Help on a Translation

Date: February 10, 2010

Hello all,

I am trying to find the translation to Gastoli's Il Passionao from the Balletti a tre voci 1594. Can anyone help me with the text translation.

E’ vivo’l mio despetto

Per tant’ ardor
Ch’ho dentro al cor
Nè sò che far
Per non brusar.
Pietà, visetto, dolze inzuccherao
D’un petto brustola na na na na o.

So ben nessuno in mal punto
Per to cason ;
A tal che son
Dal gran martir
Zonto a morir.
Povero Pantalon inamorao
E muoro despera na na na na o.

Thanks in advance for your help. I have tried every website and translator I could find and couldn't get an answe.

Reply >>

Pierfranco Bini on February 10, 2010 4:45pm

Hello Sonda,

you did pick a really nasty piece of old Venice dialect.

I'm not sure about a few words, but I guess I got most of it.

Should you get another translation, please let me know.

[Different words here: "E vivo a mio despetto"]

I'm living in spite of myself

Because of the ardour

I have inside my heart

Nor do I knkow what to do

not to burn

Mercy, pretty face, sweet and sugary

of a burnt chest na na na o [just singing sounds]

[Different words here: "So ben nassuo", make more sense]

I'm well born in a bad place

because of you

I'm at such a point

cause of my sorrow

that I'm about to die

Poor Pantalone madly in love [as you know Pantalone is a character of Venetian carnival and literature]

And I die in despair na na na o

Hope it helps.

Pierfranco Bini

Bologna, Italy

Marty Morell on February 11, 2010 2:18pm

Bravo Pierfranco,

I like your translation, and I agree with your alternate readings, although I believe that "So ben nassuo" should be "Son ben nassuo" (I am well-born).

Perhaps this is what you intended, but I rather think that "cason" in the line "Per to cason" is the equivalent of Standard Italian "cagione". If that is the case, then perhaps the first two lines of the second verse might be rendered as

I'm a well-born guy in a fix

For that reason

Also, the "na- na- na-" is of course meant to represent Pantalone's habitual stuttering.

Regards,

Marty Morell

New York

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