s such a fragile commodity.
By means of Dams and ducts, taps and bottles, man had
domesticated water- a major achievement of old and modern civilization.
But when you tame something you become responsible for
it- forever.
So man has responsibility- for the water he has
already polluted, for the water he has wasted and for the drinking water which
more than 1,500 million of his fellow-men are lacking.
He is also responsible for the water which he will be
leaving to posterity, whether he is a political decision maker, an
industrialist or an ordinary consumer, because the water of all of us is the
water of each of us.
Accordingly there is no alternative- man must think
again about his attitude to water and place of this vital fluid in the
planetary cycle, and his actions must follow the only rational, viable
course. The Council of
Text n.2
Some things to know about water
Most of the Earth’s water is undrinkable. If a large bucket of water were to
represent the sea water on the planet, an egg-cup would represent the amount of
water locked in ice caps and less than a teaspoonful would be all that was
available as drinking water.
Water is continuously recycled as a result of evaporation driven by solar
energy. This cycle is estimated to consume more energy in a day than that used
by human-kind over its entire history.
About 6,000 children die every day from diseases associated with lack of access
to safe drinking water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene. At any one
time, half of the world’s hospital beds are occupied by patients suffering from
water-borne diseases. Many more people die from diarrhoeal diseases than fro
HIV/AIDS.
About 70 percent of freshwater goes to irrigation but in some places half or
more of it never reaches the fields because of leaks and evaporation. Irrigated
land in the developing world is expected to increase by 20 percent and water
withdrawals for irrigation by 14 percent in the next 25 years, since irrigation
increases the yield of most crops by 100 to 400 percent. It takes,
1,000 times more water to grow food for an individual than to meet that
person’s needs for drinking. It takes one cubic metre of water to produce a
kilogramme of wheat. And it costs 90 US cents to desalinate a cubic metre of
water, making sea water an unlikely source for food production.
Most of the cities where large numbers of people live without taps and toilets have plentiful water supplies. And in
cities with water shortages, there are rarely any restrictions on water use for
the rich. Water for household use represents only about eight to ten percent of
total water consumption.
Half of Africans, 300 million people have no access to safe water; 66 percent,
or 400 million, have no access to hygienic sanitation.
About 90 percent of fish species depend on coastal wetlands, which are
everywhere in steep decline. An estimated 95 percent of the wetlands in
Regions that are pumping out ground water faster than aquifers can be recharged
include the western
Some of the world’s freshwater resources are simply disappearing. They include
the Aral Sea, which covered 68,000 square kilometres in 1960 and has since lost
60 percent of its area and 80 percent of its volume; Lake Chad, which has
shrunk to about one fifth of its former size in 40 years; and the Colorado
River, which no longer reaches the sea in the dry season.
Fears about the safety of tap water have led millions of Americans to switch to
bottled water – about one quarter of which comes straight from the tap. One
make of “spring water” was found to come from an industrial plant next to a
hazardous waste site. Bottled water is actually less tightly regulated than tap
water, but costs hundreds of times more, without taking into account the cost
of transport and plastic.
The “clean” computer industry is one of the world’s
thirstiest. The production of a six inch silicon wafer requires the use of
8,600 litres of water.
More than 45,000 large dams have been built and half of the world’s rivers have
at least one dam. Dams produce 19 percent of the world’s electrical power and
account for up to 40 percent of irrigation supplies. In
Text n. 3
Water. A
limitless resource?
Rain, drought and downpours lead to us to the idea of water, a resource we take for
granted. But are we sure there is enough for all?
Let’s read what National Geographic tells us about it.
It evaporates from the oceans, falls on the land, runs
into the rivers and flows back into the sae- water, a seemingly limitless
resource. But only 2.5 percent of Earth’s water is fresh water and most of that
is frozen in polar ice and snow.
Of the available fresh water, only 0.6 percent is
usable. Climate change would redistribute where and when water is available,
and rising sea levels could turn coastal fresh water brackish.
