Il bombarolo [English translation]

Those who go around saying

that I hate my job

don't know how much love

I dedicate myself to TNT with,

it's almost independent

a couple of hours more

and then I will give it a voice

the detonator.

My frail Pinocchio

handmade relative

of [explosive] devices built

on industrial scale.

It will never make me

a Knight of Merit for Labour,

I'm a different breed,

I'm a bomberman.

While walking down the stairs

I am more careful

it would be unforgivable

to execute myself at the front door

right on the day when

the decision is mine

on the penalty of death

or amnesty.

In the street many faces

don't have a nice shade

here, those who don't terrorise

get ill with terror,

there are those who wait for the rain

not to cry alone,

I disagree,

I'm a bomberman.

Today's intellectuals

Tomorrow's idiots

give me back the brains

that is enough for my hands,

very acrobatic prophets

of revolution

today I'll do it myself

without a lesson.

I'll track down your enemies

so distant for you

and after killing them

I'll be among the fugitives

but as long as I am looking for them

they are the fugitives,

I've picked a different school 1

I'm a bomberman.

Power too many times

delegated to other hands,

dropped 2 and given back to us

from your airplanes

I came to give you back

a bit of your terror

of your chaos,

of your noise.

This was what a desperate 30 years old man

thought intensely

if not completely right

almost not at all wrong,

looking for an adequate place

for his TNT,

In short, the place worthy

of a bomberman.

There are some who saw him laughing

in front of the Parliament

waiting for the explosion

that proved his talent,

there are some who saw him crying 3

a torrent of vowels

seeing a newsagent's kiosque

explode.

But what hurt him

deeply in his pride

was the image of her

that leant out of every sheet,

far from the ridiculousness

where she left him alone,

but on the first page

with the bomberman.

1. I think that with that he means "I do things in a different way" 2. "sganciare" means to drop something, like a bomb 3. weeping

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