I am writing an English song that has a few Italian lyrics. I want to say, "Why did you go? My love, come back to me." My attempt is:
Perché si va? Cara, ritorna da me
Have I got it right?
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7A intuito, direi piuttosto “Perché te ne sei andata? Amore, ritorna da me!”.– GuMCommented Aug 31, 2018 at 22:57
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2A variation of the previous one by @GuM (which is perfectly valid): "Perché sei andata via? Amor mio, ritorna da me!" Less literal, but valid in this context: "Perché mi hai lasciato? Amor mio, ritorna da me"– Riccardo De ContardiCommented Sep 1, 2018 at 8:10
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@RiccardoDeContardi Could we please avoid answers in comments?– Federico PoloniCommented Sep 1, 2018 at 14:05
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I agree with @FedericoPoloni: may someone gather the different translation proposals in an answer?– Charo ♦Commented Sep 1, 2018 at 14:41
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1 Answer
OK, this is the same answer as my comment above, but in the form of an answer: I suggest “Perché te ne sei andata? Amore, ritorna da me!”. But I think Riccardo’s answer is better:
A variation of the previous one by @GuM (which is perfectly valid): "Perché sei andata via? Amor mio, ritorna da me!" Less literal, but valid in this context: "Perché mi hai lasciato? Amor mio, ritorna da me".
Addition: The OP says in a comment that he’s got only four syllables available for the first sentence. Given this constraint, one might think of a translation like “Perché partir?” or “Perché fuggir?”, but those would sound extremely antiquated, only adequate for a song written before 1950 or so.
Second addition: Note that “Perché partir?” and “Perché fuggir?” both exploit the fact that the stress on the word “perché” falls on the second syllable, and insert an anacrusis. And here’s another possible translation that has the same rythm, and doesn’t sound outdated: indicating the syllable number between parentheses (with the syllable of the anacrusis being numbered zero), one could say “(0)Per-(1)ché_an-(2)dar-(3)via?”, which, like the two previous solutions, is exactly four syllable long, and has exactly the same rythm of the English “(0)Why-(1)did-(2)you-(3)go?”. One loses the past tense, though (“partir”, “fuggir”, and “andar via” are all infinitives).
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2I think you can include the other translation proposals in your answer without any problem.– Charo ♦Commented Sep 1, 2018 at 15:37
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Is there something wrong with "Perché si va"? I have only four musical notes to work with on that phrase. I should have said that in this case the music is written and I am the lyricist; sorry! I like both "amor mio" and "amore"; are both gender appropriate (a man singing about a woman)? Commented Sep 2, 2018 at 0:03
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2@RossPlaywright: Well, “Perché si va?” simply has a completely different meaning: (1) the subject is not “you” in the sense of “you”, it’s “you” in the sense of a generic person (it’s an instance of si impersonale —search for it on this site), (2) the tense is not past but present, and (3) the idea of “going away” is completely missing. I’d retranslate it in English as “Why does one go?”.– GuMCommented Sep 2, 2018 at 0:13
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I see, thanks. I believe I've got enough for this part of the song. One more question, which I'll post separately. Commented Sep 2, 2018 at 18:04
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@RossPlaywright: Anyway, I added another possible translation. :-)– GuMCommented Sep 2, 2018 at 20:02