ItalianFilter: what does "Si fa'icche si vole" mean..?

July 5, 2007 8:50 AM

So, how does the Italian phrase "Si fa'icche si vole" translate into English..?

Saw this one someone's shirt in Florence a while back, and I can't figure out what it means through any of the normal webby "translatory" services. Is it slang? What Italian words are being abbreviated? Thanks. :-)

posted by angry.polymath to Writing & Language (7 answers total)

I speak Italian but this is the Tuscan dialect which I'm only vaguely familiar with. Fa is a form of the verb fare, icche is "whatever" and vole, I believe is a form of volere. I do know "Si" is a first person impersonal plural.

Throw that all together and I get "One should do whatever one wants." I'm sure someone else will show up to school me on this...
posted by vacapinta at 9:38 AM on July 5, 2007

Possibly: Si fa (f)inche si vole
//Do it as much as I/you can//
posted by Dub at 9:39 AM on July 5, 2007

"Si fa" does mean "one does" (or really, "it is done") but it's a less formal construction in Italian. I'd translate it to "Do what you want."
posted by occhiblu at 10:06 AM on July 5, 2007

Best answer: it's a Tuscan form, "icché", in common Italian it'd be "ciò che". "Si fa" is impersonal, so I'd translate it "We do what we want" or "One does what one wants"
posted by matteo at 10:51 AM on July 5, 2007

("vole" is a Tuscan spelling, too, it should be spelled "vuole", from the verb "volere")
posted by matteo at 10:52 AM on July 5, 2007

(in common, non-slangy Italian you should write "Si fa ciò che si vuole").

I'm finished, I swear. Ho finito.
posted by matteo at 10:54 AM on July 5, 2007

Now, for extra, points, translate the following into Tuscan dialect:

"I can't tell you, who to sock it to."

posted by rob511 at 6:40 PM on July 5, 2007