Diabolik - Ricordo d’Altea

In the story Ricordo d’Altea (written in 1971), Ispettore Gingko thinks that his love, Altea (a Duchess nonetheless), has died. And in the process of grieving tells a friend how he met her. And of course he met her during one of Diabolik’s crimes. Turns out Altea does not die. The story makes use of a lot of verb tenses: presento, passato prossimo, imperfetto, trapassato prossimo, passato remoto, futuro, imperativo, condizionale and a little congiuntivo. In this riveting passage you can see a couple of tenses: 

Narrator: Intanto Altea si era alzata ed era scesa per la colazione…. 

Altea: Lodovico, L’Ispettore riposa ancora? 

Lodovico: No, signora Duchessa! Ha chiesto i respiratori, sono già due ore che sta esplorando il mare! Altea: Due ore! E non è ancora tornato! Sono preoccupata! 

Altea: Prepara il motoscafo! Andiamo a cercarlo! 

Translation: 

Narrator: Meanwhile, Altea had gotten up and had gone down for breakfast… 

Altea: Lodovico, is the Inspector resting still? [literally he rests still?] 

Lodovico: No, Madame. He asked for diving equipment, he has been exploring the ocean for two hours already! 

Altea: Two hours! And he has not returned yet! I’m worried! 

Altea: Prepare the speedboat! We will go look for him! 

In the comments there is an explanation of the tenses as I understand them.

Diabolik is an Italian comic series created by sisters Angelo and Luciana Giussani.

Diabolik, chi sei?

“Diabolik, who are you?”

Plot: Diabolik and his nemesis, inspector Gingko end up captured at the same time and thrown into a cell together. Both think they are going to die. Inspector Gingko (IG) asks the masked Diabolik (D), "who are you?"

D: Non avrei mai immaginato che il destino ci riservasse di morire insieme.
[I never would have imagined that destiny would find us dying together.]

IG: Non m’importa di morire, perché so che uccideranno anche te!
[Dying is not important as long as I know that they kill you too!]

D: Ero certo che avresti parlato così. Sei sempre stato a sacrificare la vita pur di distruggermi.
[I was sure you would talk like that. You have always been ready to sacrifice life to destroy me.

IG: Sì, ho lottato contro di te con tutte le mie forze. Devo ammettere che certe volte ho persino creduto di combattere un criminale fantasma.
[Yes, I have battled against you with all my might. I must admit that sometimes I even believed that I was battling a ghost.]

IG: Noi stiamo per morire e, questo è il momento della verità: Diabolik, chi sei?
[We are going to die and the question in this moment of truth is: Diabolik, who are you?]

And, there you have it, my translation of this riveting dialog. Seriously, it is useful because you know exactly what each character is going to say so the context is there and that helps you figure out the articulations in Italian.

Diabolik - Agguato in Alto Mare

“Ambush at high seas.” We were in the train station and we picked this up to read on the train to Orvieto.

Plot: Eva Kant (villianess) is on board a cruise ship to pull off a heist. She needs to change her look as to not be recognized, so she shoots a tranquillizer dart into another passenger (Debora on the back cover) that she doesn’t like and takes her wig with the following catty remarks:

Sapevo che la prima volta che l’ho vista indossava una parruca nera a riccioli.
[I knew the first time that I saw her she was wearing a black wig with curls.]

Una donna bionda con un abito lungo beige.
[A blonde woman with a very beige wardrobe.]

Diabolik!

Cartoons in Italy are called fumetto/i. From Wikipedia: “The term fumetto (literally little puff of smoke) refers to the balloon that contains the dialogs.” Very practical name.

We are starting off with a volume of Diabolik stories. The character Diabolik was created by two sisters, Angelo and Luciana Giussani in 1962. Diabolik is a character who robs robbers to put it simply. So far, the series has a very 1950/1960s TV detective feel to it. In the opening pages we learned immediately: “Se fate una mossa sparo!” – if you (all) make a move, I shoot. It could come in handy in the future, you never know. It’s all in support of learning the language. Plus we can act it out – which gets kind of silly but helps. Mark is “ispettore Gingko” or Diabolik and I’m usually the sidekick, or a nurse, or doctor, or anyone it takes to fill the scene out. We usually end up laughing and using the dictionary a lot.