Lyrics by Björn Afzelius and music by Jim Page.

Björn Afzelius wrote the following notes in his 95 Sånger (95 Songs) book:

"Jag satt en dag på stranden i Italien och läste Herald Tribune. På sidan sju redovisades ett förhörsprotokoll från Nicaragua. En Contrasoldat hade fått nog av sin egen verksamhet och frivilligt överlämnat sig till Sandanistregererigen i Managua. När jag läst artiklen frös jag som en hund i solskenet. Jag lämnade stranden och gick hem och skrev texten direkt ur tidningen. Offret i sången Ar bara två av de femtiotusen dodade nicaraguanska bönder, vilkas liv Ronald Reagan har på sin samvete - om han nu haft en sådant."

"One day I sat on the beach in Italy and read the Herald Tribune. On page seven was reported an interrogation minutes from Nicaragua. A Contra soldier had had enough of his own activities and freely surrendered himself to the Sandinista regime in Managua.... (continua)

Dimitri Petrenko, from his YouTube video.

Please be careful. Handle with care. This song is 40 years old. A song like this hasn't been written for a long time. It's 40 years old, but it might be well be 140 and have been translated into French and sung by Émile Zola while the striking miners' wives were seizing the greedy grocer fallen from the roof and snatched him his cock. This song states, through a survey of the entire history of Mankind, concepts that have been declared dead, and even worse than dead: failed. Its author, a Swedish-speaking Finn called Dan Berglund, disengaged completely and even sold his guitar, decided not to write and sing anything more. Instead, we repropose this outdated, 40 or 140 years old song, that is dead or, who knows, more alive than ever. And, when the song is over, if you don't stand up raising your fist, you have a heart of stone. Or you are dead. [RV]

Note.... (continua)

Dennis Criteser, De André in English, 2014

This famous poem written by Bertolt Brecht in mid-1953 but first published in 1959 in the West German newspaper Die Welt, is a critical comment on the uprising of 1953 in East Germany.

Riccardo Venturi, 4-1-2019 11:29

It is included in “Extras” because it's a poem, not a song; as far as I know, I am the only one who has “set to music” and sung a poem by Juan Rodolfo Wilcock (but I'd love being contradicted). I think the above mentioned page shows well which kind of relationship I have had with Juan Rodolfo Wilcock since my teenage years; the page also includes, in a ”little afterword” (even translated into French by Marco Valdo M.I.), another poem by the Argentine who wrote “in a sort of Italian” (as he used to say) hidden between the Roman nebulae and Lubriano, in the province of Viterbo. That poem, originating from some year in the 60's, is included in a bunch of poems called: “For the cat”, also including the following poem. Juan Rodolfo Wilcock must have had a son, and I have none. So to say, I have run the risk of having a couple of children, and, hearken!, from two... (continua)

Riccardo Venturi, 4-1-2019 08:37

Riccardo Venturi, 4-1-2019 06:53



“Putting things in a cosmological time scale is significant in that it should definitely make us realize and acknowledge our responsibility for the environment we live in”, writes Juha Rämö as a companion to his Finnish translation of this song (as far as I know or can remember, this is the first Finnish translation he made directly from Italian and I find it really great). Deproducers have issued in 2017 an entire album, “Botanica”, dedicated to plants and to the vegetal world: I think Juha Rämö's observation may find in this album still more force. Unfortunately, no lyrics are available and I'll have to cope with, at least for one piece exemplifying well what I am saying. For my English translation, or rendering, of this song, I have chosen to include a video by AMNH on the known Universe, also a song in itself.

English Version of the Album: Felona & Sorona
Version anglaise de l'album: Felona & Sorona
Albumin englanninkielinen versio: Felona & Sorona
The Famous Charisma Label, 1974
Testi inglesi / English Lyrics / Paroles anglaises / Englanninkieliset sanat: Peter Hammill

Nota.I testi inglesi di Peter Hammill, pur rispettando l'impostazione degli originali inglesi di Aldo Tagliapietra, non sono “traduzioni” o “versioni” nel senso stretto: sono, a pieno titolo, testi originali di Peter Hammill. Così devono essere presi e considerati. Nella versione inglese, i brani 3 e 6 sono stati combinati.

Note.Though respecting the general lines of the Italian original lyrics, Peter Hammill's English lyrics are no “translations” or “versions” in the strict sense of the word, but original lyrics by Peter Hammill. Such way are they to be considered. In the English version, tracks 3 and 6 are combined.

Riccardo Venturi, 10-12-2018 17:25

© Bertram Kottmann
(Source / Fonte / Lähde : lieder.net)

Riccardo Venturi, 5-12-2018 15:01

Does not rhyme. I tried to preserve the rhythm. I aimed for a very literal translation.

INGLESE / ENGLISH / ANGLAIS [8] - Andy Chango



Andy Chango, pseudonimo di Andrés Fejerman, nato nel 1970, è un cantante e musicista argentino che ha dedicato nel 2008 un intero album a traduzioni di Boris Vian in inglese e spagnolo

Andy Chango (1970) is an Argentinian singer and musician. In 2008 he published an album consisting entirely of translations of Boris Vian's songs into English and Spanish.

trascritta all'ascolto e da completare/rivedere

Disturbante, anche per l'interpretazione stessa... Trovo la voce della Ono quanto di più lontano dalla musica... Ha poi avuto anche l'insana idea di chiudere questo nuovo album con una versione di Imagine... Okkei, l'avrà scritta pure lei insieme a John, ma io vorrei lo stesso ucciderla...

