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Frankie Hi NRG — Verba Manent (1993)
Fight the Feud (Italian original)
Translation by Virginia Carlsten and Joe SciorraFather against son, brother against brother,
born in a tomb like meat in a slaughterhouse,
men with souls thin like sheets, razor sharp like a felony,
furious beyond any limit,
heroes without a land
who fight a war between the mafia and the camorra,
Sodoma and Gomorra, Naples and Palermo
hell's branch offices, devoured from the inside since time in memorium,
from a tumorous cloth cut from a criminal nature
while the world watches silently without intervening.
No more war between families incited
by desire for a wife and her dowry
who today gives life to sons and tomorrow takes it away,
leafless branches that she cuts
like hay that no one wants:
it's the eve of a revolution from the bossman's voice,
but Don Vito Corleone today is closer then you think:
he has a seat in Parliament.
It's the moment to launch a decisive offensive,
decisive, radical, and distructive
today more than ever unite against the mafia clans,there's a sinister haze,
maintained by taxes, feeding the pockets:
enough of the envelope slipped into the right pocket in this filty Italy
...you gotta fight the feud!South, don't let them castrate you
by the criminal power that wants to stop you:
ruin the festival, take them down a notch,
check out his head dropping into the basket.
Liberate your mind of every absurd prejudice:
it is the beginning of the end of the torture that dominated us for centuries,
that swallows us and then vomits us up again,
the power of demons that we call "men".
that kill other men, that exploit us youth
that clips the wings of the weakest angles
The power that subjugates, the power of drugs,
the power of the State that doesn't give a shit about anything:
the Massacre at Bologna (1), Ustica (2), Gladio (3),
the accumulation of skeletons in a closet.
Hate, your seed sprouts in the earth fertilized
by blood from the war and the camorra,
unconquered, rich and arrogant, continues to kill people.
Tombs, mass slaughter, bombs exploding,
burst of machine gun fire, gang extermination,
Cosenza, Potenza, dead meat leaving,
consecrated to the violence without any opposition.
The Alps, Salento, a single movement:
beat the system to make a change;
give us back our land, and an end to war.
From the street comes the intifada
...you gotta fight the feud!Three, three, three, seven women and a tarì (4),
one tarì is worth just a little, little
seven females and an apricot, and the apricot is sweet, sweet
seven women and a nut, and the nut is hard, hard
seven women and a mule, and the mule has a set of teeth
seven women and a snake, and the snake is poisonous
seven women and a pomegranate, and the pomegranate is made of small, small pieces
seven women and a ball, and the bowl is slippery, slippery (5)
seven women and a straw, and the straw is thin, thin (6)
seven women and a small fountain, the small fountain drops water
seven women and a cow, and the cow's got horns
seven women and a woman, and the woman goes down the stairs
seven women and a urinal, and the urinal is round, round
seven women and the world, and the world is
Three, three, three, seven women and a tarì.
NOTES
(1) On the August 2, 1980 a bomb exploded in the Bologna train station, killing 85 people and wounding over two hundred. The bombing was part of a campaign of ring-wing terrorism dubbed the "strategy of tension" that attempted to destabilize the country and prevent the Italian Communist Party from joining the ruling governmental coalition. BACK
(2) On June 27, 1980, an Italian passenger airplane crashed near the island of Ustica in the Tyrrhenian Sea killing all 81 people on board. Italian public opinion holds that the plane was shot down by a missile launched by the Italian and/or American air force, and that the government is covering up the truth. BACK
(3) In 1956, the American Central Intelligence Agency established, funded, and trained "Operation Gladio," a network of former Fascist government officials, Italian military personal, and Cabinet ministers who prepared to stage a right-wing coup d'ètat. BACK
(4) This is a traditional children's filastrocca or nonsense rhyme from Sicily. A tarì was the name of a very small coin introduced to Italy by Arabs during the 10th century. The name was used for other coins of lesser value in the subsequent centuries. BACK
(5) La boccia is the ball used in the game bocce. BACK
(6) Straw is used to make a kind; dough is rolled around the straw, which is removed, leaving a tube-shape. BACK.
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