“Tant va la gata al lard ch'la ghe lassa ol zampett”

La historia detrás

The Milanese kitchen in earlier centuries was a place of careful accounting. Lard — cured pork fat — was a precious cooking ingredient stored in earthenware crocks in cool larders, and cats that learned where it was kept became persistent thieves. The inevitable moment when the cat, grown bold through repeated success, reached too far and was caught in the crock was a domestic drama played out in countless Milanese households. The proverb generalizes this image to any situation where habitual transgression eventually meets its reckoning. It carried political meaning in Milan under foreign dominations, where petty corruption and small illegalities were tolerated until they escalated into situations that brought punishment. In the postwar period, it was invoked repeatedly in discussions of the Tangentopoli corruption scandals of the 1990s, which began in Milan and engulfed Italy's entire political class — the clearest modern enactment of the lard-and-cat dynamic.

The domestic image of the lard crock (zirlo) in the Milanese cucina povera is the authentic setting; the proverb gained national notoriety as commentary on the Tangentopoli corruption scandal that began in Milan in 1992 with Operation Mani Pulite.

Ejemplos de uso

Temas