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LYRICS – 1919

1919

Lyrics

 

Can IANVA stay silent during the Centenary of D’Annunzio’s Fiume Endeavour?
The quick reply to this question takes the terse and archaic shape of a 7 inch vinyl, whose very same title, “1919”, explains and anticipates in itself both form and content.
A unique duet of IANVA male and female voices epitomizing the everlasting duality of unrealistic idealism and cynical fatalism which seems to characterize Italian national mood.
A contrast well summerized by the steady and loud voice of Il Comandante D’Annunzio in the B side, where he connects and embodies every dualism and complexity, as befits any self-respecting “deity” at the decisive moment.
The famous speech “Disobbedisco!” (“I disobey!”), an autenthic “psychic manifesto” of that amazing and incredible year – which IANVA never dared to touch although they gave the same title to their most-D’Annunzio inspired debut album – materializes at last.
And this happens thanks to the kind help of a new special friend and guest: actor Edoardo Sylos Labini who has been masterfully playing the role of Il Vate D’Annunzio on all Italian stages in the last decade.

MCMIXX – MMIXX: Stay Legionaires! Stay Fiumani!

V.I.P.D.
Aquila Non Capit Muscas

Special guest: Edoardo Sylos Labini as Il Comandante Gabriele D’Annunzio in “Disobbedisco!”.

Thanks to all the Legionaires of Fiume. Not One Less.
We have a long memory.

 


 

1919

You’re asking me if it’s still not enough
All this sea of blood we crossed,
Which, like a worm, is gnawing and ruining
The inner joy of saving our skin,
A thing no one thought would happen.
You call it a “hero neurosis”
Sarcasm “à la page” de rigueur
When you talk about us.
So dear to poets in times of war,
Outcasts or outsiders in times of peace,
Waste material of incomplete dead soldiers
Cluttering worse than the real ones.
But maybe a hellish ember is dwelling in our eyes,
And the stink of dogs in winter
Lingers before us since then.

You’re wrong, you know,
When you see in me nothing but
An empty facade.
Can’t you see, don’t you notice that
You can’t do without grief and mourning?
I just ask one simple thing: happiness
And I’m sure that the time is now
It’s easy if you do like me,
And to hell with the past!

Yes, but not after I saw
A blind war veteran and his lost steps
Fumbling around in the middle
Of a sneering and spitting crowd,
And a crippled veteran
Whose crutches had been thrown away just for fun.
But each one of us hates
The infamous part of this country
Which fears and despises the heroes.
The very same scum who cheered
Any enemy until yesterday,
The bastards that today are taking pride
For every trouble and pain we spared them.
Those cowards who are naturally allergic
To fierceness
And for whom dreaming of greatness
Is a symptom of disease.

I rather think that inside of you
The dead are rising up and screaming
And you’re wrong if you think
That giving them a voice will help you.
There’s only one life to live
Despite all ruminations.
These days thinking for yourself is nothing but
The most challenging of all missions.

“Never surrender, never step back”
On the front was the right thing to do,
But in this even lower petty war
You learn to love that, in the end.
So excuse me if I say that
I never turned back,
At least not until we finally see
What we all shed our blood for.

Then I wish you the best of luck,
I don’t know what more I can say.
But if fate smiles upon you
I’ll be the first one to jump on the bandwagon and follow you.

 


 

DISOBBEDISCO!          (I DISOBEY!)

Taken from the famous D’Annunzio’s speech.
Guest: Edoardo Sylos Labini.