The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #25377   Message #2292227
Posted By: GUEST,LynnT
18-Mar-08 - 09:19 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Se questo è un uomo (Italian)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Se questo è un uomo (Italian)
Powerful words. There is an echo in the phrases

"Vi comando queste parole.
I lay these words before you (...literally, I command you these words)

Scolpitele nel vostro cuore
Carve them in your heart

Stando in casa andando per via,
Staying in your home, walking through the streets

Coricandovi , alzandovi
?lying down?, waking up

Ripetete ai vostri figli.
Repeat them to your children "

of a traditional Jewish prayer (in Hebrew) the Kriet Sh'ma, which in the translation I learned as a child reads in part "And these words which I command thee this day shall be upon thy heart. And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children. And thou shalt speak of them when thou sittest in thy house, when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thy hand, and they shalt be for frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them on the doorposts of thy house and upon thy gates. That ye may remember and do all of my commandments, and be holy unto your God. "

By the way, this prayer is the basis of the Mezuzot (small cylinders holding a scroll with certain prayers inscribed) observant Jews place upon their doorposts, as well as some other customs.

Lynn T