Alternate Translations
Alternate, less literal and more "singable" translation – which also makes explicit some aspects that are left implicit in the Italian text:
- SWEETHEART GOODBYE
- One morning when I awakened
- Oh beauty bye, beauty bye, beauty bye-bye-bye!
- One morning when I awakened
- I found invaders all around
- Oh partisan, come take me with you
- Oh beauty bye, beauty bye, beauty bye-bye-bye!
- Oh partisan, come take me with you
- Because I feel ready to die
- If I die fighting as a partisan
- Oh beauty bye, beauty bye, beauty bye-bye-bye!
- If I die fighting as a partisan
- You must come and bury me
- Bury me there, up in the mountains
- Oh beauty bye, beauty bye, beauty bye-bye-bye!
- Bury me there, up in the mountains
- Shade my grave with a lovely flower
- So all the people who pass that way
- Oh beauty bye, beauty bye, beauty bye-bye-bye!
- So all the people who pass that way
- Will say "Oh see that lovely flower! – "
- "Ah that's the flower of the partisan fighter – "
- Oh beauty bye, beauty bye, beauty bye-bye-bye!
- "Ah that's the flower of the partisan fighter
- who died for freedom's sake!"
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- Anita Lane's Translation:
Anita Lane's version is unique, as it is both literal, and singable. She has kept "Bella Ciao" phrase untranslated, and this helps the translation to mirror the original theme of the song.
- And in one morning I was awakened
- oh Bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao
- and in one morning I was awakened
- and found the enemy was here.
- Oh Partisan, take me from this place
- oh Bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao
- oh Partisan, take me from this place
- because I feel I'm dying here.
- And if I die, up on that mountain
- oh bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao
- and if I die, up on that mountain,
- then you must bury me up there.
- Bury me high up, up on that mountain
- oh bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao
- bury me high up, up on that mountain
- and let the flowers mark my grave.
- Oh Partisan, take me from this place
- oh Bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao
- oh Partisan, take me from this place
- because I feel I´m dying here.
- Ciao Ciao Ciao
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- Chumbawamba interpretation:
- This is the version sung by the english band chumbawamba
- The world is waking outside my window
- Bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao
- Drags my senses into the sunlight
- For there are things that I must do
- Wish me luck now, I have to leave you
- Bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao
- With my friends now up to the city
- We're going to shake the Gates of Hell
- And I will tell them – we will tell them
- Bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao
- That our sunlight is not for franchise
- And wish the bastards drop down dead
- Next time you see me I may be smiling
- Bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao
- I'll be in prison or on the TV
- I'll say, "the sunlight dragged me here!"
Read more about this topic: Bella Ciao
Famous quotes containing the words alternate and/or translations:
“Strange, that some of us, with quick alternate vision, see beyond our infatuations, and even while we rave on the heights, behold the wide plain where our persistent self pauses and awaits us.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“Woe to the world because of stumbling blocks! Occasions for stumbling are bound to come, but woe to the one by whom the stumbling block comes!”
—Bible: New Testament, Matthew 18:7.
Other translations use “temptations.”