Checking and judging

Twenty-third in the list is gettare ombra su, and it is the one phrase here that an English reader translates word for word and still gets wrong. We have « to cast a shadow over », and it does a different job: it spoils a mood. A death casts a shadow over the celebrations, a diagnosis casts a shadow over a summer — the thing is not doubted, it is darkened. Gettare ombra su doubts. Un solo errore getta ombra su tutto il metodo says the method is now suspect, that a reader has reason to wonder whether any of it can be trusted, and nothing has been saddened. The nearest English is « to cast doubt on », or, where a reputation is at stake, « to cast a slur on ». The shadow does the same work in both languages, since something has come between the thing and the light; it is the reading of that picture that parts company. One asks what has been dimmed, the other asks what is being hidden. So la vicenda getta ombra sul direttore is not sad news about him. It is an accusation, made quietly.