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by Pietro Pagello (1807 - 1898)
Translation © by Garrett Medlock

Sopra l'acqua indormenzada
Language: Italian - Venetian (dialect) 
Our translations:  ENG FRE GRE SPA
Coi pensieri malinconici
No te star a tormentar:
Vien con mi, montemo in gondola,
Andaremo fora in mar.
Passaremo i porti e l'isole
Che circonda la cità:
El sol more senza nuvole
E la luna spuntarà.

Oh! che festa, oh! che spetacolo,
Che presenta sta laguna,
Quando tuto xe silenzio,
Quando sluse in ciel la luna;
E spandendo i cavei morbidi
Sopra l'acqua indormenzada,
La se specia, la se cocola,
Come dona inamorada!

Tira zo quel velo e scòndite,
Che la vedo comparir!
Se l'ariva a descoverzarte,
La se pol ingelosir!
Sta baveta, che te zogola
Fra i caveli imbovolai,
No xe turbia de la polvere
De le rode e dei cavai. Vien!

Se in conchigli ai Greci Venere
Se sognava un altro di,
Forse visto i aveva in gondola
Una zogia come ti,
Ti xe bela, ti xe zovene,
Ti xe fresca come un fior;
Vien per tuti le so lagreme;
Ridi adesso e fa l'amor!

Text Authorship:

  • by Pietro Pagello (1807 - 1898) [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

  • by Reynaldo Hahn (1874 - 1947), "Sopra l'acqua indormenzada", 1901, published 1919 [ high voice and piano ], from Venezia, chansons en dialecte vénitien, no. 1, Éd. 'Au Ménestrel' Heugel [sung text checked 2 times]

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

  • ENG English (Garrett Medlock) , "Above the sleeping water", copyright © 2019, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • FRE French (Français) (Sylvain Labartette) , "Sur l'eau endormie", copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • GRE Greek (Ελληνικά) (Effimia Gianniou) , "Πάνω στο νερό που ησυχάζει", copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
  • SPA Spanish (Español) (Juan Henríquez Concepción) , copyright © 2008, (re)printed on this website with kind permission


Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Garrett Medlock [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 32
Word count: 157

Above the sleeping water
Language: English  after the Italian - Venetian (dialect) 
With melancholy thoughts
Do not [keep] tormenting yourself:
Come with me, let us get into [a] gondola,
Let us go far [into the] sea.
Let us pass the ports and the islands
Which surround the city:
The sun dies [cloudlessly]
And the moon appears.

Oh! what [a] party, oh! what [a] show
That this lagoon presents,
When all is silent,
When shines in [the] sky the moon;
And spreading her soft hair
Above the sleeping water,
She looks at herself, she pampers herself,
Like [a] woman in love!

Pull that veil [over] and conceal yourself,
[So that I may] see her appear!
If she [comes] to discover you,
She [may] make herself jealous!
This [gentle] breeze, which plays
Among your wavy hair,
Is not disturbed [by] the dust
Of the wheels and of the hair. Come!

If in shells to the Greeks Venus
[Appeared in] another [time],
Perhaps they saw in [a] gondola
A [beauty] like you,
You are beautiful, you are young,
You are fresh as a flower;
Come for all [the] tears;
Laugh now and make love!

Text Authorship:

  • Translation from Italian - Venetian (dialect) to English copyright © 2019 by Garrett Medlock, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you may ask the copyright-holder(s) directly or ask us; we are authorized to grant permission on their behalf. Please provide the translator's name when contacting us.
    Contact: licenses@email.lieder.example.net

Based on:

  • a text in Italian - Venetian (dialect) by Pietro Pagello (1807 - 1898)
    • Go to the text page.

 

This text was added to the website: 2019-02-15
Line count: 32
Word count: 179

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This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

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