Thanks everyone for jumping in, I hope Ezio will join us soon. Like a good song, a good book gets around, I've got that Ditty Bag book too

Thanks, Jon for those songs we all know in English: Funniculi and Santa Lucia. I have more 3 verses to Funiculi, Funicula in, I guess, what must be a Napolitan dialect because I have the translation into Italian.

Here's a song about the cuckoo from Northern Italy I got from a German songster, Joseph Gregor. While we weather the winter, let's sing about May.

Il Cucu

L'inverno se n'e andato,
L'aprile non c'e piu
E maggio e ritornato
Al canto del cucu

Cucu, cucu,
L'aprile non c'e piu
E maggio e ritornato
Al canto del cucu

Lassu per le montagne
La neve non c'e piu,
Comincia a fare il nido
Il povero cucu

La bella alla finestra
La guarda in su e ingiu
La spetta il fidanzato
Al canto del cucu

Te l'ho pur sempre detto
Che maggia ha la victu
De far sentir l:amore
Al canto del cucu


The Cuckoo's Welcome
translation: Win Stracke

The snows of March have left us,
The cold of April, too,
And now in May we welcome
The bird that sings cuckoo

Cuckoo, cuckoo
To snow and cold adieu
We sing a song to welcome
The bird that sings cuckoo

The calf now seeks it's mother
The lamb doth seek the ewe
While up above doth hover
The bird that sings cuckoo

So, listen all you maidens,
When young men swear they're true
Just join the birds in singing
The songs that sings cuckoo

judy