By Tu-Uyen Tran

"Gentile signorina," the purse-snatcher wrote to his victim at the beginning of a short story that University of North Dakota professor Elizabeth Harris has translated. He had been examining the contents of the purse, imagining what his victim is like and coming to realize he had fallen in love, she said.

"Gentile signorina" literally means "Dear Miss" in Italian and it has the impersonal feel of "Dear Sir or Madam" in English. But "Dear Miss" just isn't used in English. So, after some agonizing, including a small debate with author Giulio Mozzi, Harris decided on "Dear signorina."

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Source: http://www.jamestownsun.com/