Bisanzio [English translation]

So, even tonight the moon has risen

Drowned in too red, too vague a colour

Υou cannot see Vesper,1it’s growing dark

The point of the stylus has broken

What horoscope can you cast tonight, Magician?

I, Philematios, archiater, mathematician, astronomer,

Maybe a sage, groping in the dark like a blind man,

I have not the knowledge, or the courage

To cast this horoscope, to divine an oracle

And I stay here waiting for the dawn to come...

And I must say, I must say that I am maybe too old to understand

That I lost my faith in no matter what abuse or otium

Or are the stars changing in the equinoctial nights?

Or, maybe I have underestimated this new god,2for sure,

I feel, I see in the stars that something is changing

But it is only a sign that doesn’t tell me how and when..

On last evening I was walking almost unconciously

To the Bosphoreion harbour, where dryland does fade

In the sea and becomes a vague infinite

And when back on dryland, it's another continent,

And the sea doesn't matter if it was blue or green3

I heard groups of drunkards singing absurd songs,

With their painted eyes, with their empty glances

A hippodrome, a brothel, soldiers from the North

Tell me, Romans and Greeks, where have you gone?

I heard bloody oaths in Alemannic and Gothic...

Strange city, absurd city of this emperor, bridegroom of a whore4

Of countless mobs, of labyrinths, of impiety

Of barbarians who, maybe, do already know the truth5

Of philosophers, of heterae,6hanging between two epochs and two worlds

My wealth and age decided for a day not far to come

And then, fate would ask her that she would give me her hand, but...

Byzanthium’s maybe only an imperscrutable symbol,

Secret and ambiguous just like this life

Byzanthium is a world I’m not accustomed to,

Byzanthium is a dream not coming to an end

Byzanthium, maybe, has never existed

And I still don’t know. Another night has gone

Lucifer’s7already risen, there’s a blow of wind,

It is cold on the tower or it’s my sick age

I can’t tell life from death, which of the two has gone

I cover my head with my mantle, I can’t hear anything more

And I fall asleep, I fall asleep, I fall asleep.

1. The planet Venus, which appears as a bright star at dusk and dawn. The ancients believed that they were two different stars and called the evening star Hesperus (Vesper) and Lucifer the star of the early morning.2. Christianity.3. Green and Blue were the two main factions in which the Byzantine population was divided. To the stadium cheer for chariot races at the hippodrome (not different from the modern ultras) it was added the religious dispute about Monophysitism and political affiliations to one or another pretender to the throne.4. Justinian. He married Theodora, a dancer and therefore considered woman of easy virtue. However, she showed great political qualities and ability as lawgiver.5. The decadence and the next decline of the Roman Empire.6. Heterae, from the greek Byzantine ἐταῖραι, "occasional escorts", and by extension “courtesans”, "prostitutes".7. See note 1.

• Artist:Francesco Guccini