I am translating into Italian the open letter to Kerry posted on the United for Peace and Justice website.

At the end of the letter, the authors (I don’t know who actually wrote it, although among the first signatories is Howard Zinn, Danny Glover, Susan Sarandon ...) write: "We urge you to speak as a winter soldier, not as a summer patriot."

I have not lived in the States for many years. It’s not an expression I have ever heard: can anyone help? The image it conjures up to me is that of the tale of the ant and the cicada, the idea that "winter soldier" is someone who takes his task seriously and with commitment to his values, the summer patriot being the one who sings the summer away, playing to an audience and letting them hear what they want to be told - never mind the truth or the values he believes in ....

Any comments, or help?

Thanks,
Lisa Clark, Florence, Italy

I believe that this reference comes from the Winter Soldier Investigation of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War.

The name "Winter Soldier Investigation" came from Tom Paine’s first Crisis paper, in which he wrote:

These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.

Perry

Lisa! I don’t envy that translation (do Italians not have a phrase for it?). It looks like the choice of words is a specific cultural reference. It would be difficult to find an Italian expression that will translate this well. I would suggest that you translate the terms literally, and briefly explain them in brackets.

  "...winter soldier (a reference to the Vietnam veterans who campaigned for justice)...summer patriot (a reference to those for whom patriotism meant ignoring the injustices committed in Vietnam)."

It’s a bit bulky - a lot depends on the medium you’re writing for. Perry, correct me if I’ve got the sense of these words wrong.

Good luck with the piece.

- Garzo.

Thanks, Perry and Garzo!
I am translating it for myself - I mean, as a peace activist in Italy, I try and help other Italians understand that there is a serious and committed opposition to war in the US.
I have decided to be quite "free" in the translation:
"Noi ci appelliamo a lei affinché parli come un soldato d’inverno, come vi definiste voi reduci dal Vietnam nella battaglia per far finire quella guerra, e non come un patriota d’estate, una cicala adulatrice del potere, cieca al vero dovere patriottico di salvare il futuro della nazione."
But I have added nothing that is not already in the letter.

Thanks again.
Lisa

The telly has been showing the BBC’s four-part documentary on the American Revolutionary War today. The Thomas Paine quote from The American Crisis seems to have been ordered read to the Continental Army by Washington before the crossing of the Delaware. In context, the ‘summer soldier and the sunshine patriot’ seems to refer to those men who signed up for service of six months, and then went home to help with the harvest. The winter soldiers were those who suffered the hardships of the march from New York to Pennsylvania, having signed up for a whole year.

- Garzo.