Compagno di scuola [English translation]

In front of the school many people

twenty past eight, the first ring

"turn off that cigarette"

and thousands legs and glasses

quickly on the stairs.

Half past eight all stand up

the president, the cross and the teacher

that have been reading always the same story

On the same book, in the same way,

with the same words since forty years of honest work.

But questions have never had

a clear answer.

And the "Divine Comedy", always more comedy

and now I don't know

if Dante was a free man, an unsuccessful man or a servant of the party.

But Paolo and Francesca, I remember them well

because, tell me, who have never been in love

Of the girl of the first desk,

The nicest, the silliest,

you are stupid, and she laughed always

While your love had the same words,

the same breaths of the book that you red secretly

under the desk.

Midday, all disappear,

"Let's go to the bar".

Where Nietsche and Marx shaked their hands

and talked together about the last party

and about the new dress, made apposite

and always about that girl that flirted with all (but you)

and the assemblies, the cineforums, the debacts

never granted in that time.

and coward escapes in front of the door

And beatings in the garden and in the school,

first cry of a '68

too long to come and too short to be forgotten

And your commitment that grew up always more quickly in you....

"School mate, mate of nothing

have you saved yourself from the smoke of barricades?

School mate, companion for nothing

have you saved yourself or have you entered in the bank too?"

• Artist:Antonello Venditti
• Album:Lilly (1975)