what’s this thing, oh this thing they call love? oh this thing, what’s this thing… secretly driving our hearts longed for by all it has touched
what’s this thing, oh this thing they call love? oh this thing, what’s this thing… tears and laughter, sunshine and rain our life’s end, its beginning again
oh no never were there any lips that could say it once then not say it again for good…
what’s this thing, oh this thing they call love? oh this thing, what’s this thing… that makes us all sing the same tune: I love you, I love you, I love you…
Sophia Loren & Tonis Maroudas
ΤΙ ΕΙΝ’ ΑΥΤΟ ΠΟΥ ΤΟ ΛΕΝΕ ΑΓΑΠΗ
τι είν’ αυτό που το λένε αγάπη; τι είν’ αυτό, τι είν’ αυτό… που κρυφά τις καρδιές οδηγεί κι όποιος το ’νιωσε το νοσταλγεί
τι είν’ αυτό που το λένε αγάπη; τι είν’ αυτό, τι είν’ αυτό… γέλιο, δάκρυ, λιακάδα, βροχή της ζωής μας και τέλος κι αρχή
ποτέ, ποτέ κανένα στόμα δεν το ’βρε και δεν το ’πε ακόμα…
τι είν’ αυτό που το λένε αγάπη; τι είν’ αυτό, τι είν’ αυτό… που σε κάνει να λες το σκοπό σ’ αγαπώ, σ’ αγαπώ, σ’ αγαπώ…
Sophia Loren longs after Alan Ladd across a table laid with wine (sipped), olives (toothpicked), cigarettes (stubbed). Tonis Maroudas strums and sings along, tenderly too.
Clip taken from Boy on a Dolphin (1957), directed by Jean Negulesco and shot on the island of Hydra (a Hollywood first for Greece).
Music by Takis Morakis. Lyrics by Danae Stratigopoulou and Yannis Fermanoglou. Song first recorded by Keti Denis (no relation to Cathy Dennis, sadly) in 1955.
Movingly used (as cinematically sung by Loren and Maroudas) by Yorgos Lanthimos over the closing credits of his 2015 film The Lobster, over black.
The voice of Danae, who co-wrote (or perhaps wrote?) the Greek lyrics here, is heard earlier in The Lobster – see the dubitandum “only ⋮ outwardly” for more details (in list below).
The Lobster screenplay (written by Yorgos with Efthimis Filippou) translated from the Greek to be shot in English (their own English-language debut). Song lyrics translated for the love of it.
