Sarah Brightman & José Cura -- Just show me how to love you (Tu cosa fai stasera)

Sarah:

Tu cosa fai stasera?
Rimani ancora un pò
sarà quest' atmosfera
ma non mi dire di no

 

Per farti prigioniero
qualcosa inventerò
ma che bisogno c'era
di amarti subito un pò

 

José:

Questo giorno è una pazzia
ma la luna è amica mia
se ti resta un sogno da buttare via
soli in mezzo a una città
Solo amici e poi chissà

 

Poi non basta mai
tante cose da dirsi
e baciarsi e capirsi e stringersi
poi non basta mai
si fa tardi ma dai
dove corri a quest'ora?

 

Both:

Just show me how to love you
Io non ti lascio più
gabbiano di scogliera,
io sto, una favola, e tu?
Just show me how to love you

 

Sarah:

Fame o febbre o quel che sia
mi ci sento a casa mia
dentro questo sogno da buttare via
non mi sembra vero ma
sembra un'altra la città

 

José:

E non basta mai
tante cose da dirsi
e baciarsi e capirsi e stringersi
e non basta mai
è già tardi ma dai
dove torni a quest'ora?

 

Both:

Just show me how to love you
E ci ridiamo su
gabbiano di scogliera
ma dov'êri nascosto'
dov'êri finora?

 

Sarah:

Tu cosa fai stasera?
Ci ridiamo su
magari un'altra sera
ed è già domattina
e la luna la spegni tu!

Music and lyrics: D.B. Bembo / A. Cassella, F. Peterson, Laisa

From: Timeless (1997)
and The very best of 1990-2000 (2001).

Source of the lyrics: the CD booklet, with a minor correction or two of apparent printing errors.

People have sent me emails asking for the sheet music of this song. Ed Mols pointed me to the a page by Dario Baldan Bembo at Digiland Libero with the chords, but that page has since disappeared.

A translation by Dr. Paola Blelloch, Professor of Italian and French in the Modern Languages Department, The College of New Jersey, was sent to me by Melissa Hofmann. With some corrections and improvements by David Smith and Gustavo Benedicty, the translation is (for some comments, see below):

Just show me how to love you

Sarah:

What are you doing this evening?
Stay a little longer
it must be this place
but don't say "no"

 

I will invent something
to hold you prisoner
what a need there was
to love you a little so quickly?

 

José:

Today's a crazy day
but the moon is my friend
if you still have a dream to throw away
us alone in the centre of a city
Just friends and then who knows?

 

But it's never enough
so many things to tell each other
and kiss, understand one another, hold one another
but it's never enough
and it's late, but so what?
where are you hurrying to at this hour?

 

Both:

Just show me how to love you
I will never leave you again
I, a seagull on the rocks,
will be like a fairy-tale, and you?
Just show me how to love you

 

Sarah:

Hunger or fever or whatever
I feel at home
inside this dream to throw away
it doesn't seem true but
seems another city

 

José:

And it's never enough
so many things to tell each other
and kiss, understand one another, hold one another
and it's never enough
it's already late, but so what?
where are you going to this hour?

 

Both:

Just show me how to love you
and we'll laugh about it
like a seagull on the rocks
but where were you hiding?
where were you until now?

 

Sarah:

What are you doing this evening?
We'll laugh about it
perhaps another evening
it's already morning
the moon is sent away by you!

 >  Title the song

"Just show me how to love you" is in fact a very strange title! It should actually be the translation of the first line: "What are you doing this evening?".
See the next note on the last word in that line.

 

 >  First line of the first and last stanza: "stasera -- this evening"

The Italian "sera" means "evening" and "sta" is "this", hence "stasera" is "this evening". One could use "tonight" here, but that might give the impression that she wants to know where he is planning to sleep that night, and that is probably not what is intended in this song.

 

 >  Fourth line of the third stanza: "mezzo -- middle"

Perhaps "centre" is the correct translation, yet in English "middle" is generally used and it sounds better here.

 

 >  Third line of the fourth stanza: "e baciarsi e capirsi e stringersi -- and kiss, understand one another, hold one another"

Very difficult to translate in an acceptable way, retaining the passion and emphasis it is sung with. Furthermore, "capirsi" means "understand each other", and that is usage strange here.

 

 >  First and third line of the last stanza: "(sta)sera -- (this) evening"

See above.

 

 >  Fourth and fifth line of the last stanza

Midnight has passed and it is already morning, but still quite early (say 2 a.m.) and as they will stay together for the night, he should turn off the moon (being the light). "The way the sentence is formed," David writes, "is quite significant ... by repeating the word 'la' (in the middle of the line), she is emphasising that it is his job to turn off the light."

 
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last modified: 27 May 2011