Sunday, 12/14/2025, I joined the NY Qin Society's 2025 Year-End Memorial Yaji — In Remembrance of Old Friends: Yuni Han and Alan Berkowitz
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I shared The Alan BERKOWITZ I Remember at the NYQS yaji ...
"How quickly time passes—it has been ten years since Mr. Alan Berkowitz left us.... In 2009, he and his wife also made a special trip to attend a yaji I co-hosted at the home of a friend who was an African art collector. At that day, I remember telling Mr. Berkowitz that I had bought his book on Wei–Jin recluses on Amazon. With his characteristic modesty, he said the book was “very dry” and difficult to read. I told him I had only read the preface and felt I could understand it. He joked that if he had known that, he would have sent me the preface first so I wouldn’t have had to spend money on the whole book. In truth, as he said, the book was indeed challenging. I later chose to read several Chinese works on reclusion first, thinking that returning to the English text might make it easier. Unexpectedly, when I picked up his book again six years later, I learned that he had passed away while traveling in Taipei. Two days ago, I opened his book again and had ChatGPT translate the lines He quoted from Salvatore Di Giacomo before the Acknowledgments..."
In Mr. Alan Berkowitz’s publication,
before the Acknowledgments, I came across these lines, which I found deeply touching, almost as if I could see Mr. Berkowitz’s earnest and devoted spirit.:
Per Titina
Sentite: io mme so’ fatto, una votata, ’e ciert’antiche libbre sturiuso: ce piglio gusto e… ce passo ’a nuttata
— Salvatore Di Giacomo, "Ammore abbasato"
I had Chat GPT translate it for me.
This line is written in Neapolitan dialect, not standard Italian. It conveys an intimate, slightly self-mocking voice:
"Listen: once in a while I make myself read certain old, learned books; I take pleasure in them and… I spend the whole night with them." - Salvatore Di Giacomo, "Humbled Love"
Here is a translation that stays as close as possible to the Neapolitan dialect tone—earthy, conversational, slightly self-mocking, and spoken rather than literary:
“Listen: every now and then I get it into my head to dig into some of those old, heavy, learned books; I start to take a real liking to it and… next thing I know, I’ve spent the whole night at it.”
更貼近那不勒斯方言、保留粗獷口語與自嘲感:「聽我說：有時候我也會讓自己讀些古老又學究氣的書；越讀越有味道，然後……就這樣讀上一整夜。」
——薩爾瓦托雷・迪・賈科莫〈《低下的愛》〉
市井感:「嘿，聽我講——我這人嘛，偶爾也會自己找罪受，去啃幾本又老又難啃的書；越啃越有味，回過神來，哈，天都亮了。」
