Argenti vive [English translation]

As we were ploughing the still swamp, a spirit covered in mud loomed up in front of me.1

He reached out for our boat, but Virgil promptly forced him back saying:

“Off you go, be gone among the damned likes of you!”.2

And I said: “Master, I would very, very willingly, before we leave this swamp, see him be plunged back into this sludge”.3

Shortly after, I saw the wrathful massacring him so ruthlessly, that I’m still glorifying and thanking God for it. 4

They were shouting altogether: “Give it to Filippo Argenti”!5 6

To Filippo Argenti!

Hey there Dante, remember me? I’m Filippo Argenti

The neighbour7whom in your Comedy did you place amongst these brutes

I’m the one drowning in the mud

Beaten up by all the demons around

What? You want to provoke me, oh sublime?

All you can provoke in me is sleep

Alighieri, look, quiver, you fear me like erythema

Was it you who derided me?

You’re supposed to fight, but you take to your heels and run instead

You, a bard? Buzz off!

Hey, when-whenever, say-say where

I’m damned, but I’ll beat you like hell

That’ll teach you what happens when you give a bad rhyme to me

I wouldn’t curse you, I’d harm you, Alighieri

You’re not divine, individual

If I locate you, I’ll dislocate you8

Extolling your lover9is for nothing, Dante

You can only provoke a drop in libido

The world is not to poets, no!

The world is to us, the domineering

You go rhyming around that you’re slinging me in the mud

But I am still Argenti

Argenti lives, lives and will

I am still the most feared in this city

I am still the most respected, so what’s your making up stories for?

If this world is Hell, then know it belongs

To Filippo Argenti!

Poet, you are showing disdain

For Filippo Argenti!

But everyone consecrates this kingdom

To Filippo Argenti!

Your tercets are waste paper

My sets of five10slapped on your face11

Leave a mark

Poet, you are showing disdain

For Filippo Argenti!

But everyone consecrates this kingdom

To Filippo Argenti!

Your tercets are waste paper

My sets of five slapped on your face

Leave a mark

It’s not true that the pen is mightier than the sword, bullshit

What do you think keeps better at bay? Rhymed couplet or war club?

No dictator is talked into abdication

Seems like no one even knows what “abdication” means anymore, what are we wasting our breath on?

Attacking me won’t redeem you, no

It was you issuing directives, to annihilate every Ghibelline12

Circle 7, first ring13

“Ye were not made to live like unto brutes”14

Nice try, you’re still spitting revenge

From Phlegyas’ boat15

Congrats for your production

Argenti lives, lives and will

People love my ferocity

Even you, who’s drowning me by fierce kicks in my mouth

Your name is Dante Alighieri, but your manners remind me more

Of Filippo Argenti!

Poet, you are showing disdain

For Filippo Argenti!

But everyone consecrates this kingdom

To Filippo Argenti!

Your tercets are waste paper

My sets of five slapped on your face

Leave a mark

Poet, you are showing disdain

For Filippo Argenti!

But everyone consecrates this kingdom

To Filippo Argenti!

Your tercets are waste paper

My sets of five slapped on your face

Leave a mark

Keep away from blazes, you’ll get burned

Watch your back, dear Dante, brutes are everywhere

Every grand orator has been done in

By violent and brawny lords

Even trees need to elbow their way for a sunray

The rest are just futile, pretty words

I’m pretty sure in the forthcoming, young minds

Will resemble Argenti

And art will bring my name:

Filippo Argenti

Filippo Argenti

Filippo Argenti

Filippo Argenti

We left him there, in the swamp. This is all I’m telling you.16

1. The song opens with a paraphrase in contemporary Italian of the original Dante’s lines (Inferno, Canto VIII, lines 31-32)2. (Inferno, Canto VIII, lines 40-42)3. (Inferno, Canto VIII, lines 52-54)4. (Inferno, Canto VIII, lines 58-60)5. (Inferno, Canto VIII, line 61)6. Filippo Argenti became notorious for the aggressivity Dante uses against him in his Comedy, displaying harsh contempt toward him7. Filippo Argenti was in fact Dante’s neighbour8. lit. “divide you”9. Beatrice, the woman Dante loves and often sings in his poems10. Pun with the previous “tercets”: there’s no set of five lines in poetry rhyming schemes, here this “set of five” indicates a smack11. It appears that Filippo Argenti actually slapped Dante Alighieri in the face12. Dante sided with the White Guelphs, Argenti with the Black Guelphs, who eventually took control of Florance, forcing Dante into exile13. Location destined to the violent against neighbours14. One of the most notorious quotations from Dante’s Comedy (Inferno, Canto XXVI, line 119)15. It is Phlegyas who is ferrying Dante and Virgil across the swamp16. (Inferno, Canto VIII, line 64)

• Artist:Caparezza
• Album:Museica