Enrico Caruso- Fenesta che lucive 1913

Oh lighted window, you no longer shine,
a sign that my beloved is laying sick.
Her sister comes to the window and tells me:
Your beloved is dead and buried
She always cried because she slept alone.
Now she sleeps in the company of the dead.

Go inside the church and find her casket,
see how your beloved has turned out...
From those lips whence once came flowers,
now come worms, oh, what a pity!
Uncle, you are the sacristan, take care of her:
Always keep a candle lighted for her.

Due to the poor recording techniques of the time this only gives a hint of how great Caruso's voice really was - and why people were willing to pay the equivalent of $ 1,000.- to hear him perform.

You may want to look at my non-profit website for more songs and arias: http://www.enricocaruso.dk

In Fenesta ca lucive, a young man tells the sad story of returning to a shining window only to find that it shines no more. He has come to ask about his sweetheart who has been ill. Her sister leans from the window and tells him that she has died and now lies in the church. "She always cried when she slept alone, but now she sleeps with death", she tells him.

"Go the church and look into her coffin, out of her mouth once came words of love, but now only worms. Oh pity!"

He will ask the priest to take care of her and keep a lamp lit by her coffin. The shining window is closed. He will never walk down that street again. Instead, he will walk in the cemetary and await the day
that death allows him to be with his sweetheart again.

Caruso sings it in original Neapolitan - here the "Italian" translation kindly provided by roeslerswiss (    / roeslerswiss   ):

Fenesta ca lucive e mo nun luce
sign'è ca nénna mia stace malata
S'affaccia la surella e mme lu dice:
Nennélla toja è morta e s'è atterrata

Chiagneva sempe ca durmeva sola,
mo dorme co' li muorte accompagnata

Va' dint''a cchiesa, e scuopre lu tavuto:
vide nennélla toja comm'è tornata
Da chella vocca ca n'ascéano sciure,
mo n'esceno li vierme...Oh! che piatate!

Addio fenesta, rèstate 'nzerrata
ca nénna mia mo nun se pò affacciare...
Io cchiù nun passarraggio pe' 'sta strata:
vaco a lo camposanto a passíare!

'Nzino a lo juorno ca la morte 'ngrata,
mme face nénna mia ire a trovare!...

ENGLISH TRANSLATION (by theinkbrain -    / theinkbrain   and lakecomoitaly -    / lakecomoitaly   )

Oh lighted window, you no longer shine,
a sign that my beloved is laying sick.
Her sister comes to the window and tells me:
Your beloved is dead and buried
She always cried because she slept alone.
Now she sleeps in the company of the dead.

Go inside the church and find her casket,
see how your beloved has turned out...
From those lips whence once came flowers,
now come worms, oh, what a pity!
Uncle, you are the sacristan, take care of her:
Always keep a candle lighted for her.