Centro di gravità permanente [English translation]

An old Breton lady with a hat and an umbrella made of rice paper and bamboo cane;

captains courageous1;

smart Macedonian smugglers;

Jesuit

Euclid followers

dressed as Buddhists to enter courts of emperors of the Ming dynasty2

I seek a permanent center of gravity3

that will never make me change my mind about things, about people

I might need...

I seek a permanent center of gravity

that will never make me change my mind about things, about people

Over and over again.

In Beijing streets on some day in May,

we were joking around picking nettles.

I can't stand Russian choirs, fake rock music,

the Italian new wave, the English free punk jazz.

Not even the African black music.4

I seek a permanent center of gravity

that will never make me change my mind about things, about people

I might need...

I seek a permanent center of gravity

that will never make me change my mind about things, about people

Over and over again.

You are a woman in love.

Baby, I need your love, I want your love.

Over and over again.

Come into my life.

Oh, baby, I want to give you my soul.

Baby, I need your love.

1. From the Kipling novel2. This is a criticism to the Christian tendency to seek supremacy over the other doctrines, by referencing Matteo Ricci, a Jesuit who tried to Christianize China by striking it from the inside, entering the emperors' courts disguised as a Buddhist.3. This is a reference to the Armenian philosopher Georges Ivanovič Gurdjieff. The permanent center of gravity is the state of a human's conscience when it is in balance between the three centers: motor, emotional and intellectual. In this state, one's observation of the external world is in a perfect balance with their own ideas, and not influenced by the opinions of others.4. Here the singer does not necessarily say what he thinks; instead, he is trying to represent today's tendency of people to criticize everything, which is exactly due to not having a “permanent center of gravity”.

• Artist:Franco Battiato
• Album:La Voce Del Padrone