Spring—la primavera—is a particularly evocative season. Nature is back to life (at least in the Northern Hemisphere, and so in Italy!), so it’s all about starting fresh and starting over. Over time, this concept has inspired songs, paintings, concertos, poems, tales, and proverbs. La Primavera, from Giuseppe Verdi, is probably the most famous of the whole Quattro Stagioni concerti.
Allegro
Giunt’ è la Primavera e festosetti
La Salutan gl’ Augei con lieto canto,
E i fonti allo Spirar de’ Zeffiretti
Con dolce mormorio Scorrono intanto:
Vengon’ coprendo l’ aer di nero amanto
E Lampi, e tuoni ad annuntiarla eletti
Indi tacendo questi, gl’ Augelletti;
Tornan’ di nuovo al lor canoro incanto[1]
Even without bringing up a legend, there’s a lot of Italian music for welcoming the spring: the iconic Loretta Goggi’s Maledetta Primavera if you feel like travelling in time straight to the ‘80s; Questa primavera, from Pino Daniele; Tiziano Ferro’s Primavera non è +; Annalisa’s Tra due minuti è primavera; or the timeless Un chimico, from singer songwriter Fabrizio De André, which goes:
Primavera non bussa, lei entra sicura
Come il fumo lei penetra in ogni fessura
Ha le labbra di carne, i capelli di grano
Che paura, che voglia che ti prenda per mano
Che paura, che voglia che ti porti lontano[2]
Now (but not before a mandatory mention of Botticelli’s painting Primavera —the absolute artistic tribute to the spring), let’s come back to Earth and see the most popular proverbs, rhymes, and saying about primavera, indeed.
Italian Sayings to Welcome, Evoke, or Dispel Spring
Seasons are among the most easily relatable, universal, and down-to-earth topics, so no wonder they are a favorite topic for proverbs and sayings. Many of these are inspired by the unpredictable spring weather, although, at some point, an update would probably be needed, as climate change is making weather pretty unpredictable all year ’round.
Marzo pazzerello guarda il sole e prendi l’ombrello. (Crazy March, you look at the sun, but grab your umbrella.)
Marzo non ha un dì come l’altro. (There’s no day in March that is similar to another.) Note that dì is an old-fashioned way to say giorno and is now basically used by poets and doctors only. 1 compressa al dì (1 tablet a day) is a very common phrase on medical prescriptions.
Aprile ogni goccia un barile. (In April, every rain drop can turn into a downpour.)
Pioggia di primavera non è cattivo tempo. (When it rains in the spring, you cannot call it bad weather.) Rain is normally defined maltempo (bad weather), but is necessary for the crops. And this is probably another instance that needs an update, since drought is becoming a common reality in several areas in Italy and we should probably consider rain not to be maltempo by definition.
To complement this last proverb: Se marzo non marzeggia, giugno non festeggia. (If March does not march [meaning, if it does not rain in March], June does not celebrate.)
Most proverbs clearly focus on the unpredictability of the weather and, by extension, of spring itself. That’s because they mostly originate in the rural world, where the weather used to, and still does, heavily impact daily life. Way before climate change, the message was: Nature rules! So, don’t be too confident, because, as it goes the arch-famous saying goes:
Una rondine non fa primavera! (One swallow does not make a spring!)
To fully honor nature, let’s finish this round-up with some poetry. This verse is from Il passero solitario (“The Solitary Sparrow”) by Giacomo Leopardi (1798–1837), a classic Italian poet every Italian student is familiar with. There’s no better ode to primavera:
Primavera dintorno Spring brightens
Brilla nell’aria, e per li campi esulta, the air around, exults in the fields,
Sì ch’a mirarla intenerisce il core. so the heart is moved to see it.
[1] Allegro Springtime is upon us. The birds celebrate her return with festive song, and murmuring streams are softly caressed by the breezes. Thunderstorms, those heralds of Spring, roar, casting their dark mantle over heaven; Then they die away to silence, and the birds take up their charming songs once more.
[2] Spring doesn’t knock, she confidently comes in / Like smoke she penetrates every crack / She has lips of flesh, hair of wheat / How scary, how you want her to hold your hand / What a fear, how you want her to take you far away
By Claudia Quesito
Also read:
How Italians Celebrates San Giuseppe (Festa del Papà): Traditions, Food, and Customs