The hydrological cycle yields a constant amount of
water, but the quality is deteriorating while the human population continues to
grow. Some 80 countries already report shortage. More than a billion people do
not have safe drinking water, and 25.000 die every day from water- related
diseases. As water shortfalls intensify so will competition- among countries
strung along a river, for example- and violence may result.
Everyone needs at least 13 gallons of clean water a
day for drinking, cooking, sanitation, say water specialists. Yet a sixth of
the world’s people must do with less than that. dense
population create scarcity even in
Some water can be used again, though often it must be
cleaned first. But most water for irrigation, the biggest single use, cannot be
recycled. In the U.S about 30 percent of all
irrigation water is ground pumped from the High Plains aquifer, now drawn so
far it will take thousand of years to recharge naturally.
From National Geographic, April 2001
Text n. 4
What can we do to save the Planet?
In a short space of time we seriously have polluted
the environment and over-used the earth resources. But it’s not too late to
change the situation.
We just live to change the way we live.
About two-third of the household litter can be
recycled or re-used. Look at the things you and your family throw away each
week. Re-use or mend as many things as you can. Recycle all paper, bottles,
cans and plastics.
You can influence shops and manufactures by what
you buy. Complaints to
manufactures in the ‘80s made them produce aerosols without CFC gases. So,
whenever possible, try to buy eco-products which do not damage the environment.
Avoid over-packaged goods, too. They cost more and
create a lot of waste.
The way we travel has a serious impact on the
environment. New road systems destroy the land and cars pollute the atmosphere.
Where possible, walk, cycle or use public transport. If you have to drive, make
sure your car uses unleaded petrol. If it doesn’t, get a catalytic converter
which reduces exhaust fumes.
Conventional forms of industry cause a lot of
pollution. Coal, oil and gas produce harmful greenhouse gases and these natural
resources will soon run out.
So, scientists are looking at alternative forms of
power. Solar and wind power for example, may be cleaner and cheaper
alternatives.
Text n.5
Interdipendence
We are part of the earth
We are part of the earth and it is part of us.
The perfumed flowers are our sisters; the deer, the
horse, the great eagle, these are our brothers.
The rocky crests, the juices of the meadows, the body
heat of the pony, and man-all belong to the same family………
We know that the white man does not understand our
way. One portion of the land is the same to him as the next, for he is a
stranger who comes in the night and takes from the land whatever he needs.
The earth is not his brother but his enemy, and when
he has conquered it, he moves on.
He leaves his father’s graves behind and he does not
care.
He treats his mother, the earth, and his brother, the
sky, as things to be bought, plundered, sold like sheep or bright beads.
His appetite will devour the earth and leave behind a
desert………
The earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the
earth.
This we know.
All things are connected like the blood which unites a
family. All things are connected. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons
of the earth….. Continue to contaminate your bed and we will one night
suffocate in your own waste.
Chief Sealth
Conclusion
The United Nations General Assembly designed 22 march
of each year as the World Water Day for water, in conformity with the
recommendation of the UN Conference on Environment and Development and inviting
all the States to set up concrete activities deemed appropriate in the national
context.
This year
to implement the UN guidelines, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forest
policies, in collaboration with the Minister Of Education, University and
research, is carrying out initiatives in order to:
increase general awareness
about the importance of water as a key vital resource which should be ensured
to all human societies and should be preserved by a sustainable use,
confirm institutional
effort to create a “ real culture of water” with the task of public information
and education, to remind everyone’s active role in the water resources
management and, consequently, in the protection of environment;
promote knowledge about
the essential function of water for agriculture, health and safe nutrition;
point out, during the
International Year of Mountains, the role of the environment and of the forest
habitats in the hydrological cycle;
focus attention on
safety issues related to prevention of land disasters such as floods and
hydrological degradation effects.
