Countries Beginning with I

Piero Focaccia

There’s not much to this song: apparently, the singer wants to relive last year’s summer fling. But it’s also a profound statement of traditional Italian vacation habits: the same sea, the same beach, practically the same ombrellone (beach umbrella – which you rent, along with the lounge chairs and a patch of sand to call your own, by the day, week, or month), year after year after year.

Stessa Spiaggia, Stesso Mare

Same Beach, Same Sea

* A pattino is a double-hulled rowboat you can rent on most beaches. Nice for going some distance from the shore for privacy, tanning, and swimming, and easy for an amateur to manage – you don’t have to worry about them tipping over. Traditionally they were made of wood:

…but these days they tend to made of be fiberglass:

The one shown above is used by the lifeguard if he needs to reach somebody far from the beach in a hurry. (Sometimes they row around warning swimmers if the weather is changing and people need to get out of the water.)

Emotion has No Voice

Adriano Celentano. The video above comes from Rockpolitik, a variety show hosted by Celentano in 2006.

Emotion has no voice

And I’m a bit short of breath

If you’re here there’s too much light.

My soul expands

like music in summer

then desire takes me you know

and lights me up with your kisses.

I’ll be honest with you

I’ll remain what I am

dishonest but I swear

if you betray me I won’t forgive

I’ll always be your friend

though jealous as you know

I know that I contradict myself

But you are precious to me.

You’ll sleep in my arms

Serenely

and this is important you know

for us to feel completely us.

You’ll give me another life

that I don’t know

you’ll be my companion

As long as I know that you want it.

Two different characters

who catch fire easily

but divided we are lost

We feel we are almost nothing

We are two united inside

by a love which gives us

the profound conviction

that no one will divide us.

You’ll sleep in my arms

Serenely

and this is important you know

for us to feel completely us.

You’ll give me another life

that I don’t know

you’ll be my companion

As long as I know that you want it.

Then we’ll live as you know

only by honesty

by love and by trust

then it will be what it will be.

And the Ship Returned Alone

Renato Carosone (1960)

con una mamma bianca,

con una barca nera
e con tre cuori ancora da creatura…

Il mare urlava cupo quella sera

e il legno della incognita straniera

cercava aiuto in tutto quell’orrore.

“Chi rischierà la vita per salvare

la bionda forestiera, chi sarà?”

Ritornello:

Mare!

Mare crudele!

Come puoi cantare

nelli notti scure

quando piange il cuore?

Mare,

se di un amore

soffocasti in gola

l’ultima speranza,

l’ultima parola…

Coro:

Mare crudele!

Mare crudele!

Mare crudele!

…e la barca tornò sola!…

Della leggenda dei tre pescatori,

resta una mamma bianca

ed una barca nera

che in fondo al molo a tutti fa paura!

Le vele si raccontano fra loro

che una sirena dai capelli d’oro

serba il segreto dei tre pescatori…

Ma quel segreto chi potrà svelare

se l’onda indifferente viene e va!…

with a white mother,

with a black boat

and three hearts still young…

The sea cried darkly that evening

and the ship of that unknown stranger

sought help in all that horror.

“Who will risk his life to save

the blonde stranger, who will it be?”

Refrain:

Sea!

Cruel sea!

How can you sing

in the dark nights

when the heart weeps?

Sea,

if you suffocated in the throat

the last hope of a love,

the last word…

Chorus:

Cruel sea!

Cruel sea!

Cruel sea!

…and the ship returned alone!…

From the legend of the three fishermen

remains a white mother

and a black boat

which frightens everybody at the end of the pier!

The sailing ships tell each other the tale

that a mermaid with golden hair

holds the secret of the three fishermen…

But who can reveal that secret

if the indifferent waves come and go!