Caga duro, piscia forte, e non aver paura dela morte.

Addendum I (January 22, 1989)

Thus my father in this year’s holiday greetings. He explained briefly that this was the admonishment he had received from his father on a similar occasion, half a century ago or so. Judging from the fact that he refers to his father more and more often, he seems to be increasingly sentimental about his own fragile place in the relentless march of generations. Of course, the best I can do under the circumstances is to teach the old proverb to my son. I am sure it will come handy one day, when I will have become a mere father among fathers.

Addendum II (May 21, 1989)

In Buddhism there is no place for using effort. Just be ordinary and nothing special. Eat your food, move your bowels, pass water, and when you are tired go and lie down. The ignorant will laugh at me, but the wise will understand.

From Zen to Go, compiled and edited by Jon Winokur, New York: New American Library, 1989, p. 128.

Addendum III (December 21, 1989)

But is there anything more extraordinary then becoming ordinary today, the age of bloated mediocrity?

Addendum IV (October 24, 2015)

To my surprise, nobody I talk to in Motovun has ever heard of this Venetian proverb. I cannot find it on the World Wide Web, either. The closest I come to is the following one: Magna bene, caga forte, e non aver paura dela morte. Annoyingly, the Venetian dialect is not very well represented on the web. More often than not, magna is rendered as mangia, caga as caca, and dela as della. All wrong, of course. In short, standard Italian often displaces the old dialect. Returning to my father’s proverb, the only place where it can be found on the web is this very piece on my Residua website. Hooray!