PAROLE D'ACQUA
Da: Libro
d'Acqua di Massimo Scrignoli
Vista da questa parte, accanto al silenzio
La terra diventa nutrice dell'acqua
E sembra che prepari agguati
Per viaggiatori improbabili, raccogliendo.
Umori di colori calmi
Proprio come fa la pioggia, in aprile. Sarà
Anche per questo
Che ci attira l'ombra del sud
Dove hai nascosto le aritmie del silenzio,
perché sai che l'osservatorio è ancora
al di là di quel fiume
che non ha attracchi
Eppure
Ora c'è acqua, e stanche primavere
E la stessa sete dei morti per acqua
Non ci fermeremo a bere; bruceremo
Sulla riva, bruceremo seduti sulla riva
Come riflessi ondosi
di tempesta.
Da: Le
Stagioni (dell'acqua)
di Giuseppe Conte
L'acqua assomiglia all'anima
dell'uomo.E'irrequieta, non ha
posa. Si spande per le vie che scendono
verso l'origine di ogni cosa.
E poi si muta l'acqua, è
dolce sino agli estuari
è salata nei mari
vola nelle nubi in cielo
dorme nelle stalattiti
specchia il sole nel velo
che fa sulle corolle
di crochi e margherite
ogni mattino.
L'acqua è eterna, non ha
Destino.
Questa che vedi nel bicchiere
l'acqua - luce delle fontane
l'acqua nera delle tempeste
il fango delle frane
il torbido degli stagni
il dondolio delle onde
il tendere verso la luna
delle maree, la quieta
risacca lungo le spiagge sabbiose.
Come una cometa
di ghiacci sulla sua orbita
va l'anima, ritorna
al regno delle acque.
Oh innocente! Oh sempre
in movimento e mutevole
Madre delle correnti
marine e dei cavalloni
dei gusci e delle alghe
grembo su cui la luna
nelle veglie notturne
scende e si culla
Oh innocente,
profonda e quieta, Giocatrice
dolce tra le palme delle sponde
tra le sabbie delle colline
tra le isole di roccia e
rovine e le isole-
giardino
specchio di alte vele, e dei
voli degli ibis.
Acqua della fine
Acqua del principio
l'anima ti attraversa
forse su una nave o naufraga
tra venti immani, o forse
a nuoto, a nuoto
e lenta, come un loto,
una zattera.
The Ballad of Lord
Randal
“O where ha’
you been, Lord Randal my son?
And where ha’you been,my
handsome young man?”
“I ha’ been at
the greenwood; mother, make my bed soon,
For I’m wearied wi’
hunting and fain wad lie down”.
“An wha
met ye there, Lord Randal my son?
An’ wha met you there, my
handsome young man?”
“O I met wi’
my true-love; mother, make my bed soon,
For I’m wearied wi’
huntin’ an’ fain lie down”.
“And what did she give you, Lord Randal my son?
And what did she give you, my handsome young man?”
Eals fried in a pan; mother, make my bed soon,
For I’m wearied wi’
hunting and fain wad lie down”.
“And wha gat your leavins, Lord Randal my son?
And wha gat your leavins, my handsome young man?”
“My hawks and my hounds; mother, make my bed soon,
For I’m wearied wi’
hunting and fain wad lie down”.
“And what becam
of them, Lord Randal my son?
And what becam of them, my
handsome young man?”
“They stretched their legs out an’ died; mother, make
my bed soon,
For I’m wearied wi’
hunting and fain wad lie down”.
“O I fear you
are poisoned, Lord Randal my son,
I fear you are poisoned, my handsome young man”.
“O yes; I am poisoned, mother, make my bed soon,
For I’m sick at the heart and fain wad lie down”.
“What d’ye leave to your mother, Lord Randal my son?
What d’ye leave to your mother, my handsome young man”.
“Four and twenty milk kye;
mother, make my bed soon,
For I’m sick at the heart and fain wad lie down”.
“What d’ye leave to your sister, Lord Randal my son?