Riccardo Venturi, 19-11-2018 21:40
(The version may be singable)

A short news once read in the newspaper Le peuple Breton: an elderly farmhand laborer, François Quenechou, was found dead of hunger and cold in a field in the Beauce plain , one cold winter morning. On this news, and on the scant news read about that poor man who had died of hardships in complete destitution, Gilles Servat built in 1975 this Ballad of François Quenechou, a moving song of exile, loneliness and poverty. The song, included in the album La Liberté brille dans la nuit (“Freedom shines in the night”), is a true song of public indictment set to various instruments so as to evoke the cracking of ice and the inexorable snowfalling; it is rightly considered among Gilles Servat's best pieces. Three years later, the song was also performed by Anne Vanderlove (under the title La ballade de François Quenechou, in the album... (continua)

Ceil Herman

Björn Afzelius wrote the following notes in his 95 Sånger (95 Songs) book:

"Sommaren 1989 slog Kinas militär till mot sina egna landsmän, och den totalitära staten visade sitt rätta ansikte. Över tusen studenter mördades, för att de ropade på frihet.

"In the summer of 1989 China's military fought against their own countrymen, and the totalitarian state showed its real face. Over a thousand students were murdered, because they cried out for freedom."

There is no video of Björn Afzelius singing this song. A cover version by Kurbits & Rötjut:

Mikael Wiehe wrote the following notes on his website www.mikaelwiehe.se:

Riccardo Venturi, 11-11-2018 23:23

Translator's note. The lyrics of this song are originally written in high-falutin Italian, mostly reproduced from old songs. A number of “keywords” taken from such songs are used: they have been translated, but the flavour and the suggestions they give to Italians can't be fully grasped by non-Italians.

Riccardo Venturi, 11-11-2018 20:41

Translator's Note. I thought at first about translating the parts in broken French into sort of Gallicized lingo, translating into English only the parts in correct French and, obviously, those in Sicilian. This would result, however, in something really awkward. So, I decided to translate the whole lyrics into standard English. Rather obviously, such a translation cannot reproduce the special flavour of the original; I think this could be only made by translating it into French.

This song won the third prize at the 2018 German Peace Song Contest.

Click here to listen to the song.

The original is "Song of Choice" by Peggy Seeger

This song won the second prize at the 2018 Peace Song Contest.

--> russmus

This song won the first prize at the 2018 German Peace Song Contest.

Click here to listen to the song.

INGLESE / ENGLISH / ANGLAIS / ENGLANTI [1]
Versione inglese dell'Equipe 84 - Traduzione di T. Scott
English version by Equipe 84 - Translation by T. Scott
Version anglaise : Equipe 84 - Traduction de T. Scott
Equipe 84'n englanninkielinen versio - T. Scottin käännös
[1967 : 29th september/Auschwitz (Imperial 1967)]

Dopo il grande successo in Italia del brano 29 settembre, anche la Equipe 84 tentò la strada della versione in inglese. Sul retro del disco la Equipe ha scelto di proporre Auschwitz, sempre tradotta in inglese, con grande attenzione alle parole originali scritte da Francesco Guccini, e una buona interpretazione in inglese di Maurizio Vandelli. - musicaememoria.com

Riccardo Venturi, 6-11-2018 18:27

Medley Imagine/What a wonderful world by Barbra Streisand

[2018]
Album: Walls


A note from Barbra :

This collection of songs reflects what’s been on my mind lately.

These are troubling times, and I felt compelled to add my voice to the dialogue some of us have been having. Many of the fundamental principles of democracy and freedom we’ve always taken for granted – freedom of the press, freedom of speech, freedom of expression – are eroding at an alarming rate. Even basic human decency appears to be melting away faster than the polar ice caps. I wanted to write and sing about some of these things… not only to convey my concerns, but also to state my belief that, if we remain vigilant to the truth, things can eventually turn around.

In the past year we’ve seen the very worst of humanity… and the very best. In the face of unimaginable natural disasters and unspeakable human cruelty, there... (continua)

Medley Imagine/What A Wonderful World by Barbra Streisand

[2018]
Album: Walls


A note from Barbra :

This collection of songs reflects what’s been on my mind lately.

These are troubling times, and I felt compelled to add my voice to the dialogue some of us have been having. Many of the fundamental principles of democracy and freedom we’ve always taken for granted – freedom of the press, freedom of speech, freedom of expression – are eroding at an alarming rate. Even basic human decency appears to be melting away faster than the polar ice caps. I wanted to write and sing about some of these things… not only to convey my concerns, but also to state my belief that, if we remain vigilant to the truth, things can eventually turn around.

In the past year we’ve seen the very worst of humanity… and the very best. In the face of unimaginable natural disasters and unspeakable human cruelty, there... (continua)

ulissecoroa (L. Trans.)

Mikael Wiehe translated "Basta ya" into this Swedish version. On his website, www.mikaelwiehe.se, he writes:

"Our photographer friend Tano D'Amico once told us that in a trip to Palestine, many years ago, he had made a photographic service in the refugee camps. There he met a family, mother, father and daughter. In March 2002 we went to Palestine and Tano went to meet the family in the picture. In the meanwhile, the child had grown up, and had recently blown herself up as a kamikaze."

juliaalvares (L. Trans.)

Riccardo Venturi, 29.10.2018 01:23

Ceil Herman

Björn Afzelius often expressed his empathy and concern for the outcasts and forgotten members of society in his songs. The tragic story told in this lovely ballad occurs today as well as when it was written.

Riccardo Venturi, 26.10.2018 10:52