# Sicilian: paci nun t'avi chiù st'afflittu cori



## Ihsiin

Hi all. In the song _Mi vote e mi rivotu_ we find the lines: _Pi tia nun pozzu ora chiù durmiri / paci nun t'avi chiù st'afflittu cori_. The meaning I understand from this is 'For you I cannot sleep now / this afflicted heart has no more peace.'

The thing I don't understand is the use of the second person pronoun in the second line. Why is it _paci nun t'avi_ rather than _paci nun avi_? Or am I reading it wrong, and is the meaning 'this afflicted heart no longer has you'? If so what is the function of word _paci_ here?

Any help working this out is much appreciated


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## Kraus

Ihsiin said:


> Hi all. In the song _Mi vote e mi rivotu_ we find the lines: _Pi tia nun pozzu ora chiù durmiri / paci nun t'avi chiù st'afflittu cori_. The meaning I understand from this is 'For you I cannot sleep now / this afflicted heart has no more peace.'
> 
> The thing I don't understand is the use of the second person pronoun in the second line. Why is it _paci nun t'avi_ rather than _paci nun avi_? Or am I reading it wrong, and is the meaning 'this afflicted heart no longer has you'? If so what is the function of word _paci_ here?
> 
> Any help working this out is much appreciated


Your translation is correct; actually the second person pronoun doesn't make sense here, and when searching for the song text, on the web sites reporting it one can find 'nun havi' or (more rarely) 'nun avi', but not 't'avi'.

Just a correction for the first line: "For you now I cannot sleep anymore"


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## Ihsiin

Thanks  The recording I was listening to certainly had _nun t'avi _but listening to a number of other recordings, including some older ones, they clearly all have _nun avi_. I don't know where this _t'avi _came from but it seems to be erroneous.


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## bearded

Hello
Couldn't it be _..nun* ci* (h)avi chiuù.._? Ci avi sounds like 'tchavi'.
In colloquial Italian - and in many dialects - we say 'ci ho' instead of a simple 'ho'.  ''Pace non ci ha più questo afflitto cuore''.


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## Agró

Ihsiin said:


> Hi all. In the song _Mi vote e mi rivotu_


_Mi vot*u* e mi rivotu, _certo?


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## Ihsiin

bearded said:


> Hello
> Couldn't it be _..nun* ci* (h)avi chiuù.._? Ci avi sounds like 'tchavi'.
> In colloquial Italian - and in many dialects - we say 'ci ho' instead of a simple 'ho'.  ''Pace non ci ha più questo afflitto cuore''.



I don't think see, when I hear this particular recording it sounds very clearly like _t'avi_/_t'havi_. The recording itself can be heard on YouTube on the video _mi votu e mi rivotu _uploaded by ascoltasifasera. Please have a listen and tell me what you think.



Agró said:


> _Mi vot*u* e mi rivotu, _certo?



Yes, I'm sorry, I neglected to correct my autocorrect.


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## bearded

Ihsiin said:


> Please have a listen and tell me what you think.


You are right. I cannot explain the presence of that t.


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## Pietruzzo

In salentino dialect, which is similar to Sicilian, we  sometimes use " 'nde", ("ne" in Italian). So the singer probably says "paci nu'nd'avi" (pace non ne ha più questo cuore afflitto). In any case it sounds like he knows his Sicilian


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## winenous

Pietruzzo said:


> So the singer probably says "paci nu'nd'avi"


I've just listened to a couple of versions on youtube, and in both cases it certainly sounds like that to me - "d" rather than "t" before "avi".


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