The weather is so beautiful, it is almost hard to believe. I have pulled out the stumps of three trees lost to the hurricanes, which I left there in hopes that they would become interesting bushes. They tried, but failed. The largest stump has long, deep roots, and it has not yet budged.
In honor of the maritime and Mediterranean weather, we will sing a Neapolitan song. Actually, Enrico Caruso himself will sing it in its entirety, in an admirably clear recording.
‘O SOLE MIO
G. Capurro / E. Di Capua
Che bella cosa na jurnata ‘e sole,
n’aria serena doppo na tempesta!
Pe’ ll’aria fresca pare gia’ na festa…
Che bella cosa na jurnata ‘e sole.
Ma n’atu sole
cchiu’ bello, oi ne’.
‘o sole mio
sta ‘nfronte a te!
‘o sole, ‘o sole mio
sta ‘nfronte a te!
sta ‘nfronte a te!
Lùcene ‘e llastre d’a fenesta toia;
‘na lavannara canta e se ne vanta
e pe’ tramente torce, spanne e canta
lùcene ‘e llastre d’a fenesta toia.
Ma n’atu sole
cchiu’ bello, oi ne’.
‘o sole mio
sta ‘nfronte a te!
‘o sole, ‘o sole mio
sta ‘nfronte a te!
sta ‘nfronte a te!
Quanno fa notte e ‘o sole
se ne scenne,
me vene quase ‘na malincunia;
sotto ‘a fenesta toia restarria
quanno fa notte e ‘o sole
se ne scenne.
Ma n’atu sole
cchiu’ bello, oi ne’.
‘o sole mio
sta ‘nfronte a te!
‘o sole, ‘o sole mio
sta ‘nfronte a te!
sta ‘nfronte a te!
I can understand enough Neapolitan to realize that the English translations I have seen of this song are incredibly bad. Yet I do not understand enough, nor am I a good enough lyricist or librettist, to make a fully lucid translation of my own. Here, however, is a relatively accurate translation of the verses.
What a wonderful thing in a day is the sun
In the bright air after a thunderstorm!
On fresh breezes come calm and festivity
What a wonderful thing in a day is the sun.
The stars shine from your window;
A washerwoman is singing and
Wringing, hanging laundry and singing
The stars shine from your window.
When night comes and the sun goes down,
I near melancholy comes over me;
I’d stay below your window
When night comes and the sun goes down.
The sense of the chorus, of course, is that even at night, the greater sun – from the point of view of the “singing subject” 😉 – is the girl to whom he sings.
A search on Caruso reveals a great deal of material. Here he is, for instance, with his friend Scotti. In 1906, he gave an eyewitness account of the San Francisco earthquake. He can also be seen and heard singing – and arriving in Buenos Aires in 1908 for the opening of the Teatro Colón – on YouTube.
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 