Dolphins go dance1 on the beaches
Elephants go dance in unknown cemeteries
Clouds go dance at the horizon.
Trains go dance in museums with fees
And you, where do you go dance?
Come and dance in Apulia, Apulia, Apulia2
trembling like a leaf, leaf, leaf.
Hold your head up when you pass by the crane
because it may detach and fall down.
Hey, tourist, I know you stop in this Italian3 place.
Pay attention! You step over the pass but this land drives you crazy
Adriatic and Ionian Sea, you want to breathe in the salt air
but here on the gulf the air reeks of sulphur, 'cause the devil is about to come.
Terrific tans thanks to the dioxin produced by ILVA 4
Here you get red dots, redder than Milva5 and then you look like Pimpa6.
In the area they sell the best death7
Some smoked poison at ENI8
some worked and went into a coma.
Even the Gargano9 smokes with all those forest fires.
Tourist, you dance and sing while I count dead people in this country.
Where sly men who run companies spare no expense,
they think the Kyoto Protocol is a Japanese erotic movie.
Come and dance in Apulia, Apulia, Apulia
where the night is dark, dark, dark.
so dark that if you close your eyelids you won't reopen them.
Come and dance and scratch your balls
you, who came to dance in Apulia, Apulia, Apulia
trembling like a leaf, leaf, leaf.
Keep your head up when you pass by the crane
because it may detach and fall down.
It's true, here we throw parties, but people are depressed and wasted.
A friend of mine had to get a factory job in order to commit suicide
Between a falling mast and a bursting pipe
in that bedlam those who toil away get killed and those who don't, buy drugs
and they get addicted until they occupy their tomb
Come and dance, bro, in tomato farms
where the Mafia enslaves workers, and if you rise up you'll get kicked out.
Romanians piled in cubbyholes like peeled tomatoes in cans,
forced to put up with the blackmailing of big men, as big as confetti 10.
Tourist, stay here in sandals, don't make a scandal if we are ungrateful
and if we've forgotten that we are children of emigrants.
Mortified, we won't ruin your trip.
Come on, come to Apulia, come to a better life11
Come and dance in Apulia, Apulia, Apulia
where the night is dark, dark, dark.
so dark that if you close your eyelids you won't reopen them.
Come and dance and scratch your balls
because you have to dance in Apulia, Apulia, Apulia
where the hangman is waiting for you.
At the corners of the streets there are more swords12 than at King Arthur's court
the abyss opens and you go straight to Hell 13
Oh, my Apulia, Apulia, you, my Apulia
I always carry you in my heart when I go away
and I think straightaway that I could die without you.
And I think straightaway that I could die even with you.
1. "ballare": lit: "dance", but try to substitute it with "die"2. Italian region 3. literally "Italic" as in belonging to one of the ancient civilizations that flourished in the Italian peninsula (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italic_peoples) 4. A major steel plant in Taranto, Apulia. Air pollution caused by ILVA makes it one of the most polluted cities in the world 5. A red-haired Italian singer 6. A cartoon character, a white dog with red spots7. pollution 8. An Italian energy company 9. forested National park in the northern part of Apulia 10. recruiters of day workers, known for bullying workers 11. euphemism for "die" 12. slang for drug needles 13. Beelzebub = the Devil