Non dimentichiamoci che siamo chi fa

HalfTaff

HalfTaff

Senior Member
English - UK
The following sentence, which confuses me somewhat, is spoken by someone who is being interviewed about retsoration work that he and others are carrying out on a building in Venice. Having talked about the work they are doing, he says:

"Quindi non dimentichiamoci che siamo chi fa, chi usa le mani alla fine sa di poter lasciare traccia della propria memoria".

It's the underlined words that are giving me trouble. My unconfident attempt at translation would perhaps be:

"So let's not forget that we are achieving something, ..."

- although I can see that it doesn't closely match the Italian. That's why I'm unconfident. Thanks in advance for assistance.
 
    • Pietruzzo said:
    As a side note, the Italian phrase is not correct, in my opinion. I would say "quelli/coloro che fanno".
    Click to expand...
    I thought it odd too, but I don't always trust my own judgement in these matters. It was, of course, a spoken sentence, and perhaps in Italian, as in English, grammar sometimes gets ignored to some extent in the spoken word.
     
    lentulax said:
    (?) Quindi non dimentichiamoci che siamo : chi fa, qui usa le mane alla fine sa di lasciare traccia della propria memoria (?)
    Click to expand...
    There was no colon in the text. However, since it was the trancription of a video, I think, everything is possible. The OP may want to share the link via PM.
     
    lentulax said:
    change the supplied punctuation, and you'll change the meaning
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    OK, in Italian the colon is unnecessary anyway. It would also push the phrase slighly towards nonsense. ;)
    An alternative to comma (the best in my view, providing the sentence is transcribed correctly) would be semicolon:

    "Quindi non dimentichiamoci che siamo chi fa; chi usa le mani, alla fine, sa di poter lasciare traccia della propria memoria".​

    A possible, strictly literal translation:

    Therefore let's not forget we are the doers. Those who use their hands know they can leave a trace [of their own memory (?)] in the end.​

    P.S. I added two commas to the second half of the Italian sentence just to emphasize the parenthesis.

    [ cross-posted with Odysseus54 below]
     
    Last edited:
    lentulax said:
    Apologies for the typos. The quotation is a transcription of speech, not writing ; change the supplied punctuation, and youi change the meaning. The comma in the original is after all not standard between two sentences. I suggested (tentatively) an alternative.
    Click to expand...

    The alternative, even after correcting the typos, does not work, is incomplete. The clause before the colon is not complete ('che siamo' che cosa?). It could only work if you used the colon to introduce a list, like

    Quindi non dimentichiamoci che siamo : santi, poeti, navigatori.

    But the clause after the colon is not a list of predicates. It's a predicate followed by a self-standing main clause.

    An alternative punctuation could be

    Quindi non dimentichiamoci che siamo chi fa; chi usa le mani alla fine sa di lasciare traccia della propria memoria.

    or

    Quindi non dimentichiamoci che siamo chi fa. Chi usa le mani alla fine sa di lasciare traccia della propria memoria.
     
    My take:

    Therefore, let's not forget that we're the ones who physically do things; those of us who use our hands are aware we're leaving... (tracce della propria memoria needs its own thread, IMO, as it's open to interpretation).
     
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