IL MONDO

 A soft, whiny voice sang the Italian classic song "Il Mondo" during the Closing Ceremony of the Olympics. As I've loved that song since 1966 when you gave me a 45rpm record of it sung by Emilio Pericoli when we were in London together after we both left Bahrain, before I was sent away. I brought the record back to Washington and played it on an endless loop until one of my brothers took it off the record player and hid it when I wasn't looking. I never found it.

Years later, the young Italian trio, Il Volo, recorded it and they taped a performance on our Public Broadcasting System during the twice-yearly PBS fundraising campaign. I fell in love with their version, waiting for the reruns of that program. Those three young men, now at least 10 years older, have made signing that song a part of every performance.

I've since learned how to find the lyrics, find the translations, find out who else sings it and ... sing it myself with my guitar. I prefer it in Italian but today I heard a version sung many years ago by Engelbert Humperdinck with a translation I don't believe, as if it's a love song, rather than a love and lost love song.

The performance during the Olympics today had me once again looking for the more beautiful version sung by Il Volo as well as an impulse to log in here and write a bit about the melody of this song which has always tugged at my heartstrings. I used to cry and cry as I felt that we were ripped apart by your family, at the realization that we were star-crossed lovers. I don't cry about it any longer, but I remember, when I let myself, that there was a time when I thought my world had ended.