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Concerts in the Schoolhouse-James Keelaghan and Jez Lowe

October 7 @ 7:30 pm - 11:00 pm

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  • « First Parish Church-James Keelaghan and Jez Lowe
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Details

Date:
October 7
Time:
7:30 pm - 11:00 pm
Event Category:
James Keelaghan and Jez Lowe
Website:
https://www.robinsongs.com/schoolhouse-concerts

Venue

Concerts in the School house
215 Rt. 215 S.
Lower Cabot, VT 05647 United States + Google Map
Website:
https://www.robinsongs.com/schoolhouse-concerts

Event Navigation

  • « First Parish Church-James Keelaghan and Jez Lowe
  • Granite City Folk Society-James Keelaghan and Jez Lowe »

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James Keelaghan
James Keelaghan

“I have a special way of translating the words of foreign artists: I don’t care too much about the literal translation, I really try to enter the spirit of the song and in that way, I try to recuperate the spirit of the artist that wrote them…”
Fabrizio de Andrè

I’d like to acknowledge http://deandretranslated.blogspot.ca/. It has straight across, literal translations of the lyrics. It also has a background to the songs. I used these straight-ahead translations to know what the lyrics mean, but that’s the easy bit.

Here’s a bit of the process for Cattiva Strada. It’s a song about a trickster character. He drops into peoples lives, does something offensive, or downright murderous, in order to lead his victims down “a bad road”—a Cattiva Strada, but it’s ultimately a message about love. Here is a snippet from the 4th verse and the straight-ahead translation…

A un diciottenne alcolizzato�
Versò da bere ancora un poco�
E mentre quello lo guardava�
Lui disse "Amico ci scommetto stai per dirmi
adesso è ora che io vada
L'alcolizzato lo capì�
Non disse niente e lo seguì�
Sulla sua cattiva strada�

For an 18-year-old alcoholic
he poured a little more to drink,
and while he was watching him
he said, “Friend I bet you were about to tell me
now it’s time that I go.”
The alcoholic understood him,
he said nothing and followed him
on his errant way.

For this to work, it has to be made singable and has to have a semblance of rhyme. I’ve tried to stay close to the number of syllables in each line, but I have changed up where the rhyme comes, for sake of telling the tale coherently.

For a young man on the bottle
He poured another drink
And while he watched him down it
He said “I know just what you’re thinking
It’s time for me to go”.
And the drunkard understood,
He said nothing, and he followed
Sulla Sua Cattiva Strada

I've left the last line in Italian because almost any attempt to render it in English just didn't have that lovely soft sound of "Strada” at the end. This may change. A friend suggested just leaving Cattiva Strada in and have the line say something like “Along Cattiva Strada”, like it's the actual name of a road. I like that and will play with it. You'll see how it comes out on the first night of @acousticnight18 with Beppe Gambetta

The link to De André’s recording of the song below. I’ll post the full translations on keelaghan.com later this week.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46OWji8vkPg ... See MoreSee Less

Fabrizio De André in English

deandretranslated.blogspot.ca

The songs of Italian singer/songwriter Fabrizio De...

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