Anna

I know this is a nutty question, but I know you speak Italian, so I thought I'd give it a shot.

There is an old Italian song my sister, brother and I listened to and loved when we were younger. We knew what it was about from the English verses, and knew enough of the Italian words to make SOME sense of the Italian parts, but never enough. ANYWAY ~ I found the lyrics online, and I was wondering if you could translate some of it? It's in a Calabrese dialect, so it looks pretty foreign to me. I know you're really busy with John Anthony, so if you don't have the time, it's okay. But if you do, here are the words...

Pepino o you little mouse o wont you go away,
Find yourself another house to run around and play
You scare my girl you eat my cheese you even drink my wine,
I try so hard to catch you but you trick me all the time.

Cesta no surecillo a basoccella dinda mur
Ogna sere quella esce quanda casa scura
Endo dindo la cucina balla sulasu
A parrano malandrino pura un gabo sapaur

Pepino suracill ana parta scubari,
Managa suracill a casa ma dai,
A quando si briaggo a Pepino giong apa

The other night I called my girl I asked her could we meet,
I said lets go to my house we could have a bite to eat,
And as we walked in through the door she screamed at what she saw,
There was little Pepino doin the cha cha on the floor.

Pepino o you little mouse o wont you go away,
Find yourself another house to run around and play
You scare my girl you eat my cheese you even drink my wine,
I try so hard to catch you but you trick me all the time.

Quella no piace forgia American,
Quella va trova no poca Parmesan,
La fatto ghiata ghiat gusto ena cor
Quando cella camina para probino caladur.

Re: Anna

I LOVE THIS SONG!!!!! It's by Lou Monte and it's called Pepino The Italian Mouse (don't know how to spell mouse in Italian, can say it no problem LOL )!! You can get it off the Lou Monte tape along with my other favorite song Dominick the Donkey!!!!!

Since I'm Calabrese, this was a big hit in our family growing up!!!!

Re: Anna

I never heard this song, and since my dialect is not Calabrese (mine is Abruzzese), I dont totally understand all the words here...

I'll try to translate the lines that I do understand. (its amazing how from one dialect to another, its almost like another language sometimes!!)

Here goes :

*Cesta no surecillo a basoccella dinda mur
*Theres a little mouse down under there, in the wall.

*Ogna sere quella esce quanda casa scura
Every night he comes out when the house is dark.

*Endo dindo la cucina balla sulasu
He enters the kitchens and dances alone.

*A parrano malandrino pura un gabo sapaur
HAVE NO CLUE WHAT THIS SAYS, LOL.

*Pepino suracill ana parta scubari,
Pepino the little mouse disappeared to somewhere.

*Managa suracill a casa ma dai,
Darn that little mouse in my house (??)

*A quando si briaggo a Pepino giong apa
and when he gets drunk (LOL!!) ...(blah blah ??)

The last paragraph is weird...i can understand some of the words, but cant make sense of what it all means, lol..

Hope that was helpful !

CUTE SONG ! Now i wanna hear it !!

Re: Anna

Very good Anna!!! Jen, I'll print this out and show it to my aunt -- and I'll ask her to translate for me!!! I know that the mouse eats all his cheese and at the end he says something to him like he's going to throw him in the bathtub or something like that. Some of the words aren't 'translatable' to English -- they make up their own words!!!!