The Music Man Speaks

Or: Il Professore di musica dice.

For those of you who didn’t know, my music teacher is Italian. He was born and grew up in Italy, but he came here to go to get his masters after attending Milan University. Now he is an American citizen and speaks English fluently, fortunately. In some ways, however, it is even more fortunate for me that he also speaks Italian fluently, for that gives me an opportunity to practice my foreign language with a fluent speaker whenever I get up the nerve (which is rare).

Today, however, was different. I actually spoke a whole sentence to him in Italian!!!! It was actually in the middle of an interesting conversation which I will attempt to paraphrase below.

By the way, I will refer to my teacher as “Roberto” for the sake of anonymity and convenience.

“Oh, Roberto, you remember those songs by Josh Groban I showed you?”

About a year ago, I had shown him the lyrics to the Italian songs in Closer so he could interpret them for me. He had said, “Ugh! These are trash! ‘I will miss you when you go, I will miss your serenity…’ You don’t want to know the rest!”

Now, however, he didn’t remember them. I continued.

“Well, I’ve been interpreting them some recently, and they’re all so dumb! For example, I was recently listening to one called ‘Un Amore Per Sempre’ – (Roberto rolls his eyes) – I knew it was corny from the title, but I thought, ‘At least it’s not ‘Mi Mancherai.’ But then I read the next line. The whole first sentence is ‘Un amore per sempre dura sola un instante.’”

Here Roberto grimaced quite visibly and uttered an exclamation that could probably be best described as a mixture of amusement and disgust.

“Pop music is so corny! ‘Senza di te, morirei’… But do you know what’s even worse? American country music. The lyrics are so stupid! You know? “There’s a tear/In my beer/’Cause you’re not here/My dear!’”

I laughed all the way to the computer.

The sad thing, though, is that he didn't make that up (although he didn't get the lyrics QUITE right). People actually listen to that sort of stuff?!?!? I don't. I listen to "Celtic Woman: A Christmas Celebration."