What d’ye leave to your sister, my handsome young man?”
“My gold and silver ; mother,
make my bed soon,
For I’m sick at the heart and fain wad lie down”.
“What d’ye leave to your brother, Lord Randal my son?”
What d’ye leave to your brother, my handsome young man”.
“My houses and my lands; mother, make my bed soon,
For I’m sick at the heart and fain wad lie down”.
“What d’ye leave to your true love, Lord Randal my son?
What d’ye leave to your true love, my handsome young man?
“I leave her hell and fire; mother, make my bed soon,
For I’m sick at the heart and fain wad lie down”.
( from: The Oxford Anthology of English Literature)
Bob Dylan’s version
of Lord Randal
Lord Randal has enjoyed countless reworkings
through the
centuries, up to our own time. The folk
singer and
beat generation poet Bob Dylan (born 1941) made a
famous
version of it called A Hard Rain’s a Gonna Fall.
It was written in 1962, under the
threat of a nuclear war between
The “ hard
rain “ of the title in fact refers to the fall- out , that is
the
radioactive dust in the air after a nuclear explosion.
Has
the text given below makes clear, Dylan’s ballad is quite a long way away from
Lord Randal’s original world of hunting, dogs
hawks and
true loves; and yet this distance from the medieval
original is
a significant testimony to the multiform
vitality of
the old ballads, some of which can still be
adapted to
modern sensibility and situations.
A Hard Rain’s a –Gonna
Fall.
Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son ?
Oh, where have you been, my darling young one ?
I’ve stumbled on the side of twelve misty
mountains
I’ve walked and I’ve crawled on six crooked
highways,
I’ve stepped in the middle of seven sad
forests,
I’ve been out in front of a dozen deal
oceans,
I’ve been ten thousand miles in the mouth of
a graveyard,
And it’s a hard
rain’s a gonna fall.
Oh, what did you
see, my blue eyed son?
Oh, what did you
see, my darling young one?
I saw a newborn
baby with wild wolves
all around it,
I saw a highway of
diamonds with nobody on it,
I saw a black
branch with blood that kept drippin’,
I saw a room full
of men with their hammers a bleedin’,
I saw a white òladder all covered with water,
I saw ten thousand
talkers whose tongues were all broken,
I saw guns and
sharp swords in the hand of young children,
And it’s a hard, and
it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard,
And it’s a hard
rain’s a gonna fall.
And what did you
hear, my blue eyed son?
And what did you
hear, my darling young one?
I heard the sound
of a thunder, it roared out a warnin’,
Heard the roar of
wave that could drown the whole world,
Heard one hundred
drummers whose hands were a blazin’,
Heard ten thousand
whisperin’ and nobody listenin’,
Heard one person
starve, I heard many people laughin’,
Heard the song of
a poet of a clown who cried in the alley,
And it’s a hard,
and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard,
And it’s a hard
rain’s a gonna fall.
Oh, who did you
meet, my blue eyed son?
Who did you meet,
my darling young one?
I met a young
child beside a dead pony,
I met a white man who walked a black dog,
I met a young woman whose body was burning,
I met a young girl, she gave me a rainbow,
I met one man who was wounded with hatred,
And it’s a hard,
it’s a hard, it’s a hard,
It’s a hard rain’s
a gonna fall.
Oh, what’ll you do
now, my blue eyed son?
Oh, what’ll you do
now, my darling young one?
I’m a goin’ back out fore the rain starts a fallin’,
I’ll walk to the
depths of the deepest black forest,
Where the people
are many and their hands are all empty,
Where the pellets
of poison are flooding their water,
Where the home in
the valley meets the damp dirty prison,
Where the
executioner’s face is always well hidden,
Where hunger is
ugly, where souls are forgotten,
Where black is the
color, where none is the number,
And I’ll tell it
and think it and speak it and breathe it,
And reflect it
from the mountain so all souls can see it,
Then I’ll stand on
the ocean until I start sinkin’,
But I’ll know my
song well before I start singin’,
And it’s a hard,
it’s a hard , it’s a hard, it’s a hard,
It’s a hard rain’s
a gonna fall.
