Di cu si
Indians are coming
They’re too many, can’t even count them
We cannot stay here
We’ve got to get away!
You need to swing and push a little
For me this bed is a vessel
We cannot stay here
Let’s get away from here too!
Whose is it, whose is this nose right here?
And whose are you?
If the angry come
And if the false come too
You go and hide behind your mom
Behind mommy’s leg
And clap your hands, you clap and clap and clap
If you clap your hands daddy comes
And if you clap your hands
Spiderman comes too!
Whose are you, you cutie, whose are you?
And whose is this nose right here?
Whose are these eyes right here?
Whose are these hands right here?
Whose are these feet right here?
I’m going to bite them1
And if you clap your hands
I’m coming too
I’ll bring my guitar and teach you how to play it
But first you should learn
How to count: one, two, three
One, two, three
One, two, three
Four, five, six, seven, eight
“Tappete, tippete and a cookie!”2
Wild Rosalia
Twenty nights and twenty days now
I’ve been riding to come and kiss you
If it had been for you, if it had been for you
We’d have broken up!
In the darkest tavern
All the meanest flatter you
I think about you, then I think about me
O Rosalia!
Wild wild wild Rosalia
Now it’s a month I’ve been yelling for you
Wild wild wild Rosalia
You are wild just like me
Under the most annoying sun
When the moon is a hole and I see devils everywhere
I think about you, I super-think about you
O Rosalia!
When you shot me, sangu miu3
I caught a red fever
Deep into my bones
It’s rubella4!
Wild wild wild wild Rosalia!
I’ve been long here gathering these flowers for you!
Wild wild wild wild Rosalia
Banging my head on the wall and drinking sangria
Wild wild wild Rosalia
Without you
I start falling out
Wild wild wild Rosalia, Rosalia
I want you, I want only you
Kiss me once more, just once, come on!
Wild wild wild Rosalia
Without me
Who doesn’t enjoy it?
Granni granni
Up there I built my hut, it’s full
Of all my hazy kisses
Of all my hair and my spiders
With holes, so they can breathe!
My hut is really huge
Is really huge but
Nobody ever comes
Don’t dash off
We have to go soon
Don’t you worry about it
I will lead you myself
Don’t ever be afraid
There ain’t no snakes
And don’t you put make-up on
You’re cute the way you are
This way, we’ll never leave
My hut is made with clothespins
It’s full of milk-teeth and broken nails
I put there my first bicycle
It’s full of signs of the cross and confetti
Wooden spoons, it’s deep in the night
In my hut there are many other huts
It’s really huge, it’s really huge but…
Inside it’s full of ledges!
Bring a bunch of stones
To keep away the foes
Bring something to drink
You never know
We’ll hold each other there
Where I always used to play
I played with my brother
And there’s no more time to
Keep asking why
Keep asking where
Keep asking “how come?”
‘Cause in the end I never knew
I see everything really huge
In funn’o mare
You’re chasing me, you don’t chase me anymore
You’re doing everything yourself
In the middle of the street I stop for a moment
And I cry the sea but whose are these tears?
You’re chasing me, you’re chasing me, you two
I already know you, but him: is that me?
In the middle of the street I stop for a moment
And I cry the sea
But don’t these tears ever dry?
And I dream I fly
Among the stars
The red stars deep under the sea
And I dream I swim
Wouldn’t it be nice
To breathe deep under the sea?
You’re chasing me and I’m chasing you
In the desert of my indolence
The street is flooded and you are flooded too
But It’s me crying this sea
These tears are mine
And I’m crying to drown
Because these tears never dry
I drown and fall asleep
I sink like lead
Deep under the sea
And with my hollow eyes, filled with salt
I see the sky
And it’s like a sea over the sea
I drown and don’t you ever wake me up
If I lie down
Face up deep under the sea
And all the souls make a carnival
And invite me to sing
That’s how I want to die…5
Vuccirìa6
We used to run away already as kids
“All clear, green light!”
Hanging around down there, in the alleys
Barefeet on the ground, war in our heads
My mother fainting
And quivering
While I shot up with my hands on hips
Everybody chasing me like a Saint’s float.
“Blood of my vein’s blood,
If I catch you, I’ll break your back!”
My mother doesn’t know that I get drunk on Forst Beer7
And then I hop like a cricket,
A sardine, on my saddle
Tons of gel on my head,
I turn up rearing in the crowd
My mother wouldn’t understand, she can’t see me here
Looking for love in the middle of Garraffaello Square8.
Hunt! Hunt! The square
Is an animal, with hundreds of heads, hudreds of arms
At the street corner I bump into a couple of pals
My confusion ends and the Vuccirìa9 begins
Nobody here ever says anything
Nobody ever telling tales
In the morning I yell
At noon I yell
In the evening I yell
Night comes and I do Vuccirìa10
Drunken cats everywhere
One by one they fall like loquats
One of them slowly moves away to barf
And I see a white flower, a broodmare
So delicate, so neat
She says “scratch me”
Only with her eyes
I get off the scooter
And in my head I start a film and I’m the actor,
Actually, she and I naked, soaked in sweat,
We squeeze blackheads after making love
I take courage and say “Well,
Shall we get stuffed on beer until the day after tomorrow?”
I didn’t realize
That next to my love there was her man,
A knife in his hand so long I thought they were two,
One on top of the other, how cute!,
I take a peek and I see another one,
And another one, and another one…
If I apologized and beat it
Wouldn’t I get away with it?
