SECOND VIDEO – L’Italiano by Toto Cutugno translation
In this part of our learning Italian through music series, we will continue with the classic by Toto Cutugno as he sings L’Italiano.
To view the first video of this series you can click here.
Larry: Lydia, why don’t you take these two lines?
Lydia: I’m losing.
Larry: Did you lose the video?
Lydia: Yes. No, I’m here. Are you going to play it? Yeah, usually you play it first.
Larry: No, I want to try to pronounce it, I’m not playing it.
Lydia: Ok, sure: “Buongiorno Italia con i tuoi artisti, Con troppa America sui manifesti”.
Larry: Alright, let’s hear what he says!
Larry: Hold on. Let’s see what he says.
Lydia: Let’s play, yes.
(video plays)
Larry: Alright, so he said: “Buongiorno Italia con i tuoi artisti” …
Lydia: “Hello Italy, with your artists, with too much America on your…” and I think “manifesti” in this case might mean billboards, you know, the signs.
Larry: Yes, posters, signs.
Lydia: Signs, yes. “With too much America on your signs” or…yeah.
Larry: Yes, perfect! Perfect. We move on and Ann why don’t take these three lines…
Ann: “Con le canzoni, con amore, Con il cuore, Con più donne e sempre meno suore”.
Larry: Alright, let’s hear what he says.
(video plays)
Larry: Alright, so he’s saying: “Con le canzoni, con amore, Con il cuore”
Ann: With…ok.
Larry: “Con più donne e sempre meno suore”. So what “Con le canzoni, con amore” means?
Ann: “With songs, with love”.
Larry: Yes.
Ann: Umm…“With…”. Ok, now, this one I don’t know, I don’t know what “cuore” is.
Larry: “Cuore” means “heart”.
Ann: “With my heart”.
Larry: Yes, heart.
Ann: Okay.
Larry: Similar word you can think of and might help you might be this one, “coronary”. Corazon.
Ann: Larry, you’re funny, I want this. It sounds Spanish!
Lydia: Larry, you’re fabulous to think of “coronary”.
Ann: Ok, well! Okay, it came to me! Ok. “With many ladies and…”
“Sempre” is “always”, and “meno” is “hands”. But what’s “suore”?
Larry: no, “meno” is “less”.
Lydia: “Mano” is “hand”.
Ann: Oh, less! “And always less” …
Larry: “Sisters”.
Ann: I don’t know “suore” …
Larry: “Sisters”, like nuns. Sisters.
Ann: Okay, it is nuns. Ok.
Larry: Let’s say: “Italy, you have your love songs, your love songs con cuore, with the heart, from the heart, Con più donne e sempre meno suore, with more women and less nuns” in Italy.
Ann: Less what?
Larry: Nuns, sisters.
Ann: Nuns! I can’t… The habit nuns?
Larry: Yes. In another song title you see this contracted, so “con il cuore” sometimes you see “col cuore”.
Kathleen: Ah, I always wanted to know “col cuore”.
Larry: That’s a contraction, so “con il cuore”, “col cuore”, that’s the same thing.
Alright Kathleen, why don’t you take these four lines?
Kathleen: Okay. “Buongiono Italia, buongiorno Maria, Con gli occhi pieni di malin…”. Oh, I forgot that one! “Malcononia…malcononia”. Ah, I can’t remember that one! “Buongiorno Dio, Lo sai che ci sono anch’io”.
Larry: Okay, let’s hear it!
(video plays)
Larry: So he’s sayng: “Buongiorno Italia, buongiorno Maria”.
Kathleen: Yes: “Hello Italy, hello Maria, with the…”
Larry: “Con gli occhi…”
Kathleen: “With eyes full of melancholy…with harmony, or melancholy”
Larry: Melancholy.
Kathleen: Malinconia, malinconia.
Larry: Malinconia.
Kathleen: “Hello God”.
Larry: Yeah
Kathleen: “You…I know that…I know who they are also”.
Larry: “Lo sai che ci sono anch’io”, “You know that I’m here too”.
Kathleen: Ok, “You know”, right, “You know that I am here also”, ok.
Larry: “I’m there”, oh yes. “Ci sono anch’io”, “That I’m here too”. “Buongiorno Dio, Lo sai che ci sono…lo sai che ci sono anch’io”.
Kathleen: “Lo sai che ci sono anch’io”.
Larry: Yes, perfect.
Kathleen: Malinconia. Malinconia.
Larry: Malinconia, yes.
Ann: So like sadness, or the blues, melancholy.
Larry: Yes.
Kathleen: Ok, right.