Sunday, May 15, 2011

The Ballad of Luciano Leggio








Luciano Leggio (1925-1993)



Excerpts from “The Ballad of Luciano Leggio”, Pt. 1:


“Liggio has even had the honor of being the subject of a ballad called ‘The Prince of the Mafia’.  In it we find the usage of the word ‘Killer’, by now adopted by the Sicilian dialect  whenever referring to the Mafia:

‘Signori miei, voglio raccontarvi la complete storia del capo mafia siciliano Luciano Leggio (dento Liggio):

I.

Quanno muriu Calogero Lo Bui
Lu cupu di la mafia lucali
a Corlionici fu un fui fui
pp’acquistari ddu titulu . . . riali:
ma cci appi cchiu putiri e fermu pusu
dori Micheli Navarra, mafiusu

II.

. . .  Luciano Liggiu ancora era un mucciusu
un carrusiddu a chinnicianni appena
siccu arruganti, agili mpignusu
di pruvatu curaggiu e longa lena
ca spurtusava, ccu la so pistol
un palancuni ca nta l’aria vola

III.

Ma la so puverta’ non lu consola
e cuminciau la vita di banditu
ccussi’, a vint’anni, dopo bona scola . . .
addivintau assassin rifinutu
ed ammazzu la guardian giurata
Calogeru Calajanni numinata
(Il Colajanni fu ucciso perche’ aveva denuncito Liggio per un furto di covoni di grani e l’aveva fatto rinchuudere in prigione.)”






Corleone (Sicilian: Cunigghiuni), Province of Palermo in Sicily, Italy, pop. 12,000.


Translation:

“Good people, I want to tell you the complete story of the Sicilian head of the Mafia, Luciano Leggio (called Liggio):

I.  When Calogero Lo Bui, head/of the local Mafia died/at Corleone there was a rush/to conquer the ‘royal’ title:/but  the one who had real power and strength/was Don Michele Navarra, the Mafioso./

II.  . . . Luciano Liggio was still a boy/a youngster of fifteen only/lean, arrogant, agile and overbearing/of great courage and energy/who killed with his pistol/a bird which flies in the air./

III.  He was not consoled by his poverty/and started the life of a bandit/and so, at twenty, after a good school/he became a refined murderer/and killed a guard/called Calogero Colajanni/

(Colaganni was killed because he had denounced Liggio for a theft of wheat and had him locked up.)”








Michele Navarra (1905-1955) aka "'u patri nostru" ("our father").



From Gaia Servado:  Mafioso.  New York, Dell, 1976



2 comments:

  1. I gave your blog an award thing :)

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  2. Thank you very much. I believe congratulations on a great Music in the Parks are in order also. In today's post, you can learn some more Sicilian in a very interesting, although selective, Mafia glossary. Over the next few days, I'm going to excerpt some additional stanzas from the Leggio ballad to bring things to their proper conclusion. Thank you again. Curtis

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