Novecento [English translation]

Some say those skies are suitable

for horses and that roads

are made of soundstage dust.

Some say that inside the houses, pale-faced women

with their old Singer machines sew

light gingham coats

clothes that billow in the wind

and everything else is just rubbish,

old stuff for Chinese people, eh, eh.

Some say that old little tune

from the 19th century makes

some old dolls smile in a sweet dream

all of them, pierced by an Indian arrow,

memories of the previous century,

stuff from a distant era,

an era [they] glimpsed in the white flash

of a magnesium flare

over the crazy red of manganese, eh eh.

The silence was indigo, and so was the Great Spirit

that slowed the onset of frost

and shooed crows away from the hill.

Like an old cook in a kitchen,

scolding the ghosts of gourmands

in a slow, sing-song way.

Nevermind, just leave it, don't bother,

we don't know where we were

that morning that was worth seeing, eh eh.

Where were we that morning

when the 20th century was running

the great race of moccasins...

Up there, on the pleistocene stage

on the prehistoric plateau

volcanic, then galvanic...

Some say it's all vanilla,

a great battle,

a big wonder, eh, eh.

The galvanized wind was opening

all garages and freeing

some big, thrilling engines.

Yellow straw was fluttering in the air,

higher than the realm of eagles,

where airplanes shine...

The airplane was shining like the eyes

of stray boys who

were looking at it from the branches of cherry trees, eh eh.