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Ho fatto finta di pensarti come ad una conchiglia ancora chiusa, inviolata dai capricci del mare… e poi ho pregato gli dei che non esistono di strapparti ai rimedi che fingi di attuare per incastrare insieme le frasi di una canzone senza note in cui dici che non ci sarebbero state stelle in cielo quella notte perchè Dio le avrebbe conservate per una notte migliore... ho pensato a quanto sarebbe stato bello avere avuto un cane da portare fuori a pisciare... Non so niente ma so che col vento cadono le foglie... lo so... E poi mentre andavo al lavoro a far finta di essere di buon umore un vecchio mi tampona e io ho fatto finta di sentire dolore... all'ospedale un dottore ha fatto finta di non capire ma per non rischiare ha fatto finta di volermi guarire... tanto c'era l'assicurazione... e io ho fatto finta di cercare ancora una volta una persona viva tra le macerie di un palazzo che non è mai crollato... Non so niente ma so che col tempo cadono anche le stelle... lo so... Sono tornato e ho fatto finta di riordinare casa sistemando a caso le cose quasi come se fosse davvero la mia casa... e non immagini la pena di trovare il tuo cuore-aquilone impigliato tra i rami di un albero spoglio che spera ancora in un soffio di vento... io non sono la stella cadente che si ferma a guardarti precipitare nel vuoto, ma continuo a pensarti come una conchiglia ancora chiusa... inviolata dai capricci del mare... Una donna e la sua semplicità © 2003 Marta sui tubi |
I pretended to think of you as a shell still closed, inviolate from the vagaries of the sea . . . and then I prayed to the gods that don’t exist to rip you from the remedies that you pretend to actuate to fit together the phrases of a song without notes in which you say that there would not have been stars in heaven that night because God would have saved them for a better night . . . I thought about how beautiful it would have been to have had a dog to take out to pee . . . I don’t know anything but I know that with the wind the leaves fall . . . I know it . . . And then while I was going to work to pretend to be in a good mood, an old man patted me and I pretended to feel sad . . . at the hospital a doctor pretended to not understand but so as to avoid risk he pretended to want to heal me . . . there was so much assurance . . . and I pretended to search again for a living person among the ruins of a palace that never crumbled . . . I don’t know anything but I know that with time even the stars fall . . . I know it . . . I returned and pretended to tidy up the house, organizing things at random almost as if it were truly my house . . . and don’t imagine the pain of finding your heart-kite tangled up in the branches of a barren tree that still hopes in a gust of wind . . . I am not the falling star that stops to watch you rain down in the void, but I keep on thinking of you as a shell still closed . . . inviolate from the vagaries of the sea . . . English translation © 2023 Dennis Criteser C'è gente che deve dormire (There are People Who Should Sleep) was Marta sui tubi's second album, released in 2005 on the Eclectic Circus Records label. Between their first and second album, the band relocated from Bologna to Milan, a city more packed with people and their business pursuits . . . and perhaps with people who should be sleeping and not keeping their neighbors up. |
I began exploring Italian popular songs as part of learning Italian. Here are my translations for some of my favorite "canzoni" by Italian singers, songwriters, and bands whose work I admire. It's a work in progress that can serve as a curated introduction to Italian popular music, with an emphasis on the 1950s through the 1990s. If you speak Italian, send me a message if you see lyrics I've misunderstood.
