La scelta [English translation]

When I grow up, I'll play the Pastoral 1

Now I'm curved over the piano like a pastoral staff 2

My father is in a bad mood, he wants me to be a prodigy

But I'm just a child and he's disappointed

Father, drop the bottle, you're ruining yourself

You're stern when I do an apprenticeship

I'm Romantic, but for you

I'm just a bunch of florins 3

I'm Ludwig, cult, myth

Women avoid me like I had typhus fever

Too much stress, when I was thirty years old I became deaf

You're talking, but you look to me like a fucking mime

If we look at it from this angle, my life has sense

If we look at it from this piano 4

I'll take the stool instead of the rope 5

I'll sing the Ode to joy 6

Because I see the abyss, but I'm gliding over it

I write thousands of letters, I'm making a noise

I struggle against silence, but I'm gonna make it

I'll keep my music, I'll let go of love

I'll be immortal, my lover won't

And I'm happy with the choice I've made

Not one remorse, not one regret

Yes, I'm happy, what a great finding

You only need to make a choice

Pathetic, heroic...7

This is my life, don't forget it...

My name is Marco, I feel freezing cold under the spotlight

I'd like to stay outside of this, but the world wants me to go on tour

I got into the charts because fame is blind 8

So blind that after all it's not even my business anymore

It's a good job, I've been making money for a long time

It's worth like a Golden Record inside a coffin

I want to look at my son, times passes by and I realise

That I'm looking at a page like a baking paper

Hey, I'm Marco, new Romantic

Under the stage I disappear, puff, like talcum powder

What a disaster, they're burning my contract

'cause my sound is too dark, too subtle

I'm ready for a quick retreat

My family is more important than a series of notes

And they talk, talk, while I

I'm fixing my life with my faint voice 9

And I'm not leaving any letter, no noise

I love my silence, you don't know how much

Thanks for the applause, but I've chosen love

This is my life, don't forget it

And I'm happy with the choice I've made

Not one remorse, not one regret

Yes, I'm happy, what a great finding

You only need to make a choice

Pathetic, heroic...

This is my life, don't forget it...

Going on with the chords or game over

Looking at the world sober or in hangover

I say to myself "play your trump card!", but to go where?

Or Mark, or Bee 10

Home and family, or songs and rehearsals

With my sons or between horns and violas

I say to myself "play your trump card!", but to go where?

Or Mark, or Bee

1. Beethoven's 6th symphony is commonly known as the "Pastoral symphony".2. the bishop's staff, known as the "pastoral", is traditionally curved at the top, to resemble a sheperd's crook.3. playing on the double meaning of "romantic", the author is making a reference to a bunch of flowers (as the typical present for a lover), even if Beethoven's father rather hoped to get rich on his son's earnings. The pun is on the name of an ancient currency, the florin, that was first minted in Medieval Florence, and thus took the name from the lily, the symbol of the city, which was represented on the coin.4. in Italian, "piano" means both the instrument and a point of view (or "angle").5. i.e. I'd sit on the stool to play the piano, rather than using it to hang myself.6. the name of a poem by Friedrich Schiller, used by Beethoven as inspiration and lyrics for his 9th symphony.7. these two adjectives, referred here to the noun "choice", are also the name with which are commonly known two of Beethoven's works (the Piano Sonata no. 8 and Symphony no. 3, respectively).8. reference to a common idiom, which says that the Goddess of Luck is blind.9. in Italian, "filo di voce" means "faint voice", but lit. "a thread, a filament of voice". The author uses this metaphor to say that he's "resewing" (or "fixing") his life with his "thread" of voice.10. i.e. Marco or Beethoven, the two protagonists of this song. Mark is probably a fictional character; some say he may actually be the pseudonym of the author himself. The first song of this new album (Exuvia) talks about a change; this song is about a choice between leaving the music or chasing the fame: everything is suggesting that the author is thinking about his career.

• Artist:Caparezza
• Album:Exuvia