C’è la luna in mezzo a u mari (there is the moon in the middle of the sea) is an ancient Sicilian song that tells, in a comical way, the dialogue between mother and daughter on the daughter’s indecision to take a husband.
The mother proposes several suitors but the daughter’s response is always of total indecision.
Sicilian folk music has very ancient origins, it is assumed that it derives from the earliest music and songs of the times of Magna Grecia which were transmitted orally over the centuries.
This song was chosen in the opening scene of the 1972 Francis Ford Coppola film, “The Godfather”, where a wedding party was described.
The song was chosen precisely because this Sicilian folk song, thanks to the strong emigration, is very popular in the United States, so much so that it was also sung by Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra, and then in different versions by others American singers of Italian origin such as Lou Monte.
Another curiosity that we can link to this song is that the great Gioacchino Rossini, when he wrote his famous Tarantella “La Danza” in 1835 as an opening verse, used these words “Già la luna è in mezzo al mare”. Some critics and historians of the song cited this parallelism as a source of inspiration for Rossini.
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TESTO
C’è la luna ‘mmenzu ‘o mari mmamma mia ma ‘maritari,
figghia mia a ccu t’ ha dari -mamma mia pensici tu.
Si ti dugnu ‘o pasticceri, iddu va, iddu veni e u cannolu a manu teni
E, si ci pigghia la fantasia: u cannolu ciù duna a tto zia.
Oh! mammà mi vogghiù marita, oh! mammà mi vogghiu marita
oh! mamma mi vogghiu mari-ta, -figghia mia a ccu t’ha dari mamma mia pensici tu.
Si ti dugnu ‘o carritteri, iddu va, iddu veni sempri a zotta ‘manu teni,
si ci pigghia la fantasia: spaia u sceccu e ‘mpaia a tia.
Oh! mammà mi vogghiù marita, oh! mammà mi vogghiu marita
oh! mamma mi vogghiu marita, -figghia mia a ccu t’ha dari -mamma mia pensici tu.
Si ti dugnu ‘o muraturi, iddu va, iddu veni e a cazzola ‘mmanu teni,
si ci pigghia la fantasia: cazzulia la figghia mia.
Oh! mammà mi vogghiù marita, oh! mammà mi vogghiu marita
oh! mamma mi vogghiu marita, -figghia mia a ccu t’ha dari -mamma mia pensici tu.
Si ti dugnu ‘o macillaiu iddu va, iddu veni, e a sasizza ‘mmanu teni,
si cci pigghia la fantasia: sasuzzia la figghia mia.
Oh! mammà mi vogghiù marita, oh! mammà mi vogghiu marita
oh! mamma mi vogghiu marita, -figghia mia a ccu t’ha dari -mamma mia pensici tu.
Un abbraccio/ a big Hug
Marcus Dardi
