Bologna [English translation]

Bologna is an old lady with a slightly saggy waistline

her breasts on the Po valley and her bum on the hills,

Bologna, insolent and pompous1

Bologna the Red2, the fetal one,

Bologna the Fat3, the humane one,

with a hint of Romagna4 and a whiff of Tuscany.

Bologna, for me, a small-town dweller, was a lesser Paris:

open-air markets, bistrots, the scent of the "rive gauche".

Sartre5 was busy pontificating,

Baudelaire used to sing between absinthe glasses

and I, a foul-mouthed man from Modena6,

I was toiling for a relationship, even a casual one.

But that boho lifestyle was full of comforts,

played between houses and taverns,

in philosophical disputes bouncing from glass to glass.

Oh, we were so poetic,

yet without shyness or fear,

and old drunks' [rants] sounded like literary works.

Oh, we all were so creative,

yet without shyness or shame,

cradled by the porticoes7, the thighs of our mother Bologna.

Bologna is a woman from Emilia with solid cheekbones,

Bologna, capable of love, capable of death,

who knows what matters and what counts most,

who gets the gist of things8

who gives the right value to life

and manages to stand even after being hit.

Bologna is a wealthy lady from a peasant background,

- affluence, villas, jewels, and salamis in the store window -

who knows that the smell of poverty

is difficult to accept9,

and wants to feel confident

with what she wears, because she knows what fear is.

You are wasting your scent of affluence,

with the odd combination

of those who die for their dreams10 in front of San Petronio.

And your citizens, if they exist,

are they still there or did they get lost,

disoriented and now bound to a thousand other worlds?

Oh, they sing so many words to you,

pandering to people's clichés,

singing songs that feel like singing of nothing.

Bologna is an unusual dame, a gross, yet matronal woman

Bologna is a respectable girl, Bologna is a slut,

Bologna, the belly button of everything,

you make me sigh and belch,

you make me feel remorse for what you gave me

which is now almost a memory and has the scent of the past.

1. lit. "papal"2. a traditional nickname of Bologna, referring to its history as a Communist/Socialist stronghold 3. another traditional nickname referring to its rich cuisine4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emilia-Romagna 5. a nickname given to one of Guccini's friends; "Baudelaire" (next verse) is another one 6. Guccini's hometown 7. Bologna is renown for the extensive porticoes in the city's historical centre, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site8. the literal meaning is something like "who knows the taste of salt" 9. or possibly "to hide"10. According to Guccini's autobiography, this refers to drug addicts found dead in the square in front of the Basilica of San Petronio

• Artist:Francesco Guccini
• Album:Metropolis