Singing for the Climate, Recycling a Song

Music plays an important part in all movements for social justice and social change, and it's notable that so little seems to have become prominent in recent years, given the crucial problems we face. On the climate crisis, it turns out, quite a number of people came together to put a singable, memorable song forward back in 2012, originally for the international climate gathering in Qatar, and then later presented in Paris as well. It started in Belgium, and altogether more than 380,000 people were recorded.

These are the lyrics:

Do it now!

We need to wake up
We need to wise up
We need to open our eyes
And do it now now now!
We need to build a better future
And we need to start right now!

We're on a planet
that has a problem
We've got to solve it, get involved
And do it now now now!
We need to build a better future
And we need to start right now!

Make it greener
Make it cleaner
Make it last, make it fast,
and do it now now now!
We need to build a better future
And we need to start right now!

No point in waiting
Or hesitating
We must get wise, take no more lies
And do it now now now!
We need to build a better future
And we need to start right now!

This is the video:


And here's a background video, sort of a making of piece.

"Do It Now" is sung to the tune of an Italian folk song called "Bella Ciao," which was an anti-fascist song of the Italian resistance during World War II. So I had to check that out, and according to the Wikipedia and its sources, it's true — but first it was a song of the poor women who weeded the rice paddies of northern Italy, starting in the 19th century. Called mondinas, the women spent their days in water up to their knees with their backs bent, under the watchful eyes of the padroni. Strikes and riots by the workers resulted in an eight-hour work day by 1909.

Here is the English translations of the mondina version of the lyrics:

In the morning I got up
oh bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao, ciao, ciao (goodbye beautiful)
In the morning I got up
To the paddy rice fields, I have to go.

And between insects and mosquitoes
oh bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao, ciao, ciao
and between insects and mosquitoes
a hard work I have to work.

The boss is standing with his cane
oh bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao, ciao, ciao
the boss is standing with his cane
and we work with our backs curved.

Oh my god, what a torment
oh bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao, ciao, ciao
oh my god, what a torment
as I call you every morning.

And every hour that we pass here
oh bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao, ciao, ciao
and every hour that we pass here
we lose our youth.

But the day will come when we all
oh bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao, ciao, ciao
but the day will come when we all
will work in freedom.

And the resistance version:

One morning I awakened,
oh bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao, ciao, ciao! (goodbye beautiful)
One morning I awakened
And I found the invader.

Oh partisan carry me away,
oh bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao, ciao, ciao
oh partisan carry me away
Because I feel death approaching.

And if I die as a partisan,
oh bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao, ciao, ciao
and if I die as a partisan
then you must bury me.

Bury me up in the mountain,
oh bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao, ciao, ciao
bury me up in the mountain
under the shade of a beautiful flower.

And all those who shall pass,
oh bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao, ciao, ciao
and all those who shall pass
will tell me "what a beautiful flower."

This is the flower of the partisan,
oh bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao, ciao, ciao
this is the flower of the partisan
who died for freedom

As a person who speaks no Italian, I tend to think of bella ciao as "beautiful goodbye" rather than "goodbye, beautiful" (or "goodbye beautiful" as the lyrics are given; I'm really not sure what that means). Particularly for the resistance version, I think "beautiful goodbye" makes more sense as the fighters describe how they are ready to die for the cause. For the mondina version, though, I'm not sure what "goodbye beautiful" means either — is it just a colloquial way of saying goodbye each day before leaving for a long and hard work day? Or are they saying goodbye to the beauty of each woman's youth as it's ground away by the work? Or both?

The fact that the lyric is bella rather than bel definitely indicates that women are involved, though I'm not sure if it's used because of the person being addressed or the speaker or both. And ciao can mean both "hello" and "until we meet again," rather than a final goodbye (so the speakers are probably not going to their death... unless it's meant as bravado?). All of that to say... I wonder what native Italian speakers would make of the phrase bella ciao if they were hearing it for the first time, rather than knowing it in the context of this song with all of its cultural resonance.