Translation

There are other things than Trump in the world, I'm glad to say. Walked by a Soho pizzeria called "Adoro Lei", which sounds like an inept American student's attempt at "I love her", and then walked for six more miles and ended up with a version of the Lennon-McCartney song. Anybody who knows an Italian pop singer, I also have a pretty good version of Otis Redding's "Respect". Non–Italian singers attempting to sing along, please note that two vowels together count as a single syllable, even when they're in two different words.




Le do soltanto amor
niente di più,
come lo stesso ancor
faresti tu
—e la adoro

Mi dà un' immensità
di tanto bene;
di tutto quello che ha,
nulla trattiene
—e la adoro

Un tale amor
mai non morrà
finchè sarà
al mio lato

Le stelle illuminan
la notte oscura
e quanto dureran,
mio cuor perdura
—e la adoro


Prose back-translation: "I only give her love, nothing more, as you'd do the same too—and I love her. She gives me an immensity of so much good, it's everything she has, she holds nothing back—and I love her. Such a love will never die, as long as she's by my side. The stars brighten the dark night, and however long they last my heart will persist—and I love her." It's an extraordinary lesson in McCartney's greatness at his best to inquire in this way into what he's doing in the apparently simple-minded lyric and to realize it's so classic it could have been a 16th-century madrigal.