The Old Men
Admiring Themselves in the Water
I heard the old,
old men say,
‘Everything
alters,
And one by one we
drop away.’
They had hands
like claws, and their knees
Were twisted like
the old thorn-trees
By
the waters.
I heard the old,
old men say,
‘All that’s
beautiful drifts away
Like the water.’
W.B.Yeats
Imagine a world with no drinking water to wash
or cook with. It’s hard to imagine this, because we use water everyday without
even thinking about it.
Yet there are
water shortages all over the world. In many parts of
We all need water,
not just for our homes and factories, but to survive.
Fortunately, there
are things that we can do to save water.
The solution
begins at Home. We can save water from our baths and use it for the garden,
instead of wasting hundreds of litres of clean water for our lawns and plants.
His would help to
save many litres of water every day especially in the summer.
Government can
help by passing laws to stop factories from wasting and polluting water.
If factories
recycled water and stopped pouring chemicals into our lakes and rivers, there
would be a lot more clean water around.
Government could
also stop water companies from wasting million litres of water because of
leaking pipes.
Many cities have
successfully saved water by repairing pipes.
All in all,there are many things we can
do to save our planet disappearing water supplies. The time has come to start
understanding the value of water, before a world without clean water becomes a
terrible reality.
Activity
Write sentences
following the example
We should use the
water of our baths in the lawns and in the gardens
We should stop
wasting litres of water for our daily use at home
Government should
pass appropriate laws to prevent factories from polluting the water
Municipal
authority should repair leaking pipes
San
Giuseppe Jato
Diga di San Giuseppe Jato
The Monte Jato rises at about thirty Km southwest from
From the top, situated at 852 metres above sea level,
we seethe valley of the Jato river
that extends as far as the
From the 1971 the
The cultural history of the sites is reflected in the
architecture, in the works of art and also in the object of common use like the
ceramics.
We can visit the
GROTTA DI CARBURANGELI
The Carburangeli Grotto , a naturalistic
site of great biological,
speleological and paleontological interest, is
entrusted to Legambiente as an integral nature
Reserve since 1996.
To its inside
, the slow percolazione of the water has generated in
the course of the centuries, a rich variety of “ stalactites and stalagmites”
which create an atmosphere of rare suggestivity.
In the pre-historic times, the grotto represented a
sure shelter for animals and man, how numerous fossil rests, such as the bear,
the elefant dwarf, the hyena, the wild boar, the
horse, the
The grotto has given back also numerous litici and ceramic objects(blades of selce, stung of arrow, macinelle
in lavica stone, objects in terracotta) attribuitable to the presence of the prehistoric man,
culturally belonging to the advanced Paleolitic and
Bronze age.
But it is not only animals that inhabited the grotto.
Subsequently, it was occupied by a small community of hunters and trappers, and
afterwards by farmers and shepherds, the tenuous traces found by the paleo- ethnologist Giovanni Mannino
refer to ceramics and stone tools which make it possible to prove the
uninterrupted presence of man, at least from the Mesolithic until the Bronze
Age. There are wall incisions discovered by Mannino
in 1964 in the west spur of the entrance, an outstanding an artistic human
trace, showing a small figure designed by”carboncino”.
The ipogeo world , although
is not adapt to the life of the plants, is populated by “ Cavernicoli
“ animals, by bugs, crustaceans, spiders, millepiedi
and molluschi that succed
to complete their vital cycle in the coves, drawing the necessary nutriment
from the organic detritus from waters, from that produced from the autotrophic
bacteria or that from the guano of the Bats.
The most important aspect of the Fauna of the grotto is the presence of a
small colony of Bats, Myotis myotis, today reduced in size, due to the pollution
of the atmosphere and the surrounding lands.