This week's canzone (song), from the recent Festival di Sanremo has some words and grammar points that are worth taking into consideration. And, even if you aren't a Yabla subscriber, you can find the song on YouTube. Of course, with Yabla, you can take advantage of the extra features such as toggling Italian and or English subtitles on and off, looking up the word with a click, and games or exercises such as Scribe, Speak, and Recall to enhance your experience and help you learn.  

For starters, the title of the song seems like a contradiction in terms. But that is the point, which becomes clear, little by little, as the song goes on. 

In English, we usually say something like, "when you grow up," "when you're big," or "when you're grown up." In Italian, we say, Quando sarai grande. But here in this song, it's just the opposite: Quando sarai piccola (when you're grown down), or "when you're small." Admittedly, it's tricky to translate. Why? Because in English, in a 2-clause construction, we only use the future tense in the independent clause: When you're grown up, you'll be able to drive. We don't say, "When you'll be grown up, you'll be able to drive."  But in Italian, we use the future tense in both clauses! Quando sarai grande, potrai guidare. It's just something to remember. 

As the song goes on, it becomes clear that the singer is not referring to the little girl on the swing, but to his mother, who probably has dementia or Alzheimer's disease and has lost much of her memory thus needing some help, just as children do. 

Now let's look at some of the vocabulary in the lyrics. 

🇮🇹 a malapena (adverb) – barely, hardly

This phrase means that something happens with great difficulty or just barely.

Preparerò da mangiare per cena

Io, che so fare il caffè a malapena

I'll prepare food for dinner

I, who barely knows how to make coffee

Captions 19-20, Simone Cristicchi Quando sarai piccola

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📚 For more about a malapena, see this lesson. Malapena never stands alone and is always preceded by the preposition a.

🇮🇹 la fatica (noun, feminine) – the effort, the struggle, the fatigue. It can refer to both physical and mental effort or exhaustion.

C'è quella rabbia di vederti cambiare

E la fatica di doverlo accettare

There's that anger of seeing you change

And the effort of having to accept it

Captions 29-30, Simone Cristicchi Quando sarai piccola

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→ fare fatica means "to struggle." The verb faticare also means "to struggle," "to work hard."

→ a fatica means "with difficulty."

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The lyrics are interesting from a learning point of view, as we have 3 related words:  dimenticare, scordare, and ricordare. They all have to do with memory. 

🇮🇹 scordare vs. dimenticare

Both verbs mean "to forget," but there are nuances:

Dimenticare is used in more neutral or general contexts.

Ci sono pagine di vita, pezzi di memoria che non so dimenticare

There are pages of life, parts of memory that I can't forget

Caption 31, Simone Cristicchi Quando sarai piccola

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If we take a closer look at dimenticare, we can see there is a kind of prefix (di-) that is often a negation. We also see the root, ment- from mente meaning "mind." So we could say that dimenticare is the act of something being removed from one's mind. And as a matter of fact, according to L'Accademia della Crusca, the term existed in late Latin as "dementicare" (to exit the mind), derived from "dimentire" (to lose one's senses" with its prefix "de-" (to deprive) and "mens" (mind).  

Scordare is used in a more personal or emotional sense and is frequently used in its reflexive form: scordarsi.

Ti ripeterò il mio nome mille volte perché tanto te lo scorderai

I will repeat my name to you a thousand times because, anyway, you will forget it

Caption 11, Simone Cristicchi Quando sarai piccola

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Here is a link to a very famous emotional song, titled, "Non ti scordar di me" (don't forget me), sung by Luciano Pavarotti. Here are the Italian lyrics. 

🇮🇹 scordare and ricordare: What's the connection?

Ricordare means "to remember."  It comes from the Latin "recordari," meaning “to bring back to the heart” (cor, cordis = heart).

Ti ripeterò il tuo nome mille volte fino a quando lo ricorderai

I will repeat your name a thousand times until you remember it

Caption 21, Simone Cristicchi Quando sarai piccola

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Scordare, as mentioned above, means "to forget." The S-prefix (often from Latin ex- or dis-) can indicate a reversal, opposition, or removal. So, literally, scordare suggests losing one's memory or removing something from the heart. When you learn something by heart, you remember it. 

🇮🇹 lo sguardo

This noun begins with an s, so it might look like an S-prefix word. It isn't quite, because there is no noun guardo. But it is close, because there is a verb guardare, and the words both deal with looking (guardare) or giving someone a look (uno sguardo). 

Ci sono sguardi pieni di silenzio

There are glances full of silence

Caption 27, Simone Cristicchi Quando sarai piccola

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🇮🇹 sconfiggere means "to defeat."

This is another S-prefix word, derived from the verb (practically obsolete) configgere (to strike, to fight), with the S-prefix altering the meaning to "to overcome" or "to defeat."

E sconfiggere anche il tempo che per noi non è passato

And also to defeat time that has not passed for us

Caption 24, Simone Cristicchi Quando sarai piccola

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🇮🇹  sapere (to know, to be able to)

We have already seen this verb in a previous example. Interestingly, sapere usually means  “to know” (facts, skills, or how to do something),

Io, che so fare il caffè a malapena

I, who barely knows how to make coffee

Caption 20, Simone Cristicchi Quando sarai piccola

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but it can also mean "to be able to" in certain contexts:

Ci sono pagine di vita, pezzi di memoria che non so dimenticare

There are pages of life, parts of memory that I can't forget

Caption 31, Simone Cristicchi Quando sarai piccola

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📚 For more about the verb sapere, see this lesson. 

We hope these vocabulary tips will help you appreciate the lyrics of this song. Many of us have family members or relatives with dementia and so we'll be able to relate to what's expressed in the song. Thanks for reading!

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