Translation help?

[mfy4444]

Hi folks. Knowing there are a few native Italian speakers here, I was hoping for help with an Italian phrase. I'm currently translating a bunch of old Italian comic strips called "Sturmtruppen" for a couple non-Italian-speaking friends who are interested. Sometimes I get stuck. The phrase in question is "alato messaggio." I've tried searching online and all I can get is "winged message," which is the literal translation but what does it really mean in Italian? The context in this strip is a soldier who was killed, who happened to be a poet (whose poetry the captain admired), and the captain asks, "non ha lasciato qualche ultimo alto messagio?" Yes, I can translate that as "didn't he leave any last winged message?" but the "winged message" in that phrase makes no sense in English. Is there another phrase in either English or Italian that could convey to me what is meant by "alato messaggio" in this context? I know it's a bit off-topic (although the comic strip is a humorous look at German soldiers in World War II, so broadly speaking falls under the "Axis history forum" umbrella, with a little stretching) but any help is much appreciated.

Regards and thanks

Mike Yaklich

[LColombo]

But you first say "alato" and then you say "alto": what is the correct word? "Alato" means "winged", "alto" means "high". If the word is the latter, it can be meant as a "high message" in a figurative sense ("noble", "poetic", noteworthy) - since he was a poet, the captain asked if he left "some last high message".

[mfy4444]

"Alto" was a typo-- it was "alato" meaning "winged," literally... When I try online, every link I find with the phrase "alato messaggio" either takes me to a religious page or something probably about poetry (for instance, a hit in a Google book about D'Annunzio)? Unfortunately, the auto-translate on Google always translates it as "winged message"-- or sometimes, "flying message," so I can't get any clarity, since neither is a phrase normally used in English. I agree with your interpretation from the context, some noble or noteworthy last words seems to express the right idea, even though the word is "alato" not "alto" (in reality, his last words were "maledetti figlie di puttane," not exactly noble or poetic-- the captain says he fails to grasp the "intima poetiche" of that phrase... as it turned out, the poet was killed by a "stray shot"-- that at least is how I translated "colpo isolato," actually the other soldiers shot him because he was always flattering the captain's bravery in his poems, and wound up getting a pending transfer to the rear area because the captain didn't think such a fine poet should have to endure the dangers of the front. It also makes me wonder if "single shot" would be a better translation of "colpo isolato"...)

Thanks for the thoughts, I will probably just "wing it" (hey, an Italian-English pun) if no-one recognizes this as an idiomatic phrase in Italian with some English equivalent... I do get the general idea of what is being said, but I like to be as precise as possible when translating.

A complicating factor here is that the cartoonist made the words sound like German-accented Italian, thus for example it was spelled "l'intima poetiken"-- he often adds an "n" to the end of words ending in "e" to give that Germanic flavor (then I sometimes have to figure out if the word really does end in "e" or it was an "a" that was changed): he also likes to throw the letter "k" in there, for instance, in the same strip "qualche" is spelled "kualche"...

Regards and thanks

Mike Yaklich

[djehuty]

Alato in the sense of spiritually high: high, lofty, inspired, noble, solemn, supreme, sublime

Regards

[losna]

Hi folks. Knowing there are a few native Italian speakers here, I was hoping for help with an Italian phrase. I'm currently translating a bunch of old Italian comic strips called "Sturmtruppen" for a couple non-Italian-speaking friends who are interested. Sometimes I get stuck. The phrase in question is "alato messaggio." I've tried searching online and all I can get is "winged message," which is the literal translation but what does it really mean in Italian? The context in this strip is a soldier who was killed, who happened to be a poet (whose poetry the captain admired), and the captain asks, "non ha lasciato qualche ultimo alto messagio?" Yes, I can translate that as "didn't he leave any last winged message?" but the "winged message" in that phrase makes no sense in English. Is there another phrase in either English or Italian that could convey to me what is meant by "alato messaggio" in this context? I know it's a bit off-topic (although the comic strip is a humorous look at German soldiers in World War II, so broadly speaking falls under the "Axis history forum" umbrella, with a little stretching) but any help is much appreciated.

Regards and thanks

Mike Yaklich

Given the context, in this case 'alato messaggio' is a sarcastic reference of the captain to the soldier's poetical attitude, because 'alato' in reference to speech is almost invariably found in poetry or other dignified language.
It's like if the captain had said, referring to a soldier who loves Shakespeare, if the soldier had asked for a leave to go and meet his girlfriend, "Has Romeo found happy his Juliet?".
It would be best translated with a explicitly poetic adjective typical of English poetry.