View Full Version : An amazing Sicilian singer


max
07-21-2008, 06:25 PM
To all of you interested in traditional Italian folk music,
I suggest to listen to Rita Botto. Her work is based on a 360° musical research across new and ancient sounds of Sicily. The result is excellent and shows different influences of Arabic and Mediterranean civilizations in the Sicilian culture.
She performs all over Europe but unfortunately shows up very rarely in Central and Northern Italy.

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=263450158

This song has been written by Franco Battiato the musician/philosopher of Etna:

YouTube - Rita Botto- Stranizza d“Amuri

jeaniegina
07-21-2008, 06:45 PM
Wow! I don't understand the words but the video was really well-filmed. Very powerful.

Aliena
07-21-2008, 10:53 PM
'Ndo vadduni da Scammacca
i carritteri
ogni tantu lassaunu
i loru bisogni
e i muscuni ciabbulaunu supra
jeumu a caccia di lucettuli...
'a litturina da ciccum-etnea
i saggi ginnici 'u Nabuccu
'a scola sta finennu.

Man manu ca passunu i jonna
sta frevi mi trasi 'nda lI'ossa
'ccu tuttu ca fora c'č 'a guerra
mi sentu
stranizza d'amuri... I'amuri
e quannu t'ancontru 'nda strata
mi veni 'na scossa 'ndo cori
'ccu tuttu ca fora si mori
na' mori

stranizza d'amuri... I'amuri.

A VERY rough translation

A hand that passes over the days
This fever that enters my bones
even if there is a war outside
I feel the strangeness of love.. love
and when we meet on the road
there is a shake within my heart (or my heart starts to shake) (?)
and even if outside it dies
from this strangeness of love.

I am SURE there are LOTS of mistakes as the song is Sicilian dialect.. but I hope that you get the meaning. It's really very beautiful.

jeaniegina
07-21-2008, 11:55 PM
The video makes it look like the two people lived next door to each other and were always close, but that the guy married someone else and had a child by that person. The love the two people shared continued throughout life anyway.

max
07-22-2008, 02:10 AM
A VERY rough translation
I am SURE there are LOTS of mistakes as the song is Sicilian dialect.. but I hope that you get the meaning. It's really very beautiful.

Thank you Aliena, I think your translation is good. Is any sicilian out there that can confirm this ? Even though I miss many the meaning of many Sicilian words I try to translate the first part:

'Ndo vadduni da Scammacca (ununderstandable)
i carritteri Waggons
ogni tantu lassaunu from time to time left
i loru bisogni its shit on the ground
e i muscuni ciabbulaunu supra and bluebottles flew on them
jeumu a caccia di lucettuli... we used to haunt lizards
'a litturina da ciccum-etnea the coach of the circum-etnea
i saggi ginnici 'u Nabuccu Gym displays, the Nabucco
'a scola sta finennu. ...the school's over.

The author, Franco Battiato, writes songs as if they were screenplays: the story is told by very simple images and let the listener to catch the atmosphere of them. To know something more about him, listen one of his most beautiful song (soon became the second hymn of Italy):

YouTube - 44. Povera Patria, de Franco Battiato

MAXBAR
07-24-2008, 12:13 AM
Ndo vadduni da Scammacca means: In the Scamacca (family name, the owners of the land) Valley. Bye.