La macchina [English translation]

A car, a brand new clean car.

Engine alright, last inspection done, everything working.

Shiny, painted, well-finished.

Small cloche gearbox, finishing to the junction with a quilted lucid fake leather folding.

The space for coins, a really modern rectangle, rough black.

Plastic window ashtrays, opaque black, perfectly working.

A hand, a man's white hand, not very hairy, moves slowly: It opens a deflector, the glass slips, it lightly creaks, a subtle acute noise.

Then silence, a head gets closer, it leans on the glass, a drop gently falls from the motionless forehead.

The man is motionless, the car is too.

A freeway, a freeway of stationary cars, many, very many stationary cars. A line of stationary cars.

Something happened, something happened, horn noises, flashing sirens

Yes, something at the 107th kilometer, a truck.

Still silence.

The line is stationary, someone gets off their car, silence, a complete silence.

Someone is heard speaking English in the distance, whispering like in a dream.

There's still the distant noise of a muffled siren's lament.

Everyone goes back on the cars, the line slowly moves forward, a few shy exciting overtakings.

Hundred-twenty, hundred-fifty, hundred-ninety, blinker, overtaking, blinker, overtaking, horn.

The first tunnel, position lamps, blinker, overtaking.

The second tunnel, the landscape moves, it's not horizontal anymore; green spots above and below, it stretches into little stairs, skipping, pleasantly.

Tunnel, dark, light. Tunnel, dark, light. Tunnel, dark light.

Breach, here we go.

The sea, the sea, the sea.

• Artist:Giorgio Gaber
• Album:Dialogo tra un impegnato e un non so