Javier sent us the text of a rhyme his great-grandmother would recite when he was little growing up in Argentina. She was from the Italian region of Pavia, so some words could be in Lombard. He wishes to know if anyone knows it to correct and complete it as it most probably suffered many alterations from the original version because of the folk process and the passage of time.
Here it is along with a recording…
Tratra, tratola
Faruma a la bascola
La bascola, la muleta
La muleta la strambolá
Cuater pare sin masá
Si masá una cuarentena
Viva, viva! Madalena
Madalena Sosulé
Que cantaba en sodamé,
sodamé le cuarentitrí
madalena le fou morí
le fou morí le mora,
faruma a la casa nova,
nova, novanta,
faruma a la casa yenta,
yenta, yentaia,
faruma a la casa paia
paia, paiú,
Merda shutta al bú!
If anyone can help, please comment below.
Thanks in advance!
Mama Lisa
This article was posted on Wednesday, July 20th, 2022 at 9:15 pm and is filed under Countries & Cultures, Italian, Italian Dialects, Italian Nursery Rhymes, Italy, Nursery Rhymes, Questions, Readers Questions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
One Response to “Can Anyone Help with an Italian Rhyme that Starts with “Tratra, Tratola”?”
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August 24th, 2023 at 12:28 am
Thank you. The lyrics are confusing, but I can tell you a few things. “Faruma” needs to be treated in this poem. She is in crutches, and people are going to church to pray for her.🤒⛪🙏They beg (to God?” for her to live. She needs more quarentine, but the nurses are bad and do not allow that. They give Faruma no medicine. People pray through song in a church.☹🧑⚕🚫💊🙏🧑🎤Faruma dies. She will go to heaven and have bread to eat.