Giovanni telegrafista [English translation]
Giovanni telegrafista [English translation]
Piripiripiri...
John the telegraphist
and nothing more,
a humble, small station
there were more trees and birds
than people
but he had an urgent heart
even without
a promotion
pressing pressing
a single key.
Piripiripiri...
Elliptic, like any good
telegraphist
cutting flowers1, prepositions
to shorten words
to be more concise as necessary, as necessary.
He met Dawn, who had little to do with dawn,
neither a morning person,
nor white2
who fled one day, the only day
she woke up early
to go live big city3
full lights jewels.
Piripiripiri...
Bleeding, urgent story.
Ah, uselessness Morse alphabet
in the hands John telegraphist
looking looking for Dawn
every place served telegraph.
Ah, when it grows old
how painful is urgence.
John the telegraphist
and nothing else... urgent.
Piripiripiri...
Through his hands passed world
a world that made him urgent
cryptographic, fast, coded,
passed price of coffee
passed wedding Edward
VIII, now the Duke of Windsor
passed grasshoppers China
passed commotion of flying bomb
passed many things, but among them
passed news Dawn getting married
to another man.
Piripiripiri...
John the telegraphist
the one with an urgent heart
said nothing, only
three black swallows
with no symbolic intent at all
landed
on the telegraphic sob.
Dawn.. it's urgent.
Piripiripiri...
1. "fiori": lit. "flowers", but also unnecessarily complex word constructions2. "Alba" means "dawn" but also comes form latin "Albus" = "white" 3. From here onwards, both this song and the original poem are written in the clipped style typical of telegrams.
- Artist:Enzo Jannacci