But now I’m pissed
And I got my tetanus vaccine at Christmas
For a dog bite
And my ass doesn’t hurt anymore
I find a voice and I throw it upon the Vuccirìa
“Now let’s see who’s pulling back!”
Nobody here ever says anything
Nobody ever telling tales
In the morning I yell
At noon I yell
All my life I yell
Night comes and I do Vuccirìa
Who wet Vucciria’s balatas?11
It’s 4 against 1,
Coming thuggishly towards me
The crowd spreads out to watch
The square is the twist of a nostril, an altar
And the five of us are on the cutting board,
My temperature rises
At every step one of them takes,
They get nearer but I don’t step back
As if a whole hand closed on the thumb
Who was it that wet Vuccirìa’s balatas?
If I find out, I’ll hug him
And then kiss him
I’ll screw you all
Thanks to these slippery balatas, I’ll knock you down
Without even pushing you
So, listen to this, (there were 4 of them, no?):
The first slipped and second fell on him,
The third stabbed them
And banged his head on a balata,
The fourth tossed and turned,
He felt threatened and ran away!
Anyway
Among the crowd
Only my love and I were left, poor her!,
Scared for the rest of her life
Listen to her, she has no more words
She always tries to speak, but now she can only say:
“Stump staz stupurutaz..”
Rimmillu ru’ voti
When It’s hot and I feel cold
Come and wrap me with all your blankets
Help me find mine because I’ve lost them
And tell me that nothing happened
Tell me twice
When I puzzle over people
Come and sing to me a song with your voice
And let’s escape to a land with no crosses
And tell me that nothing can happen to us
Tell me twice
When I’m the meanest, you have to understand me
Because I’m too many things and I get upset
But you understand me, maybe too well
And tell me that nothing happened, but
Tell me twice
And tell me that nothing happened, ok
Tell me twice
When the sky falls and you can’t take it anymore
Because the sky falls to the ground and paints it all blue
I feel a bit ashamed, but come, you-know-where
Because I have to tell you something urgent
Nothing happened
Vita mia12, nothing happened
Es mi mai
You are so small, my little one
So that when you pass by at least one girl saddens
You are so small, my little one
So I can put you in a basket and stare at you
And I become as small as you
Make some room for both of us
In this basket and if
You close your eyes, I close mine too
It becomes an air balloon
And flies away…
Yeehaw! Yeehaw! Yeehaw!
Es mi mai, mi mai!
Look down there how small they are
They are just like you, they are just like you
They are just like…
They are just like me
If you look at them from up here
They are like so many ants
Do you think what I think too?
…Everybody, come up here!
Inside our balloon!
Yeehaw! Yeehaw! Yeehaw!
Es mi mai, mi mai!
I’m not coming back…
Sfardo
I don’t know anything
And always look at you
Night and day, day and night
I look at you
And I don’t know anything
I don’t have anything
But I keep on feeding you
My heart, this heart of mine
Is yours
You can chew it
But don’t go away, where do you go?
You open a crack deep in my soul
But don’t go away, where do you go?
Don’t tell me anything
Look, don’t look at me
I gasp and tear out my hair
I don’t want to spill this blood
And I feel nothing
I eat bland and drink salt
And I smell this scent of sky that
Makes me crazy
But don’t go away, where do you go?
You open a crack deep in my soul
What… don’t you know?
But don’t go away, where do you go?
Don’t you ever come back if you go away
Iccati sangu
Here on this side
I pray
That we will hug in the stars
Altogether there
At night I throw a voice13
To the other side
Why don’t you ever answer?
They never answer at all
If it doesn’t rain, this prayer is made of flames
Here on this side
I throw voices and I pray
Every night, every night, every night
I throw punches at the air
And I get tired twice
Why don’t you ever answer?
They never answer at all
If it doesn’t rain this prayer is made of flames
I pray some more and set you on fire
Go throw your blood away from here14
What are you looking at? I’ll set you on fire too
Go throw your blood away from here
Where do you think you’re going?
You haven’t got the guts to back off
It’s so warm in the winter
Here on this side
A light, it looks like August
What a shame for my hands!
It’s raining, from the sky it’s raining blood
I’m going to bathe
Go throw your blood away from here
What are you looking at? I’ll set you on fire too
Go throw your blood away from here
Where do you think you’re going?
You haven’t got the guts to back off
Un pisci rintr’a to panza
Mom, I have a crowd
Of fish in my head
The moon has turned off
Mom, can you turn it on for me?
At going away
I’ve always been the boldest
I’m just like this but this curse you know
You know it twice
When you were a child and played at being a mother
Did you expect two, four
Or three boys?
When morning is water
And I’m not awake yet
I feel a hand over my eyes
Mom, who could it be?
Time melts
And I go back swimming
A fish inside your belly
Me and you, a whole thing
Isn’t that amazing, mom?
When you were a child and played at being a mother
I don’t believe that you never wanted
A girl
When morning is water
And I’m not awake yet
I feel the stroke of that girl that
Was never born
A fever grabs me and melts me down
Millions of us swimming
A crowd of fish inside your belly
Then a moon lights up
By now I swim alone
This moon has swallowed only me
It tickles a little my thought
Of never having to be born
Of never having to suffer
Of never having to make you suffer
Of never having to die