Italian Aria - English
Carole Shepherd
Someone has asked me to translate the following bits of an Italian aria into
English. I do not know the aria and am having trouble deciphering the
Italian. I am not even sure the person has the correct spellings. Could
someone help translate it into English or modern Italian?
I’m having particular difficulty with "Beppe el suda, el batte l’anca",
"zaghe semo, spinze, daghe" and "Ziel pietoso, una novizza c’hael so
bennella regada"
I take it that Tonio and Beppe are rowing hard and that Beppe is having some
problems.
Voga, o Tonio benedeto,
voga, voga, arranca arranca.
Beppe el suda, el batte l’anca,
poverazzo el noi po piu.
Tonio, voga, voga su.
Caro Beppe el me veccieto,
no straccarte col to remo;
zaghe semo, spinze, daghe, voga piu.
Beppe, voga, voga su, spinze, daghe, voga piu.
Ziel pietoso, una novizza c’hael so bennella regada,
fala, o zielo consolada, no la far stentar de piu.
So far I have tried to translate literally:
Row, good Tonio
row, row, row hard, row hard,
Beppe is sweating, he hits the ? (oar/quarter/anchor???)
poor soul he can’t go any further.
Tonio, row on, row on.
Dear Beppe, my poor old soul
don’t tire yourself out with your rowing
???????????, row further
Beppe, row row on, ????, row further
Merciful heavens???, look kindly upon him ?????
oh comforting heavens???, don’t make it any harder.
Please make any suggestions to Carole at:
shep...@accutrans.demon.co.uk
Emilie Pons
dear sheperd, I think you should check better the italian aria. In fact I
acnnot help you too much from the fact that the spelling is not correct.
-for example zaghe semo, means we are approching/we are almost there..
for example if you climb a mountain and you see the top after 4hours
hiking
.and your fellow is tired you will tell him : go! za ghe semo
but the correct spelling of this should be za ghe semo (and perhaps
za is not za...but phonetically is a smooth s like almost the french
deja
> > >
for the rest I have to think about but it sound venetian dialect, but it
means nothing(to me)
more than italian aria is a venetian one.
Aaron Curtiss
Carole Shepherd wrote in message
<888426694.22750.0...@news.demon.co.uk>...
>Someone has asked me to translate the following bits of an Italian aria
into
>English. I do not know the aria and am having trouble deciphering the
>Italian. I am not even sure the person has the correct spellings. Could
>someone help translate it into English or modern Italian?
>I’m having particular difficulty with "Beppe el suda, el batte l’anca",
>"zaghe semo, spinze, daghe" and "Ziel pietoso, una novizza c’hael so
>bennella regada"
Carole,
Yes, this is definitely not Italian but Venetian, or at least Veneto.
With the aid of my Veneziano-Italiano dictionary, I've come up with the
following:
anca -- probably "oar"
zaghe semo -- probably should be "za ghe semo", "già ci siamo", or "ci siamo
quasi" -- "we're almost there" ("ghe" in Venetian has the effect of "ci" in
Italian)
spinze -- probably like spingere -- "push"
daghe -- like above, "dacci" -- give it your all
ziel pietoso -- cielo pietoso
novizza -- novizia, "novice/beginner"
"c'hael" should probably be "c'ha el", "who has" in this sentence
so bennella regada -- "his race" (I'm not sure about "bennella", but the
spelling doesn't look at all right for Venetian...)
Hope this helps! se vedemo, fioi!
Carlo M Chierotti
Hello.
On Wed, 25 Feb 1998 17:11:29 -0000, "Carole Shepherd"
<shep...@accutrans.demon.co.uk> wrote:
[...]
First of all, this is not Italian: this is the dialect of Venezia. "Zaghe
semo, spinze, daghe" is in Italian "Già ci siamo, spingi, dai". As for
"Ziel pietoso, una novizza c’hael so bennella regada", "Ziel" is "Cielo" or
"God" and "novizza" should be "girl" but I cannot guess the meaning of
"c'haelo" and "bennella".
"Anca" here is "hip". In Venezia people row standing up and 'swinging' the
pelvis.
>Voga, o Tonio benedeto,
Row, good Tonio
>voga, voga, arranca arranca.
row, row, row hard, row hard,
>Beppe el suda, el batte l’anca,
Beppe is sweating, he swings his hip,
>poverazzo el noi po piu.
poor soul he is exhausted.
>Tonio, voga, voga su.
Tonio, row on, row on.
>Caro Beppe el me veccieto,
Dear Beppe, my poor old soul,
>no straccarte col to remo;
don’t tire yourself out with your rowing
>zaghe semo, spinze, daghe, voga piu.
It's nearly finished, push, come on, row faster.
>Beppe, voga, voga su, spinze, daghe, voga piu.
Beppe, row, row on, push, come on, row faster.
>Ziel pietoso, una novizza c’hael so bennella regada,
Merciful God, ....
>fala, o zielo consolada, no la far stentar de piu.
oh God, please give her comfort, don’t make her suffer any more.
But since I don't know the meaning of "bennella" I can only guess that
"novizia" is "girl".
Let me know if you have more details about this text.
Carlo Mario Chierotti
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Parthenon/9704/
---
in girum imus nocte et consumimur igni