Il nodo resiste alla raffica.

Because resistere in Italian normally takes the preposition a.

• resistere a qualcosa = to resist / withstand something
• So:
  • resiste alla raffica
  • literally: resists to the gust/burst
  • natural English: withstands the gust

Here, a + la becomes alla.

Alla is a contraction of:

• a = to, at
• la = the (feminine singular)

So:

• a + la = alla

In this sentence, alla raffica means to the gust/burst, though in English we would usually translate the whole expression more naturally as against the gust or withstanding the gust.

Il is the masculine singular definite article, meaning the.

• il nodo = the knot

Italian uses articles more regularly than English, so a noun that might sometimes appear without the in English will often still have an article in Italian.

Also, nodo is masculine singular, so il is the correct article.

In this sentence, you can tell from the article:

• il nodo

The article il marks it as masculine singular.

Also, many Italian nouns ending in -o are masculine, though that is a pattern, not an absolute rule.

Resiste is the third-person singular present indicative of resistere.

So it means:

• he/she/it resists
• or, with a noun subject:
• the knot resists / withstands

Full present tense of resistere:

• io resisto
• tu resisti
• lui/lei resiste
• noi resistiamo
• voi resistete
• loro resistono

Italian often leaves out subject pronouns when they are not needed.

Since il nodo is already the subject, there is no need to add a pronoun like esso.

So:

• Il nodo resiste alla raffica. = The knot withstands the gust.

Using an extra pronoun would usually sound unnecessary here.

Raffica usually means a gust, burst, or sudden blast.

Its exact meaning depends on context:

• raffica di vento = gust of wind
• raffica di mitra = burst of machine-gun fire
• una raffica di domande = a rapid series of questions

In your sentence, raffica most likely suggests a strong gust, often of wind, or more generally a violent sudden force.

Because raffica is a feminine noun. You can see that from the article:

• la raffica
• alla raffica = a + la raffica

Many nouns ending in -a are feminine, and raffica follows that common pattern.

Often yes, but not always in exactly the same way.

A key difference is that Italian resistere usually takes a:

• resistere a una pressione
• resistere al vento
• resistere alla tentazione

In English, resist takes a direct object:

• resist pressure
• resist the wind
• resist temptation

So this is an important structure to remember:

• Italian: resistere a + noun
• English: to resist + noun

A simple pronunciation guide is:

eel NOH-doh reh-ZEE-steh AHL-lah RAH-fee-kah

A few notes:

• il sounds roughly like eel
• nodo has stress on NO
• resiste has stress on ZIS
• alla has a clear doubled l
• raffica has a clear doubled f

The double consonants in alla and raffica are pronounced more strongly than single ones.

Yes, that is possible if you want to be more explicit.

• Il nodo resiste alla raffica = The knot withstands the gust
• Il nodo resiste alla forza della raffica = The knot withstands the force of the gust

The original sentence is shorter and more natural if the context already makes the force or impact clear.