Pepino (The Italian Mouse) - Lou Monte

spoken:

Signore e signori, io mi chiamo Pepino Suracilla.

And, what a mulaniana!

Pepino, oh, you little mouse,

Oh, won’t you go away.

Find yourself another house to run around and play.

You scare my girl, you eat my cheese, you even drink my wine.

I try so hard to catch you but you trick me all the time.

Ce sta una suracilla basci' u' «cellar» mezzo mure.

Ogni sera ella esce quando la casa scura.

Ella do indo la cucina balla sula-sula

Appara ‘nu malandrina, pura la gata s’a paura.

[English translation:

There’s a mouse down in the cellar between the walls.

Every evening it comes out when the house is dark.

She comes up in the kitchen and dances all alone

She seems like such a rascal, even the cat is terrified.]

Pepino suracilla, m’a fatta scumbati

Managia suracilla!

Di casa n’andai

Stasera illa cucina ‘nu poco di vino en c’e lascia.

E quando s’embriaga, ah Pepino c’encappa.

[English translation:

Pepino the mouse, you’ve embarassed me.

The heck with this mouse, Get out of my house.

This evening in the kitchen a little wine will be left

And when he’s good and drunk, ah, Pepino will be caught!]

The other night I called my girl

I asked her could we meet

I said let’s go to my house

We could have a bite to eat

And as we walked in through the door

she screamed at what she saw

There was little Pepino

Doin' the cha-cha on the floor

Pepino suracilla, m’a fatta scumbati

Managia suracilla!

Di casa n’andai

Stasera illa cucina ‘nu poco di vino en c’e lascia.

E quando s’embriaga a Pepino e c’encappa.

A essa non si piace formaggio American'

Ella va trovando ‘nu poca Parmegian'

S’e fatto ghiata ghiata usce stegga da pur

Quando qu’ella camina apara nu propia calendola

[English translation:

It doesn’t like American cheese.

It goes around finding Parmesan-

Then it’ll get really big and fat

And when it walks it’ll look like a calendola.

Corrections by J. James Mancuso