Il bandito e il campione [English translation]

Two boys in the village grown up too fast,

the same passion for bicycles,

their fates met and crossed in a strange story

a story we have no memory of in our times,

a story of another age, before the age of the automobile,

when one raced for anger or for love

but the gap between anger and love is already growing

and it's already clear who the champion will be.

Go Girardengo1, go, great champion,

nobody follows you on that county road.

Go Girardengo, Sante is out of sight

he is around the bend, he's more and more distant.

And behind the bend of time that flies

there's Sante on a bicycle with a pistol in his hand.

If he's pursued at night he shoots and hits every headlight,

Sante the bandit is an excellent shot

and banks know that and police2 knows that,

Sante the bandit is really scary

and bounties don't do any good and courage isn't enough

Sante the bandit has too much head start.

Maybe it was long-standing poverty or maybe an injustice

that transformed that boy in a merciless bandit,

but nobody can escape their fate

you were looking for justice but you found the Law.

But a good policeman who knows how to do his job

knows that every man has a weakness that will make him fall

and what made you fall was your great passion:

waiting for the arrival of your friend, the champion.

That finish line saw you in handcuffs

they were shining in the sun like bicycles.

Sante Pollastri, your race3 is over

and word is, someone betrayed you.

Go Girardengo, go, great champion,

nobody follows you on that county road.

Go Girardengo, Sante is nowhere to be seen

he is around the bend, he's more and more distant

he is around the bend, he's more and more distant.

Go Girardengo, Sante is nowhere to be seen

he is around the bend, he's more and more distant.

1. Costante Girardengo, Italian road bicycle racer, who was a childhood friend of notorious bandit Sante Pollastri: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costante_Girardengo2. lit: questura = police headquarters3. Giro = Giro d'Italia, the most important bicycle race in Italy