Luci a San Siro [English translation]

They are right, they are right,

they told me: “Everything you do is old, sir,

come on, talk about women of vice squad,

that’s what they want, if you haven’t yet understood”.

But what could I say? "Look, I can't, when I loved

I loved inside her eyes,

maybe also in her arms

but I always cried for her happiness”.

Lights at San Siro,1in that evening

What’s odd, we have all been there,

do you remember our play amid the fog?

You hide and if I find you I love you right there.

But you are cheating, you are yelling,

it isn’t fair, it's too easy this way

finding you, loving you, playing our time

on the dead grass, with the cold that there is.

But time flies away, they’ve caught me in a trap,

I’m no longer able to say a single “no”.

I see you and sometimes I’d like to tell you:

but those people, what are they doing around us?

Do my life, do your life,

at some point it had to end up this way.

You laughed, and perhaps you had a flower,

I couldn’t understand you, you never understood me.

Write, Vecchioni, write songs,

the more you write, the more clever you are and make money2

anyhow, what does it matter for those who listen to them

if she consented or not, and who is she?

Get paid, assert yourself,

the more you bow your head, the more they’ll say yes,

and what does it matter if your hands are dirty?

keep them closed, so nobody will know.

My Milan, take me away, it’s so cold,

I’m disgusted and can't stand it anymore.

Let’s do exchange, please take with you

my little money, my little notoriety

but give me back my Fiat 600,

my twenties and a girl that you know…

Milan, sorry, I was joking

The lights at San Siro won’t be switched on anymore

1. San Siro: the main football stadium in Milan.2. Danè: money, in Lombard dialect.

• Artist:Roberto Vecchioni