È inutile piangere [English translation]

1

No, there’s no use in crying

over my stone:

you would never be able to get

the door of the other world to open up again.

When the dead disappear

there in the netherworld,

they will never be able to walk again

on the paths they once walked down.

And if your prayers

should reach Avernus,2

your tears would fall down silently

on the deaf shore of Acheron.3

Only the gods of the heavens

might be moved by your crying,

but the door that closed on the grave

would still remain below the grass.

No, there’s no use in crying

over my stone:

you would never be able to get

the door of the other world to open up again.

1. This song was inspired by Elegy XI of Book IV by Sextus Propertius.2. Avernus (or Ade) was the Greek and Roman underworld.3. Acheron is a river of the Roman underworld; dead souls had to cross it to reach Avernus.

• Artist:Giorgio Gaber
• Album:Sexus et politica