Canzone del maggio [English translation]

Even if our May

did it without your courage

if the fear of confronting yourself

makes your bow your chin

if the fire has saved

your car

even if you consider yourself absolved

you are nonetheless involved.

And if you have told one another

that nothing is going on,

they will reopen the factories,

arrest some students

convinced it must be a game

that wouldn't last long

try to consider yourself absolved

you are nonetheless involved.

Even if you have closed

your gates in our big face

the night when the cops

bite our ass

we let ourselves be massacred

in good faith on the pavement

even if you don't give a damn now,

you, in that night, you've been there.

And if in your neighborhood

everything stayed the same,

without the barricades

without casualties, without grenades,

if you have taken for good

the „truth“ of TV

even if you have absolved yourself at that time

you are nonetheless involved.

And if you now believe

that everything is like before

because you have voted

for security, discipline,

convinced to have dismissed

the fear of change

we will come again to your gates

to shout even louder

because even if you consider yourself absolved

you are nonetheless involved,

because even if you consider yourself absolved

you are nonetheless involved.

• Artist:Fabrizio De André
• Album:Storia di un impiegato (1973)