Cani e padroni di cani [English translation]

"Well, listen, if it was for me, there's no rea-...if there we-...if there...if there was 1 the death penalty, it should be for those who go around to take [their dog to]...let us not, I mean, I don't want to say profanities...to do their business on the ground, so when one goes out after a day of work, taking a walk, and he's around to make...to make his feet dance a little, 2 and there he finds the "present" from mr. So-and-so, mr. Lante della Rovere, del Savoia 3 who's got the dog, and I, splash, right on their...pardon, on their excrements, 'cause you gotta call things with their names, on their excrements!"

Dogs and dog owners

Can I shake your hands really hard

As an instrument of torture and death?

Because I've just stepped on a dogshit

Which is now one with the stripes

On the soles of my new sport shoes

Popsicle stick

Eaten by a young girl

(Don't throw me away)

I'll use you, stick, to clean

The shit from my shoe

(You're gonna need me again)

Stick, stick

Did you ever imagine you'd have ended up like this

When you were carved from that pine tree...over there?

Stick, tell me what you were thinking

While the mint was freezing all around you

So many dreams ended up in the ice

So many hopes ended up in the shits 4

In the shits

Dogs and dog owners

My sport shoes

Are full of shit

And now you have to buy me new ones

"Look, it brings good luck 5

It happened to all of us to step into one!"

Yes, but not with some trendy new shoes

That costed me many sacrifices

And now they're - how could I put this? - dirty!

Popsicle stick

Eaten by a young girl

(Don't throw me away)

Popsicle stick

I've found you and now you're my salvation

(You're gonna need me again)

I've looked at you, you've looked at me

I've picked you up, you've cleaned me

I've thrown you away and then, regretfully,

I've taken you back, to keep you always with me

And now clean! Clean! Clean!

To think, stick

That you solve "that" problem!

(Yes, I solve "that" problem! I solve "that" problem!)

And maybe this is your calling, stick:

Inside a table football 6 or between the stripes on a sole

To be free from your frozen fate

Your way to scream the whole world:

"I'm alives! I'm alives!" 7

Stick, you teach me that from a pine tree

You get a stick

Everything else, stick, is just shavings

Canes and sawdust...or, if anything, Pinocchio.

"What...what does it teach us, even listening to this music, that at the end of the day, it means nothing? But, what does it reminds us? To always have in our heart, in a nook of our little heart, after a whole working day, when we're maybe a bit nervous, a nice song, like the one that Elio e le Storie Tese has given us. But remember to always listen to it with Christ, because the Truth is with Christ".

1. this introduction is a parody of the typical complains made by a middle aged man, speaking Italian in a mild Milanese dialect with grammatical errors.2. lit. translation of this Italian idiom, meaning "to take a stroll after sitting for long time".3. Lante della Rovere is an ancient noble family from Rome. The House of Savoia ruled the kingdom of Italy from 1861 to 1946.4. "merda" ("shit") + an "s". Apparently, this is a reference to a song by another Italian "comic rock" band, the "Tube di Falloppio". Cf. http://www.marok.org/Elio/Discog/cicciput.htm#caniepadronidicani5. it is common belief that good luck comes if you step on dog poop.6. it was common to replace a broken "football player" of a table football with the stick of a popsicle.7. see note 4.

• Artist:Elio e le Storie Tese
• Album:Cicciput