I’m talking about this song:
I can see lyrics here:
https://lyricstranslate.com/en/lorenzo-pilat-la-famiglia-dei-gobi-lyrics.html
But I can’t find an explanation of the context of this song, Wikipedia article style. Every recording/website seems to have different lyrics, which I guess is to be expected for folk music. Are there any “definitive” recordings out there? What is a Gobon? When I put it into Google Translate, along with all variations -“Gibbon, Gobbon, Gabon”, it doesn’t translate. What is the deal with this song?
Edit: Thank you everyone for the explanation. Funny song! Do average people in Italy know this one?
9 comments
Gobon a dialectal form of gobboni, gente con la gobba, people with a hump
Nothing more than a doggerel sang by “mondine” (women that worked in rice fields) to pass time during their (hard) work.
Gobbo means hunchback. Gobòn, in most northern Italian dialects, means “person(s) with a big hunchback”. “La famiglia dei gobòn” is a satirical song, that says how the whole family has a hunchback, listing all the members and describing how crooked they are. Not PC, I am afraid …
I’ll try to translate it for you. This song is in venetian dialect. The song play alot with the various form for “hump, humpbacked” in different ways to make the perfect rime.
“And when the Allies came to Trieste
Even the cats where humpbacked, even the cats where humpbacked
And when the Allies came to Trieste
Even the cats where humpbacked, the family of Hunchbacks
Your mom is humpbacked, you dad is humpbacked, and your sister too
Even she had a hump, even she had a hump
Your mom is humpbacked, you dad is humpbacked, and your sister too
Even she had a hump, the family of Hunchbacks
And when they got married the musician came
They were humpbacked too, they were humpbacked too
And when they got married the musician came
They were humpbacked too, the family of Hunchbacks
Your mom is humpbacked, you dad is humpbacked, and your sister too
Even she had a hump, even she had a hump
Your mom is humpbacked, you dad is humpbacked, and your sister too
Even she had a hump, the family of Hunchbacks
And after 9 month a lil baby was born
Even he had a hump, even him had a hump
And after 9 month a lil baby was born
Even he had a hump, the family of Hunchbacks
Your mom is humpbacked, you dad is humpbacked, and your sister too
Even she had a hump, even she had a hump
Your mom is humpbacked, you dad is humpbacked, and your sister too
Even she had a hump, the family of Hunchbacks
And when he died they build him a big coffin
Even that with a hump, even that with a hump
And when he died they build him a big coffin
Even that with a hump, the family of Hunchbacks”
Bellissimo, *ea famegia del gobòn* è conosciuta anche all’estero! Eurovision subito!
I remember it slightly different. [This is the venetian version](https://lyricstranslate.com/it/ea-famegia-del-gobon-la-famiglia-del-gobbo.html). Here in Venice is often sang during local festivals.
Gobo sèntite!
A Firenze, in italiano e non in dialetto veneziano/veneto, l’ho sentita cantare ai gobbi (juventini)!
Viviamo nella migliore tempolinea ecc
Should be rewritten as “la famiglia degli individui non proprio altissimi” so that it would be more inclusive tbh
It’s a famous song about a family of hunchbacks: Gobbo, in italian, means a hunchback person. It’s a widespread song in northern Italy, in particular in the Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia region: this version – at least, it seems to me – is written in Triestino, the dialect from Trieste, that is part of the family of venetian dialects!
You need to be full of clinto to understand the sacred texts.