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Lyr Add: Torna a Surriento

12 Sep 05 - 12:10 AM (#1561484)
Subject: Lyr Add: TORNA A SURRIENTO
From: chico

 
  
   Am                          Dm               Am
  Vide 'o mare quant'è bello! Spira tantu sentimento.
   F                Dm6 Am     E7                    A
  Comme tu a chi tiene mente, ca scetato 'o faje sunnà.
  
                          Bm7   E7                       A
  Guarda, guà chistu ciardino; siente, siè sti sciure arance.
                     Bm7    E7                 A
  Nu prufumo accussì fino, dinto 'o core se ne va
  
                       Bm7    E7                F
  E tu dice I'parto, addio! T'alluntane da stu core
                      Am    E7                      A
  Da la terra da l'ammore, tiene 'o core 'e nun turnà
  
               Bm7  E7               A
  Ma nun me lassà, nun darme stu turmiento!
   Dm          Am    E7        Am
  Torna a Surriento, famme campà!
  
  Vide 'o mare de Surriento, che tesoro tene 'nfunno
  Chi ha girato tutto 'o munno, nun l'ha visto comm'a ccà.
  
  Guarda attuorno sti sserene, ca te guardano 'ncantate
  E te vonno tantu bene te vulessero vasà.
  
  E tu dice I'parto, addio! T'alluntane da stu core
  Da la terra da l'ammore, tiene 'o core 'e nun turnà
  
  Ma nun me lassà, nun darme stu turmiento!
  Torna a Surriento, famme campà!
  
           

12 Sep 05 - 03:54 PM (#1562025)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Torna Surriento
From: Ferrara

Chico, thank you for putting these up. I love Neapolitan songs, in case you haven't guessed. I hope I won't seem to be nit-picking, but I've sung this for over 50 years (really!) and a couple small things seem worth mentioning.

The title is "Torna a Surriento." "Torna Surriento" would mean something like "Return Sorrento [... to the Saracens??]"; Torna a Surriento means "Come back to Sorrento," which is what the song is all about.

The couplet given as
    E tu dice I'parto, addio! T'alluntane da stu core
    Da la terra da l'ammore, tiene 'o core 'e nun turnà

should read:
    E tu dice: "I' parto, addio!" T'alluntane da stu core...
    Da la terra de ll'ammore, tiene 'o core 'e nun turná?

The thing is, "Da la terra da l'ammore" means "From the land, from love," whereas "Da la terra de ll'ammore" means "From the land of love." The last phrase in the couplet, "Tiene 'o core 'e nun turná?" means "Do you really have the heart not to come back?"

It's a folk song by now (started as a parlor song in Naples) so of course there are lots of variants, and of course there are lots of recognized spelling variations for many of the Neapolitan words. But these two suggested changes are fundamental to the meaning of the song.

Last and least (This is a personal grump, not a correction): somewhere I learned the second line as "Da sta terra de ll'ammore," which means "From this land of love [i.e. Sorrento]" which I like better. Don't see it on the web that way anywhere though.

Thanks again, Chico; these are great and I'm enjoying them very much.
Rita Ferrara

12 Sep 05 - 04:30 PM (#1562065)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Torna Surriento
From: Q (Frank Staplin)

The song is by E. De Curtie and E. B. De Curtis.

Lyrics (with the corrections by Ferrara) and an Italian translation here: medivia index
Several grave accents- à, need to be acute- á

Midi at Torna a
(But everyone knows this tune)

12 Sep 05 - 04:33 PM (#1562066)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Torna Surriento
From: Q (Frank Staplin)

Should be E. De Curtis. I found E. B. de Curtis also as G. B. De Curtis (anyway, De Curtis and De Curtis)

12 Sep 05 - 07:49 PM (#1562300)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Torna Surriento
From: masato sakurai

The tune is Elvis Presley's "Surrender."

26 Oct 10 - 02:36 AM (#3015503)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Torna Surriento
From: GUEST,britneys

Should be E. De Curtis. I found E. B. de Curtis also as G. B. De Curtis

http://www.uggboots-eshop.com/ugg-sundance-ii-boots.html

10 Mar 20 - 09:05 AM (#4038762)
Subject: Lyr Add: ME (parody by Allan Sherman)
From: Jim Dixon

Then there's this parody:


ME
Words, Allan Sherman; tune: "Torna a Surriento"
As recorded by Allan Sherman on "My Son, the Celebrity," 1963.

Counting both feet, I have ten toes,
They're not lady toes, they're men toes.
And I keep them as mementos,
For I love them tenderly.

All my hands are full of fingers,
Very good as doorbell ringers.
And the thought of fingers lingers
In my haunted memory.

In the middle is my carcass,
And I always dress my carcass
In the best from Neiman-Marcus.
That's a big store in Big D.

There are other things about me,
Which I'll show you if you doubt me.
Things that would not work without me,
Like my elbow and my knee.

On my face, two eyebrows,
They're not your brows, they're my brows.
Behind those eyebrows,
That's where you'll find me.

11 Mar 20 - 06:17 AM (#4038986)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Torna a Surriento
From: Tattie Bogle

Part of the tune was used by Matt McGinn for his "Portobello" song.

I also used it for my own song about the cargo ship "The Napoli" which grounded near Branscombe (Devon) beach in January 2007. Ironically, the first line of the original song translates to "See how the sea is beautiful" - it wasn't very beautiful for the ill-fated Napoli that night!