Vecchio frac [English translation]

In the night, while everyone's asleep, a lone man

walks in the streets. It's a man in a tailcoat.

Midnight has come,

all noises cease,

even the sign of that

last café is turned off.

Roads are deserted,

deserted and silent,

one last carriage

leaves squeaking.

The river flows slowly

swishing under the bridges,

the moon shines in the sky,

all the city is asleep,

only a lone man in a tailcoat walks.

He wears a top hat,

two diamonds as cufflinks,

a crystal walking cane,

a gardenia at the buttonhole

and a bow-tie on top of his white waistcoat,

a blue silk bow-tie.

He slowly comes closer

with his elegant gait,

and a dreamy expression,

melancholy and absent-minded

and no one knows where he is coming from

or where he is going.

Who could it be,

that man in a tailcoat?

Bonne nuit, bonne nuit, goodnight,

he keeps telling everything,

the lighted lamps,

a cat in love

that goes by wandering.

Now dawn has finally come,

lamps are turned off,

and the whole city

wakes up little by little,

moon has got stuck,

suprised, pale,

it will disappear in the sky

fading away.

A window yawns

on the silent river

and in the white light

a top hat, a flower and a tailcoat

float away.

Gently floating,

cradled by the waves,

he slowly flows down

under bridges towards the sea,

towards the sea he goes.

Who could it be, who could it be,

that man in a tailcoat?

Adieu, adieu, farewell world,

farewell to memories of the past,

to a dream never dreamt,

to an instant of love

that will never come back.

La la la la...

• Artist:Domenico Modugno