China Town [English translation]

« I could call it my first ballad.

It’s a love song dedicated to ink and writing

It’s right there, black on white, like Malevich’s square. »

It’s not faith that changed my life but ink

that leads my fingers, my hand, my wrist.

I’m still writing all over myself1, reciprocated love

exploded suddenly like when you’re running the Boston (marathon) !

It’s not drugs that give me goosebumps rather

thinking about Mozart, holding the quill pen, there

over his desk, while drawing that note he makes2

history without records, nor videoclips or social media.

Valium and Prozac do not calm me down

give me a dip pen or any pen on which they stamped

the name of a medication.

Ink alone can fathom my state of mind

call it hypothalamus

I envision it as a magician, kind of Dynamo

forget about Freud, I have a blank sheet

I mark it like the wing of an Albatros, so that I can fly up high

Towards the city of Ink I’m starting off (diligently)

a pilgrimage but not to Santiago, I’m going to Ink Town

I’m going from the Apennines to the Andes3

in my backpack my fountain pens and papers

I sleep in a tent like a boy scout

I make notes in a journal with no web layout

(Ink Town)

that place is not very far away

ink flows instead of blood

all I need is a pen and I laugh like a clown

sometimes happiness costs less than a pound

Ink Town, my Ganges,

my Holy Land,

my Mecca,

the miracle giving voice to those who don’t speak

those who stutter.

A faraway land,

like a pen pal,

where we become children again like in a book by Pennac 4

There is where the patience of amanuensis grows

ink knows how many sentences

can silence hide.

All of a sudden it explodes,

like crackling firecrackers

like the keys of Montanelli’s Olivetti5

The pointed rods charged with black smoke 6

the vice

of those who lay out papyrus paper

like an Egyptian scribe.

I’m writing this song but it says clearly

that I get lost in ink

like when you’re hunting a squid.

I’m Columbus

struggling

rowing

longing

for a harbor by the sand

I skip dinner

The night is falling

ballpoint pen

on parchment

but I’m not wandering through America

I’m headed to Ink Town

I’m going from the Apennines to the Andes

in my backpack my fountain pens and papers

I sleep in a tent like a boy scout

I make notes in a journal with no web layout

(Ink Town)

that place is not very far away

ink flows instead of blood

all I need is a pen and I laugh like a clown

sometimes happiness costs less than a pound

It is with ink

that I wrote

each one of my songs.

I gave a new face

to this Billy Preston’s hair.

My next concert,

I hope it will be soon

I get in the van all sweaty

I watch the unlit stage

I leave it there, where it is

from the car window it looks like a surrealist movie

kind of Luis Bunuel

I get to my hotel and

the room lights up, it’s almost morning

there’s always a pen on the nightstand

(Ink Town)

that place is not very far away

ink flows instead of blood

all I need is a pen and I laugh like a clown

sometimes happiness costs less than a pound

1. « scriversi addosso » is not a standard idiom but it calls to mind the standard idiom used for « wetting oneself ». a a physiological need that can’t be restrained so another way to translate this would be « I’m still prey to a compulsion to write »2. this also reads : « drawing that F note » 3. Title of a classic of 19 century Italian literature 4. Daniel Pennac is a French writer, fairly popular in Italy, known for his imaginative language and compelling characters. His name sounds like the Italian word for « pen » (penna) 5. Indro Montanelli, the archetype of Italian journalism, often portrayed with his portable Olivetti typewriter 6. a pun with 2 meanings intertwined: it can mean "joints loaded with hashish" fumo is slang for hashish and Nero is a common variety of it, but it can also mean " the pen is loaded with dark ink" as 'nero fumo' written in that order refers to a common color name. Many thanks to Damonkain for the insight

• Artist:Caparezza
• Album:Museica