Vespa Tunes I - L'anno che verrà, Lucio Dalla, 1979

I love belting out tunes while riding my Vespa. In the interests of public well-being I stop when I get to the lights. My repertoire includes an eclectic mix of Italian singers and many of the songs feature Rome (here’s a Spotify playlist to which I will add as I think of more). In recent weeks however, given the turning of the year, I have turned from Rome to the Bolognese singer-songwriter Lucio Dalla’s 1979 song L’anno che verrà. Romans love Lucio Dalla too, so I think I can sneak him in here.

It’s a fabulous song written as the end of the seventies was hoped to herald the end of the anni di piombo (years of lead): years of social and political upheaval in Italy peppered with horrific domestic terrorist attacks and unrest. Dalla’s jaunty song drips with irony. He was right to be unconvinced by the sunlit uplands vaunted by the media as lying in wait just beyond the crest of the new decade. As we are keenly aware at present it turns out events have little interest in calendars, and those “years of lead” persisted well into the 1980s and indeed beyond. At 10.25am on 2 August 1980 the single largest terrorist attack on Italian soil in peacetime killed 85 people and wounded over 200 at the Bologna Centrale railway station in a bomb attack attributed to a neo-Fascist group. I vividly remember the assassination of Marco Biagi, a professor of labour law and a government adviser, shot on the street in Bologna outside his home in 2002 by a terrorist group linked to the Red Brigades.

Here is my translation of the song. Reasonably functional I hope, if not poetic. (If you click on the YouTube video and scroll down the song carries on playing and the lyrics and my translation are below). It is a fleeting and droll glimpse into the end of a troubled decade in Italy, and the beginning of another.

Caro amico, ti scrivo, così mi distraggo un po'
E siccome sei molto lontano, più forte ti scriverò
Da quando sei partito c'è una grossa novità
L'anno vecchio è finito, ormai
Ma qualcosa ancora qui non va

Dear friend, I’m writing to you to distract myself

And given that you’re very far away, I’ll write to you louder

Since you left there’s been a great change

The old year is finished

But things here still aren’t right

Si esce poco la sera, compreso quando è festa
E c'è chi ha messo dei sacchi di sabbia vicino alla finestra
E si sta senza parlare per intere settimane
E a quelli che hanno niente da dire
Del tempo ne rimane

People don’t go out in the evening much, even when it’s a holiday

And some people have put sandbags by their windows

And there’s no talking for weeks on end

And those who haven’t got anything to say

Have time on their hands

Ma la televisione ha detto che il nuovo anno
Porterà una trasformazione
E tutti quanti stiamo già aspettando

But the television said that the new year

Will bring a great change

and we’re all ready for it

Sarà tre volte Natale e festa tutto il giorno
Ogni Cristo scenderá dalla croce
Anche gli uccelli faranno ritorno
Ci sarà da mangiare e luce tutto l'anno
Anche i muti potranno parlare
Mentre i sordi già lo fanno

There will be three Christmasses and everyday will be a holiday

Every Christ will come down from his cross

And the birds will come back

There will be plenty to eat and it will be light all year long

Even the dumb will be able to speak

While those who don’t listen already do

E si farà l'amore, ognuno come gli va
Anche i preti potranno sposarsi
Ma soltanto a una certa età

And everyone will make love in the manner they choose

Even priests will be able to marry

But only at a certain age

E senza grandi disturbi qualcuno sparirà
Saranno forse i troppo furbi
E i cretini di ogni età

And without particular disturbance some people will disappear

Perhaps they’ll be the overly cunning

And the cretins of every era

Vedi, caro amico, cosa ti scrivo e ti dico
E come sono contento
Di essere qui in questo momento
Vedi, vedi, vedi, vedi

Do you see, my dear friend, what I’m writing and telling you

And how happy I am

To be here in this moment

Do you see? …

Vedi caro amico cosa si deve inventare
Per poter riderci sopra
Per continuare a sperare

Do you see dear friend what we have to come up with

To be able to laugh about it

To carry on hoping?

E se quest'anno poi passasse in un istante
Vedi amico mio
Come diventa importante
Che in questo istante ci sia anch'io

And if this year were to pass in an instant

Do you see my friend

How important it is

That in this moment I’m here too?

L'anno che sta arrivando tra un anno passerà
Io mi sto preparando, è questa la novità

The year that’s coming will be over in a year

I’m getting ready for it, and that’s what’s new