Le parole incrociate
Lucio Dalla| English Version by Riccardo Venturi | |
| LE PAROLE INCROCIATE | CROSSWORD PUZZLE |
| Chi era Bava il beccaio? Bombardava Milano; correva il Novantotto, oggi è un anno lontano. I cavalli alla Scala, gli alpini in piazza Dom. Attenzione: cavalleria piemontese, gli alpini di Val di Non. | Who was Bava the Butcher? [1] He bombed Milan; it was in '98, it's a remote year today. Horses at the Scala, Alpine troops in piazza Dom.[2] Attention now: The chivalry from Piedmont, the Alpine troops from Val di Non. [3] |
| Chi era Humbert le Roi? Comandava da Roma; folgore della guerra, con al vento la chioma. La fanteria stava a Mantova, i bersaglieri sul Po. Attenzione: fanteria calabrese, i bersaglieri di Rho. | Who was Humbert le Roi? [4] He ruled from Rome; a true lightning of war, his hair floating in the wind. The infantry was in Mantua, the Bersaglieri on the Po. Attention now: The infantry from Calabria, the Bersaglieri from Rho. [5] |
| E chi era Nicotera, ministro dell'interno? Sole di sette croci e fuoco dell'inferno. All'Opera il Barbiere, cannoni a Mergellina. Attenzione: spari capestri e mazze da sera alla mattina. | And who was Nicotera, Minister of the Interior? The sun of seven crosses and fire from the hell. The Barbiere at the Opera, gun batteries in Mergellina. [6] Attention now: shots gallows and maces from evening to morning. |
| Di pietra non è l'uomo l'uomo non è un limone e se non è di pietra non è carne per un cannone. | The man is not made of stone The man is no squashing lemon and if he's not made of stone he is no cannon fodder. |
| Cavallo di re la figlia di un re l'ombra di un re e la voglia di un re. Soltanto chi è re può contrastare un re. | A king's horse a king's daughter and a king's lust. Only a king may oppose a king. |
| Il gioco dei potenti è di cambiare se vogliono anche la corsa dei venti. | The game of the powerful is changing at their will even the course of winds. |
| E i limoni a Palermo? Pendevano dai rami, coprendo d'ombra il sangue di poveri cristiani. Chi era Pinna? Un questore, a Garibaldi amico. Attenzione: fucilazioni in massa, dentro al castello antico. | The lemons in Palermo? Hanging from branches, they covered with shadow the blood of poor men. Who was Pinna? A police chief, a friend to Garibaldi. Attention now: mass shooting executions inside the old castle. |
| E la tassa sul grano? Tutta l'Emilia rossa s'incendia di furore, brucia nella sommossa. Stato d'assedio, spari, la truppa bivacca. Attenzione: lento scorreva il fiume da Cremona a Ferrara. | And the wheat tax? All red Emilia rises in wrath and burns in the revolution. [7] The martial law declared, troops quartered and shots. Attention now: the river flowed slow from Cremona to Ferrara. |
| Che nome aveva l'acqua trasformata in pantano? Macello a sangue caldo di popolo italiano. Un'intera brigata decimata sul posto. Attenzione: i soldati legati agli alberi, agli alberi del bosco. | How was that water called, turned into a marsh? A warm-blooded massacre of Italian people. A whole brigade was destroyed on the spot. Attention now: Soldiers tied to the trees, to the trees in the wood. |
| L'uomo non è di pietra l'uomo non è un limone poichè non è di pietra neppure è carne da cannone. | The man is not made of stone The man is no squashing lemon and if he's not made of stone he is no cannon fodder. |
| Quando la vecchia carne voleva il macellaio fu presto impiccato; e un re da cavallo è anche sbalzato e in mezzo al salnitro precipitato, come al tempo del grande furore quando il vecchio imperatore a morte condannava chi faceva l'amore. | When the butcher wanted old meat he was soon hanged by the neck; and even a king was tossed down from horse and then thrown into the saltpetre hole, [8] just like at the time of the great wrath when the old emperor used to sentence to death those who made love. |
| Sei le colonne in fila, il gioco è terminato. Nel bel prato d'Italia c'è odore di bruciato. Un filo rosso lega tutte, tutte queste vicende. Attenzione: dentro ci siamo tutti, è il potere che offende. | Six columns all in a row, the game is over. It smells of burning in the fair garden of Italy. A red thread links all these events. Attention now: All of us is involved in the offences of power. |
Some translation notes expressly prepared for English speaking readers are necessary to better understand the events related in this beautiful and powerful song written by the poet Roberto Roversi, resuming the most terrible state massacres in post-unity Italy.
[1] Gen. Bava Beccaris was ordered by the king Humbert I of Italy to reprime severely the s.c. "bread riots" in Milan, in June 1898. This he did with cruel effectiveness. The King officially thanked Gen. Beccaris for his "service" and granted him the Great Cross of Honor. Two years later, on July 29, 1900, the King was shot dead by a young anarchist from Prato, Gaetano Bresci, who intended this way to avenge all the victims of Bava Beccaris' repression.
In the Italian lyrics, "Bava il beccaio" is an untranslatable wordgame on "Beccaris" and "beccaio", an old word for "butcher".
[2] "Piazza Dom" is the dialectal name of the Cathedral Square in Milan.
[3] Val di Non, or Anaunia Valley, is a valley in the Trento region.
[4] King Humbert I of Italy (see Note 1).
[5] Rho is a small town in Milan neighborhood. The Bersaglieri are Italian infantry troops famous for wearing a cockfeathered helmet.
[6] The Minister of the Interior Nicotera ordered the Italian army to reprime severely a series of riots in Naples (Mergellina is an old part of Naples).
[7] The s.c. "wheat tax" (tassa sul grano, o tassa sul macinato) was a most unpopular tax imposed by the Italian right-wing government on ground cereals. As it affected the basic element of poor people's alimentation in Italy, it caused insurrection in several regions of Italy, among which Emilia. After the insurrection was (as usually) reprimed in blood, the tax was finally withdrawn in 1876.
[8] To hell. Reference is again to King Humbert I's murder by the anarchist Bresci.