China Town [English translation]

1

«I could describe it as my first ballad.

It’s a love song for ink and writing.

It’s just laying there, black on white, like Malevič’s square.»2

It’s not faith that changed my life,

it was ink, which leads my fingers, my hand, my wrist.

I still write all over myself, a reciprocated love,

which burst out suddenly like when you’re running in Boston.3

It’s not drugs that give me goose bumps,

it’s thinking about Mozart, a quill feather in his hand,

there at his writing desk, drawing that note,

he’s making history with no record, no videoclip and no social network.4

Valium and Prozac can’t calm me down,

just give me a dip pen, or some pen with a drug’s name stamped on it.5

Only ink can ride my frame of mind, you may call it hyppo-thalamus,6

I picture it as a magic thing, like Dynamo.7

No Freud here, I have a blank sheet of paper;

to fly high, I stain it like the wing of an albatross.8

I set off for the town of ink, like a good boy;

a pilgrimage, but not to Santiago: I’m going to Ink Town.9

I wander from the Apennines to the Andes,

with my nibs and papers in my backpack,10

I sleep in a tent like a boy scout,

I write notes in a diary without web layout.11

Ink Town, the place is not very far,

ink spills instead of blood,12

I only need a pen to laugh like a clown,

sometimes happiness costs less than a pound.

It’s Ink Town: it’s my Ganges, my Holy Land, my Mecca,13

the miracle that gives a voice to people who can’t speak, people who stutter.

A land as far away as a pen pal,

where we become kids again, as in a book by Pennac.14

There, they cultivate the patience of amanuenses,

ink knows how many sentences are hidden behind a silence,

all of a sudden, it bursts in a crackling of firecrackers,

like the heads of Montanelli’s Olivetti.15

The pointed reeds loaded with lampblack,

the vice of people who draw up on a papyrus like an Egyptian scribe.16

This track, I’m writing it, but it speaks clearly;

in the ink, I lose my bearings, as in squid hunting.

I’m a troubled Columbus, rowing

and waiting for a landing on the sand,17

I skip dinner, the night is falling, the ball pen on the parchment,

but I’m not going for America, I’m heading to Ink Town.

I wander from the Apennines to the Andes,

with my nibs and papers in my backpack,

I sleep in a tent like a boy scout,

I write notes in a diary without web layout.

Ink Town, the place is not very far,

ink spills instead of blood,

I only need a pen to laugh like a clown,

sometimes happiness costs less than a pound.

It’s with ink that I’ve composed my every song,

I’ve given a new face to this hair that’s like Billy Preston’s.18

And I hope my next concert will come soon,

I get into the van, all sweaty, I look at the unlit stage, I leave it where it is,

from the car window, the scene is unreal, like Luis Buñuel,19

I get to the hotel (and) the room lights up,

it’s almost morning, there’s always a pen on my bedside table.

Ink Town, the place is not very far,

ink spills instead of blood,

I just need a pen and I’ll laugh like a clown,

sometimes happiness costs less than a pound.

1. China Town is a play on words on Chinatown, the Chinese district of many cities. It’s pronounced the Italian way, however it’s pronounced /kinaˈtaun/ instead of /ʧainaˈtaun/ because china /ˈkina/ is Indian ink. Indeed, this is a song about the love/passion for writing, represented by ink; not just the writing needed for the lyrics of a song, rather writing in itself, which relaxes, heals, and lets the writer reach out with his/her imagination.2. This a commentary on the song by Caparezza himself.

nero su bianco {black on white}, scritto nero su bianco {written black on white} = very clear, leaving no room for doubts.

As every song in the album Museica, this song has a related painting.

It is Kazimir Malevič’s Black Square, for its reference to ink.3. scriversi addosso {write over oneself} suggests both the fact that little kids pee themselves (which relates to the ‟always remain a kid” theme) and the fact that many children love drawing on their skin.

The love for ink has ‟burst” out, just like two bombs that exploded in Boston on April 15, 2013, during the marathon.4. fa la storia = he makes history.

In Italian, fa and la are two music notes (G and A, respectively).5. Valium and Prozac are commercial names of antidepressants.

Many companies (including healthcare ones) give out pens with their names on it, as gadgets.

Caparezza uses ink, not drugs, as a medication.6. Cavalcare = to ride (a horse); to ride (to lead something by not opposing it; to take advantage of something by letting it be).

ippo- {hippo-} means ‟horse”.

ipotalamo {hypothalamus} is the part of the brain that secretes hormones controlling emotions and mood.7. Dynamo is a British illusionist.8. bianco = white; blank.

Sigmund Freud is the inventor of psychoanalysis.

A famous psychoanalysis test is the Rorschach test: the patient has to look at sheets of paper with blotches of ink on them, and tell the doctor what he feels.

Caparezza doesn’t need therapy to get better: he just needs writing.

Albatrosses are white birds, while the upper part and the tip of their wings are black.

Albatrosses are used as metaphores of poets, since they are majestic when they can fly high, while they are clumsy when they have to meddle with common people (Charles Baudelaire and Samuel Coleridge both wrote a poem about this subject: here and here).9. Santiago de Compostela is a Spanish town (on the westmost tip of Spain) where lots of Christian pilgrims from all over Europe go every year.10. Marco (in Italy, Marco – Dagli Appennini alle Ande {Marco – From the Apennines to the Andes}) is a cartoon (based on a short novel from Cuore {Heart}); Marco is a kid travelling from Italy to South America to find her mother.

Caparezza wanders with his imagination. He doesn’t need carte geografiche {map charts}, he needs carte {pieces of paper} to be able to write.11. Preferring traditional writing over modern technologies, Caparezza writes using pen and paper, he does not write in a blog (which has a web layout).12. scorrere = to flow; to be spilled (like blood).13. Ganges is the holy river for Hindus; the Holy Land is the holy place for Jews and Christians; Mecca is the holy city for Muslims.14. Messieurs les enfants {Children gentlemen} is a book by Daniel Pennac. The adults in the book suddenly become kids again; just like Caparezza when he writes.

Also, ‟Pennac” sounds similar to penna {pen}, which is very appropriate for a writer.15. Olivetti was a famous Italian brand of typewriters.

Indro Montanelli was one of the best journalists in Italy, and he always wrote his articles using his Olivetti.16. canna = cane, reed.

canna = spliff.

nerofumo = lampblack.

fumo = smoke (drug).

nero {black} = a variety of hashish.

It is a play on words between the vice of smoking and the ‟vice” of writing (canes filled with pigments where anciently used as pens).

stendere = to lay (sth) down; to write down.17. Before reaching America, Christopher Columbus was on the brim of a mutiny because the voyage turned out to be much longer than it was thought, and it wasn’t clear at all whether it would be a success.18. Billy Preston is an American musician, with voluminous curly hair like that of Caparezza.19. Luis Buñuel was a Spanish surrealist film director.

il film è surreale {the movie is surreal} = the scene looks unreal, he can’t believe it: after the concert is over, it all seems so empty and sad.

• Artist:Caparezza
• Album:Museica