Giovanni telegrafista [English translation]

Piripiripiri...

John the telegraphist

and nothing more,

a humble, small station

there were more trees and birds

than people

but he had an urgent heart

even without

a promotion

pressing pressing

a single key.

Piripiripiri...

Elliptic, like any good

telegraphist

cutting flowers1, prepositions

to shorten words

to be more concise as necessary, as necessary.

He met Dawn, who had little to do with dawn,

neither a morning person,

nor white2

who fled one day, the only day

she woke up early

to go live big city3

full lights jewels.

Piripiripiri...

Bleeding, urgent story.

Ah, uselessness Morse alphabet

in the hands John telegraphist

looking looking for Dawn

every place served telegraph.

Ah, when it grows old

how painful is urgence.

John the telegraphist

and nothing else... urgent.

Piripiripiri...

Through his hands passed world

a world that made him urgent

cryptographic, fast, coded,

passed price of coffee

passed wedding Edward

VIII, now the Duke of Windsor

passed grasshoppers China

passed commotion of flying bomb

passed many things, but among them

passed news Dawn getting married

to another man.

Piripiripiri...

John the telegraphist

the one with an urgent heart

said nothing, only

three black swallows

with no symbolic intent at all

landed

on the telegraphic sob.

Dawn.. it's urgent.

Piripiripiri...

1. "fiori": lit. "flowers", but also unnecessarily complex word constructions2. "Alba" means "dawn" but also comes form latin "Albus" = "white" 3. From here onwards, both this song and the original poem are written in the clipped style typical of telegrams.

• Artist:Enzo Jannacci