“Gino the Chicken” was a phenomenon in Italy a few years ago. Today a reader comment on my translation of Tu Vuo’ Fa’ L’Americano directed me to YouTube, where I ran across Gino’s version of the song, directed at Osama bin Laden:
You Want to Be a Taliban
| Tienni la barba longa chiu’ d’un metro, | You wear your beard longer than a meter | ||
| nu turbantiello e ‘na casacca usata, | a little turban and a used cassock | ||
| passi spiritato su Al Jazeera | you appear possessed on Al Jazeera | ||
| comme ‘nu ‘uappo pe’ te fa’ guarda’: | like a Mafioso to get yourself looked ad | ||
| Tu vuo’ fa ‘o talebano, talebano, talebano, | You want to be a Taliban | ||
| siente a me, chi t’o fa fa’? | Listen to me, who forces you to? | ||
| Hai i precetti del Corano, | You have the precepts of the Koran | ||
| ma poi schianti l’aeroplano, | But then you crash airplanes | ||
| tutto il mondo vuo’ disfa’. | You want to undo the whole world | ||
| Tu skif’ ‘o rock’n roll, | You find rock ‘n’ roll disgusting | ||
| tu skif’ ‘o baseball, | You find baseball disgusting | ||
| ma i sordi p’a jihad | But the money for jihad | ||
| chi te li da’ ? | Who gives it to you? | ||
| U petrolio di papa’ ? | Daddy’s oil? | ||
| Tu vuo’ fa ‘o talebano, talebano, talebano, | You want to be a Taliban | ||
| ma si’ nato in Arabia: | but you were born in Arabia | ||
| Sient’ a me, non ce sta nient ‘a fa’, | Listen to me, there’s nothing to be done | ||
| capisc Osama’ , tu vuo’ fa’ ‘o taleba’, | Understand, Osama, you want to be a Taleban | ||
| Bin Laden ‘o taleba’. | Bin Laden the Taliban. | ||
| Ai maomettani parli comme a un prete, | To the Muslims you talk like a priest | ||
| ca si tu si’ mullah i’ so’ cinese, | But if you’re a mullah, I’m Chinese | ||
| e lieggi ‘nata vota ‘stu Curano, | Go read the Koran for once | ||
| lasciaci ‘n pace e vattene co’ Omar! | Leave us alone or go away with Omar | ||
| Tu vuo’ fa ‘o talebano, talebano, talebano, | You want to be a Taliban | ||
| attent’ a te, chi t’o fa fa’? | Look out, who makes you do it? | ||
| Spacci oppio co’ l’afgano | You push opium with the Afghans | ||
| dal confine pakistano, | from the Pakistan border | ||
| ce lo porti fino a qua. | you bring it to us all the way here | ||
| Tu skif’ ‘o rock’n roll, | You find rock ‘n’ roll disgusting | ||
| tu skif’ ‘o baseball, | You find baseball disgusting | ||
| ma i sordi p’a jihad | But the money for jihad | ||
| chi te li da’ ? | Who gives it to you? | ||
| L’eroina afganista’? | Afghan heroin? | ||
| Tu vuo’ fa ‘o talebano, talebano, talebano, | You want to be a Taliban | ||
| ma si’ nato in Arabia: | but you were born in Arabia | ||
| Sient’ a me, non ce sta nient ‘a fa’, | Listen to me, there’s nothing to be done | ||
| Capisc Osamà , tu vuo’ fa’ ‘o taleba’, | Understand, Osama, you want to be a Taleban | ||
| Bin Laden ‘o taleba’. | Bin Laden the Taliban. | ||
| Collin Pauell, Giorg’ Bush… | Colin Powell, George Bush… |
This isn’t Italian, this is Neapolitan! People, don’t learn this thinking that is italian.
It isn’t italian, it’s Napolitan.. it’s very different, the same if you compare English speaked in London or in New York.
You can only speak this in Napoli (a Italian city) and if you go in another part of italy you won’t be understand.
Sorry for my bad english, I speak italian.
Will anybody ever read this? Oh well, whatever.
I can’t believe I’m stumbling on this 18 years after the “fact” – and that somebody would still listen to this in 2012. Oh, btw: I’m a language nerd, the singer in this parody, and the Official Singing Voice for Gino The Chicken .-). Not my “true” voice, mind you: it’s pitched up a few tones.
The written lyrics are somewhat wrong, just a few words here and there; I guess this was an unpolished version and that it was redone a couple weeks later, when it became a meme. It got an estimated 5+ millions downloads in a time when there were no Youtube, no social networks and no search engines, just by word of mouth. Which is pretty incredible a feat for web contents made in Italy (/Switzerland) in 2001.
And yes, it’s “Neapolitan”-ish, although Northern Italians shouldn’t have any problems understanding it. It’s probably easier to understand by listening than by reading the subtitles – I’m pretty sure some words aren’t spelled like that.
“Turbantiell'” is fake dialect. The real word for a turban is “tammuriell'”, and it was “too” Neapolitan for the rest of Italy, so we made up a word.
“Skif'”, with a K? The right spelling is “schif'”, from “schifare”, which in turn comes from “schifo”, disgust.
There isn’t a real translation for “schifare” in this meaning. Usually you’d say “mi schifa” as a colloquial version of “mi fa schifo”, “it does/provokes me disgust”=”it disgusts me”. To “schifare” something is a, uhm, proactive version of “being disgusted by”: “Ti schifo e ti sputo”, literally: I disgust you and I spit you, meaning “I find you disgusting and I spit on you”. The grammar in that sentence is completely borked, and SO MUCH satisfying.
Oh, and “Capisc'”: I’m not sure it’s a real word. I got it from Weird Al, actually: in “La Lasagna”, his parody of “La Bamba”, he sings “Capish paisà, capish paisà?”=”do you understand, mate?”, but I never heard it anywhere else. Might be Ameritalian. Sort of a second-generation Italian, Mafioso style.
I myself am NOT from Naples, nor have I ever been there. I’m Swiss, actually, ok, the whole Gino adventure has been a big, lucky mess. Un gran casino, diciamolo. I just happened to be there for a quick parody, and ended up composing and performing some 60 original songs for the TV series o_O
(It takes me a while to get to my comments…) I am honored to hear from the original Gino the Chicken! I only vaguely followed the meme at the time (it was a pretty busy time in my own life), but obviously I was amused by it. Congratulations! Weird fame is sometimes the best kind.
To some of my dear friends I say I was so young when first I heard this song. I must say that I am an Iranian person and I have studied English in university and I am not at all familiar with Napolitan or Italy. I wanted to tell you friends that in Iran, too, for sake of fun and balance in a poem the poet or singer breaks grammatical rules. It seems the same phenomenon happened here is just for fun. So take it easy and simply enjoy.