Old Lullaby
Dec. 13th, 2011 08:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
marina_bonomiThese days I found myself with an old, half-remembered lullaby in the back of my mind.
It's the one my maternal grand-mother used to sing to me, the soundtrack of my days in that old house in Valeggio.
As lullabies go, it was a failure, since the topic of the song was the tale of a cursed prince and I strove to stay awake to be able to hear the end of the story and know whether the prince would be freed from the curse.
On a whim, I googled what I remembered and...found a single result that matched my lullaby, it's here (the link opens a pdf file), together with many other rhymes and tongue-twisters (as far as I know, all are traditional ones).
The version Grandma sang was slightly different, I don't know whether she got it from a different source or the differences are due to word-of-mouth transmission, here, based on what I and my mother remember is her version:
Bussa alla porta un giorno una vecchina:
Dice:“Datemi qualche soldin!”
“Perchè cattivi tanto vi mostrate,
Il reuccio la pagherà!”
Tutte le belle chiede senza posa,
Tutte quante gli dicon: “No!”
Ecco al castello un giorno giunse un mago,
E svelò questo grande mister:
“In quel castello al di là dal lago,
Sta la bella dei tuoi pensier.”
Monta in barchetta, passa all’altra riva,
E s’inoltra nel grande salon;
Ma la sua bella da tanto che dormiva,
A svegliarla nessuno è buon.
Sveglia è la bella, oh che consolazione,
Parla e dice: “Il mio ben, sei tu!”
In English it goes:
Once upon a time there was a king and a queen
And together with them there was a little prince
One day a little old lady knocks at the door:
Begs:“Give me some little coins ”
The king commands: “Quick, send her away!”
And the little old lady, sad, went on her way.
“Since you have shown yourselves to be so cruel,
The little king will pay the price!”
The little king wanted to find a bride,
He looked, he looked, he cannot find one.
All the beautiful ones he asks without hesitation,
Every single one says to him: “No!”
But one day at the castle a wizard came ,
And told him this great mystery:
“In that castle which is across the lake,
Lives the beauty of your dreams.”
He climbs into a little boat, crosses to the other shore
And enters into a great hall;
But his beauty had been sleeping for so long,
No one had been able to wake her.
To wake her he starts to sing a song,
That lasts a year or perhaps even more.
The beauty is awake, oh what consolation,
She speaks and says: “My heart, it’s you!”.
That is where my Gran stopped singing, I always saw the tale up to this point as the other side of Sleeping Beauty, an interesting take on the story that had both people cursed, not just the princess.
But the version I found on-line has another verse:
Ma in quel punto il prence un' occhio serra,
E poi l’altro per equità,
Cade in ginocchio, poi disteso in terra.
Dorme e mai si risveglierà!
But in that moment the little prince closed one eye,
And then the other one for equality.
He fell to his knees, then stretched out on the ground.
He sleeps and will never wake up again!
Now the story is way more disturbing, turning the tables and revealing what the real curse was.
It sets my gears in motion: what was the young king's life up to that point? Was his trip to the enchanted castle eventful? Did he have help or companions? And what did the princess do, after he dropped asleep at her feet? Did she start a quest of her own to find the old lady and lift the curse for good?
I already have an outline for two linked fairy-tales, now to find the time to write...
It's the one my maternal grand-mother used to sing to me, the soundtrack of my days in that old house in Valeggio.
As lullabies go, it was a failure, since the topic of the song was the tale of a cursed prince and I strove to stay awake to be able to hear the end of the story and know whether the prince would be freed from the curse.
On a whim, I googled what I remembered and...found a single result that matched my lullaby, it's here (the link opens a pdf file), together with many other rhymes and tongue-twisters (as far as I know, all are traditional ones).
The version Grandma sang was slightly different, I don't know whether she got it from a different source or the differences are due to word-of-mouth transmission, here, based on what I and my mother remember is her version:
C’era una volta un re e una regina
E con loro anche un principin.Bussa alla porta un giorno una vecchina:
Dice:“Datemi qualche soldin!”
Il re comanda: “Tosto sia scacciata!”
E la vecchina triste se ne andò.“Perchè cattivi tanto vi mostrate,
Il reuccio la pagherà!”
Volle il reuccio trovarsi una sposa,
Cerca, cerca trovarla non può;Tutte le belle chiede senza posa,
Tutte quante gli dicon: “No!”
Ecco al castello un giorno giunse un mago,
E svelò questo grande mister:
“In quel castello al di là dal lago,
Sta la bella dei tuoi pensier.”
Monta in barchetta, passa all’altra riva,
E s’inoltra nel grande salon;
Ma la sua bella da tanto che dormiva,
A svegliarla nessuno è buon.
Per risvegliarla intona una canzone,
Che dura un anno e forse anche di più.Sveglia è la bella, oh che consolazione,
Parla e dice: “Il mio ben, sei tu!”
In English it goes:
Once upon a time there was a king and a queen
And together with them there was a little prince
One day a little old lady knocks at the door:
Begs:“Give me some little coins ”
The king commands: “Quick, send her away!”
And the little old lady, sad, went on her way.
“Since you have shown yourselves to be so cruel,
The little king will pay the price!”
The little king wanted to find a bride,
He looked, he looked, he cannot find one.
All the beautiful ones he asks without hesitation,
Every single one says to him: “No!”
But one day at the castle a wizard came ,
And told him this great mystery:
“In that castle which is across the lake,
Lives the beauty of your dreams.”
He climbs into a little boat, crosses to the other shore
And enters into a great hall;
But his beauty had been sleeping for so long,
No one had been able to wake her.
To wake her he starts to sing a song,
That lasts a year or perhaps even more.
The beauty is awake, oh what consolation,
She speaks and says: “My heart, it’s you!”.
That is where my Gran stopped singing, I always saw the tale up to this point as the other side of Sleeping Beauty, an interesting take on the story that had both people cursed, not just the princess.
But the version I found on-line has another verse:
Ma in quel punto il prence un' occhio serra,
E poi l’altro per equità,
Cade in ginocchio, poi disteso in terra.
Dorme e mai si risveglierà!
But in that moment the little prince closed one eye,
And then the other one for equality.
He fell to his knees, then stretched out on the ground.
He sleeps and will never wake up again!
Now the story is way more disturbing, turning the tables and revealing what the real curse was.
It sets my gears in motion: what was the young king's life up to that point? Was his trip to the enchanted castle eventful? Did he have help or companions? And what did the princess do, after he dropped asleep at her feet? Did she start a quest of her own to find the old lady and lift the curse for good?
I already have an outline for two linked fairy-tales, now to find the time to write...
