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Le parole incrociate

Lucio Dalla
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Version française – Marco Valdo M.I. – 2009
CROSSWORD PUZZLELES MOTS CROISÉS
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]
Qui donc était Bava le boucher ? Il bombardait Milan;
Il courait en 1898; aujourd'hui, année assez lointaine.
Les chevaux à la Scala, les Alpins sur la place du Dôme.
Attention:
Cavalerie piémontaise, Alpins du Val de Non.
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]
Qui donc était ce roi Humbert ? Il commandait à Rome
Foudre de guerre, avec sa mèche au vent
L'infanterie était à Mantoue, les bersaglieri sur le Pô.
Attention:
Infanterie calabraise, bersaglieri de Rho.
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.
Et qui donc était Nicotera, ministre de l'Intérieur ?
Soleil des sept croix et feu de l'enfer
Le Barbier à l'Opéra, des canons à Mergellina.
Attention:
Tirs inexpiables, et massues du soir au matin.
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.
L'homme n'est pas fait de pierre
L'homme n'est pas un citron.
Et s'il n'est pas de pierre
Il n'est pas chair à canon.
A king's horse
a king's daughter
and a king's lust.
Only a king
may oppose a king.
Cheval de roi
La fille d'un roi
L'ombre d'un roi
Seulement un roi
Peut contrecarrer un roi.
The game of the powerful
is changing at their will
even the course of winds.
Le jeu des puissants
Est de changer ce qu'ils veulent
Même la course des vents.
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.
Et les citrons à Palerme ? Ils pendaient aux arbres.
Couvrant d'ombre le sang des pauvres gens.
Qui donc était Pinna ? Un procureur, ami de Garibaldi.
Attention:
Exécutions de masse, dans le château ancien.
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.
Et la taxe sur le grain ? Toute l'Émilie rouge
S'enflamme de fureur, brûle d'insurrection
État de siège, tirs, la troupe bivouaque
Attention:
Le fleuve roulait lentement de Crémone à Ferrare.
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.
Quel nom avait l'eau changée en bourbier ?
Massacre à chaud du peuple italien.
Une brigade décimée sur place.
Attentiom:
Soldats liés aux arbres, aux arbres du bois.
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.
L'homme n'est pas fait de pierre
L'homme n'est pas un citron.
Et s'il n'est pas de pierre
Ni même chair à canon.
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.
Alors que l'abatteur
Voulait
De la vieille viande
Il fut prestement pendu;
Et un roi à cheval
Lui aussi a sauté
Et au milieu du salpêtre
Fut précipité,
Comme au temps
De la grande fureur
Quand le vieil empereur
Condamnait à mort
Qui faisait l'amour.
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.
Six colonnes à la file, le jeu est terminé.
Dans son beau pré, l'Italie a une odeur de brûlé.
Un fil rouge relie toutes, toutes ces histoires.
Attention:
Nous sommes tous dedans,
C'est le pouvoir qui attaque.
TRANSLATION NOTES

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.


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