Piero's War

"La Guerra di Piero" (Piero's War)by Fabrizio De Andre'

TRANSLATION OF THE LYRICS
(Please excuse the imperfect translation, I thought it would be more interesting to read a rush translation than the original Italian words!)


You sleep buried in a corn field
neither the rose or the tulip
watch over you from the shades of
the trenches,
but just a thousand red poppies.

“Along the banks of my stream
I want to see silver pikes swim
not the bodies of soldiers
carried down by the current.”

So you were saying and it was winter
and like the others you were marching
towards hell
you kept on going with the sadness of those who must go
whilst the wind was spitting snow onto your face.

Stop, Piero, stop now
let the wind surround you
let it bring you the voices of those who died in battle
and gave their lives in exchange for a cross.

But you didn't hear it, and time went by
And you kept marching through the seasons
until you finally crossed the border
on a beautiful spring day.

And while marching with the soul on your shoulders
you saw a man at the bottom of the valley,
who was in your very same mood
only his uniform had a different color.

Fire, Piero, shoot him now
and then one more time, shoot him again
until you'll see him lie there
on the ground covering his own blood.

“And if I shoot him in the head or the heart
he'll have only time to die
instead I'll have too much to watch,
to watch the eyes of a dying man.”

And while you are showing him this compassion
he turns, sees you, and he's afraid
and bracing his gun
he doesn't return the same courtesy.

You fell to the ground without a sound
and realized in that moment
that you wouldn’t even have the time
to ask for forgiveness for all your sins.

You fell to the ground without a sound
and realized in that moment
that your life would end that day
that there will be no return.

“My dear Ninetta, dying in May
needs so much, too much courage,
beautiful Ninetta, straight to hell
I would have preferred to go in the winter.”

And while the corn was listening
you held tight to your rifle,
inside your mouth you held your words
already too frozen to melt in the sun.

You sleep buried in a corn field
neither the rose or the tulip
watch over you from the shades of the trenches,
but just a thousand red poppies.

Fabrizio De André (February 18, 1940 - January 11, 1999) was an Italian singer-songwriter and poet. In his works he often told stories of simple souls, marginalized and rebellious people. In Italy we consider him a poet because of the quality of his lyrics. His family was strongly anti-fascist and for this reason before and during WWII they had to flee their home town, Genova, and hide in the country-side. This song/poem is mainly against the war, any kind of war, in simple words he shows the futily of this huge loss of human lives, the crudeness of the hand-to-hand combats (especially during WWI) and the lonely deaths under an indifferent sun.