Just a quick question, is anyone able to translate the Italian phrase “così non c’è” for me? It doesn’t seem to translate literally into English - I think it could be some sort of poetic phrasage. The closest I can get is “there’s nothing like it” or “it’s not like that”, but I don’t think either of those are right (I think those would be “non c’è nulla così” and “non è così” respectively).
Thanks!
It sounds idiomatic. I am not a native speaker but “non c’è” means “there is not.” It’s usually followed by a word or phrase; otherwise something should be implied. Once I called on the phone for somebody and the woman who answered said “non c’è” to mean “She’s not here.” “C’è” is very similar to “il y a” in French and is usually rendered as “there is” in English.
così means “such” though I suppose could be translated as “like that.” Mozart’s opera “Così fan tutte” means “Such [as] they all do” [where all is feminine so is taken to mean all women] but an English speaker would probably say “The things they all do” colloquially to express the same thought.
So I am not familiar with the phrase and how it is commonly used but would translate it as either “there is nothing like it” or “there is no such thing.” There is a subtle difference between these, and so the context is probably important. It might be poetic, idiomatic, or colloquial.
Idiomatic for “The way it isn’t/This is how it isn’t,” I’d say.
It’s a sentence fragment, so you can’t really translate it without context - otherwise basically means what CookingWithGas said. “In this way/like this… / there aren’t any/ isn’t any/ isn’t one…”
It is normal healthy modern Italian though, not dialect or archaic or what have you.
Is this from a Vittorio Grigolo song, by any chance?