DOI Kapitel:
Chapter III: Past and Present - Santa Lucia, etc.
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.59000#0115
Past and Present—Santa Lucia, Etc.
“ Santa Lucia! That romantic name which once
made those of the most distant shores, of far-off
countries, tremble deliciously and dream and think I
Lamartine, Dumas, De Musset, Sainte-Beuve, Dickens,
Theophile Gautier, and other rare spirits pronounced with
emotion those two words which evoke in their tender
memories visions of the smiling sea, the clear sunrise,
the purple afterglow, sparkling moonlight, emerald
reflections, the scraping of soft guitars, the suggestive
tinkling of mandolines. O sweet Naples, O blessed
soil! Still over all the world the wandering minstrels
sing to them in the taverns, the restaurants, under the
windows of the inns, on board ship in distant ports.
And hundreds of lips repeat in chorus, with a passion
which makes the hair rise,
“ ‘ Mare si lucido
Lido si caro
Scordar fa i triboli
Al marinaio
Venite al agile
Barchetta mia
Santa Lucia, Santa Lucia.’ ” 1
This song, which seems so purely Neapolitan, was
written by a Frenchman, De Lauziere. Curiously
enough, of the two popular songs of Naples, “ Santa
Lucia ” and “ Bella Napoli,” one was by a foreigner,
while the author of the other is unknown.
Whether the Bourbon tax on the shade of trees had
1 Santa Lucia, by Ferdinando Russo.
51
“ Santa Lucia! That romantic name which once
made those of the most distant shores, of far-off
countries, tremble deliciously and dream and think I
Lamartine, Dumas, De Musset, Sainte-Beuve, Dickens,
Theophile Gautier, and other rare spirits pronounced with
emotion those two words which evoke in their tender
memories visions of the smiling sea, the clear sunrise,
the purple afterglow, sparkling moonlight, emerald
reflections, the scraping of soft guitars, the suggestive
tinkling of mandolines. O sweet Naples, O blessed
soil! Still over all the world the wandering minstrels
sing to them in the taverns, the restaurants, under the
windows of the inns, on board ship in distant ports.
And hundreds of lips repeat in chorus, with a passion
which makes the hair rise,
“ ‘ Mare si lucido
Lido si caro
Scordar fa i triboli
Al marinaio
Venite al agile
Barchetta mia
Santa Lucia, Santa Lucia.’ ” 1
This song, which seems so purely Neapolitan, was
written by a Frenchman, De Lauziere. Curiously
enough, of the two popular songs of Naples, “ Santa
Lucia ” and “ Bella Napoli,” one was by a foreigner,
while the author of the other is unknown.
Whether the Bourbon tax on the shade of trees had
1 Santa Lucia, by Ferdinando Russo.
51