Dr. S. wrote to us looking for help with an Italian childhood song. Here’s the letter…
I am trying to find the words and translation to an Italian song (or poem) that people sang to make the rain go away and the sun come out.
My mother used to say it but she was mumbling the words, trying to remember what her mother used to say.
My mother wrote down the words as she remembered them, but they are not complete and may not be correct. I was hoping you might know what is correct, incorrect, or missing. Please advise. Here are the words as my mother could remember them:
nesha sula nesha sula puerla santo sabadura
puerla luna puerla studa puerla povera picharida
che no nana che mangara
nesha sula peri scudare
Do you have any idea what this means, how it is translated, and what is missing?
Any information would be appreciated. Thanks!
If anyone can help with this song, please comment below.
Thanks in advance! -Mama Lisa
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4 Responses to “Can Anyone Help with an Italian Song or Rhyme to Make the Rain Stop?”
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February 13th, 2019 at 11:01 am
Yes! My Sicilian grandmother sang it to us when we were little kids in the 60s! I loved it but could never remember the accurate words since they preferred we only spoke/learned English at that time.
September 25th, 2021 at 8:29 pm
Ooh, this is difficult! As you suspect, some of these words have mutated in memory.
At the very least, “che no nana che mangara” could be “che non anche mangiare”, which translates to “that does not even eat”. Without context it’s hard to see how this relates to rain. A different possibility is something to do with “nanna”, which is usually associated with sleeping children.
Quite a few of these words I can’t find parallels for, but I only took a year of Italian. For the sake of collaboration:
“puerla” is “per la”, “sula” is “sulla”, and “santo” is holy in masculine form, but the word after it is in feminine form.
April 25th, 2022 at 3:36 pm
Hallo!
Mamalisa, I like your website.
I”ve found all original words of this ancient lyrics (rhymes):
N’esci, n’esci, suli, suli
Per le Santu Salvaturi
Per la luna e pe li stridi
Pe li povri picciridi
N’hannu ninti da mangiari
N’esci suli a caddiari.
This above is the original one, in dialect, now I write it in correct Italian:
Esci, esci, sole, sole,
Per il Santo Salvatore,
Per la luna e per le stelle,
Per i poveri piccolini,
Non hanno niente da mangiare,
Esci sole a scaldarli
And now I translate it in english for you (excuse my english is not perfect):
Come out, come out, sun, sun,
For the Holy Savior,
For the moon and for the stars,
For the poor little babies,
They have nothing to eat
Come out sun to warm them up.
I hope it’s helpful to you. Bye!!
Mirella (little kids teacher)
April 27th, 2022 at 6:03 pm
Thanks for your help maestraMiry! We added the rhyme with your translations to our Italy pages here and a Sicilian version is here.