Me' nnamoravo de te [English translation]

I was born in the 70s and I'll start by saying once upon a time there was

a free radio, always on and it told everything

music, sport, political fights, high and peaceful hippies

love columns and poems, state affairs and antipathies

between workers and masters, moralists and intellectuals

San Pellegrino or San Bitter, Berlinguer's compromise.1

It was the 70s, the 70s and "Carosello"2 was ending

Pasolini's ideas were killed with a knife. 3

And I

I was falling in love with you

I was falling in love with you.

I was falling in love with you.

I was falling in love with you.

I was falling in love with you.

I was falling in love with you.

I grew up in the 80s, the 80s, the 80s, 80s

Italy wins the World Cup and sees the dawn of the new Channel 5

6 7 8 the alternation in Parliament is costantly changing

it doesn't leave space for the oath "I'll do it for our country"

the obstinacy of an ideology that isn't red and isn't black

sometimes defended with no shame.

Italy votes and goes beyond borders

it hugs silently for Sandro Pertini's death. 4

And I

I was falling in love with you.

I was falling in love with you.

I was falling in love with you.

I was falling in love with you.

I was falling in love with you.

I was falling in love with you.

Here they are, the 90s, and while in Germany the wall crumbles

a clean hand5draws the future

the land that we love is playing Monopoli and it pays the toll for Tangentopoli6

there are those who whisper beneath the carpets that secret pacts exist

you hear talks about them but you never see them.

Political party leaders and heads of families love each other so well7

they swear alliance till their deaths and judges with their safety escorts blow up.8

And I

I was falling in love with you.

I was falling in love with you.

I was falling in love with you.

I was falling in love with you.

I was falling in love with you.

I was falling in love with you.

I was falling in love with you.

I was falling in love with you.

I was falling in love with you.

I was falling in love with you.

I was falling in love with you.

I was falling in love with you.

The progress considers sacrifice and love

the progress implies courage and pain

marrying your motherland you marry the ardor of a clean future, of a better dawn

Come kids, come children, Italy woke up among saints and murderers.

It looks evil, a thief and a failure

but it's just violated, confused and scared.

1. "Compromesso storico" (Historic compromise), an Italian political alliance between DC and the PCI. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historic_Compromise2. It was a daily television show that mainly consisted of comedy sketches and advertising broadcast by RAI for an audience of about 20 million viewers. The last episode aired in 1977, twenty years after its debut.3. Important figure in Italian literature and cinema, he was murdered in 1975. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pier_Paolo_Pasolini4. Seventh President of the Italian Republic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandro_Pertini5. Wordplay referring to "Mani pulite" (Clean hands), a scandal about political corruption. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mani_pulite6. Translatable as "Bribesville", it was the name used for the corrupt system uncovered by the "Mani pulite" investigations, see note 57. Reference to the "Patto stato-mafia" (State-mafia Pact), negotiation between important Italian functionaries and Sicilian mafia, Cosa Nostra. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State-Mafia_Pact8. Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino were two Italian judges and prosecuting magistrates who dedicated themselves to fighting Sicilian mafia. They were both murdered for their efforts. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Falcone#Death https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paolo_Borsellino#Murder