The Director Of Speech

New World

"Genova per noi" is a song written by Paolo Conte in 1975, and first performed by Bruno Lauzi.
It's a dedication to the city of Genoa, the song describes the impressions of Piedmontese who go to Genoa, that is, the relationships of race, attitude and temperament between neighbours in the region.

It's also strikingly reminiscent of this Welsh country bumpkin's impressions of the "big city".

The guitar was played by my son Gideon. We hope you'll enjoy!

Lyrics

Con quella faccia un po' così
Quell'espressione un po' così
Che abbiamo noi prima di andare a Genova
Che ben sicuri mai non siamo
Che quel posto dove andiamo
Non c'inghiotte e non torniamo più

Eppur parenti siamo un po'
Di quella gente che c'è lì
Che in fondo in fondo è come noi, selvatica
Ma che paura ci fa quel mare scuro
Che si muove anche di notte e non sta fermo mai

Genova per noi
Che stiamo in fondo alla campagna
E abbiamo il sole in piazza rare volte
E il resto è pioggia che ci bagna
Genova, dicevo, è un'idea come un'altra

Ma quella faccia un po' così
Quell'espressione un po' così
Che abbiamo noi mentre guardiamo Genova
Ed ogni volta l'annusiamo
E circospetti ci muoviamo
Un po' randagi ci sentiamo noi

Macaia, scimmia di luce e di follia
Foschia, pesci, Africa, sonno, nausea, fantasia
E intanto, nell'ombra dei loro armadi
Tengono lini e vecchie lavande
Lasciaci tornare ai nostri temporali
Genova ha i giorni tutti uguali

In un'immobile campagna
Con la pioggia che ci bagna
E i gamberoni rossi sono un sogno
E il sole è un lampo giallo al parabrise

Con quella faccia un po' così
Quell'espressione un po' così
Che abbiamo noi che abbiamo visto Genova
Che ben sicuri mai non siamo
Che quel posto dove andiamo
Non c'inghiotte e non torniamo più

English

With that face a bit like that
That expression is a bit like that
Which we have before going to Genoa
That we are never very sure
That's where we go
It doesn't swallow us up and we never come back

Yet we are somewhat relatives
Of those people there
Who deep down is like us, wild
But how scary that dark sea makes us
Which also moves at night and never stays still

Genoa for us
That we are at the bottom of the countryside
And we rarely have the sun in the square
And the rest is rain that soaks us
Genoa, I was saying, is an idea like any other

But that face is a bit like that
That expression is a bit like that
Which we have while we look at Genoa
And every time we smell it
And we move cautiously
We feel a little stray

Macaia, monkey of light and madness
Mist, fish, Africa, sleep, nausea, fantasy
And meanwhile, in the shadows of their closets
They keep linens and old lavender
Let us return to our storms
Genoa has all the same days

In a countryside property
With the rain that drenches us
And the red prawns are a dream
And the sun is a yellow flash at the parabrise

With that face a bit like that
That expression is a bit like that
Which we have who have seen Genoa
That we are never very sure
That's where we go
It doesn't swallow us up and we never come back

Genova Per Noi (Paolo Conte / Bruno Lauzi Cover - Giddy & Rob Jam)

MASTERED BY TEA ARE SEA - thank you, Terry, for resuscitating these sounds!  https://soundcloud.com/tea_are_sea

method: contact mics into t resonator, reface dx, vt 4, voice, zoom r 20, samplitude, audacity - and asking Terry of Tea Are Sea to save the day - which he kindly did. 
narration: the poem is some four to five years old and published in one of my private collections …. nondescript places can also combine with, arrange, adjust experience … sympoetic localities ….
image: copyright jo richter

poem / copyright jo richter:

dort, wo sie oft weilt,
sieht sie blind. sie fühlt nicht
wie die, die unvertraut
mit den hier lauernden impulsen
sind, denen die marmorierung
dieser erstarrung, dieses verfalls
noch nie ihr außen-ich bot.
sie er-
hält sich, fasst sich, nun, da es leer ist, weil

alles schon da war, stets,
als bleibe auch sie sich
gleich, als
strömten nicht neue namen unheimlich
durch sie,
mit jedem molekül atemluft, smartphonegeläut,
imbissgeruch. die menschen hier aber
sind immobiler als die gebäude, so
wirkt es
ihr. in den fugen nisten die spinnen, wie immer
wenn sich etwas regt - unwillkürlich und außer dem takt
stürmt es bei den antipoden.

interlinear version:

cast replica // in places she often stays at / she is blind. she does not sense / like those not familiar with / the impulses stalking / here, to whom the marbling / of this torpor, this decrepitude / has never shown its outside-I. / she keeps / herself up, her countenance, now, that id‘s empty, for // everything has already been around, ever, / as though she remained / the same , as / though unnamed names were not streaming eerily / through her / with each and every molecule of breath, of smartphone ringing, / of the smell of take-away food. people here, however, / are less mobile than the buildings that‘s / what it appears to be like / to her. the spaces in between have spiders nesting, as usual / when something moves – unintentionally and out of timing / storms are brewing where antipodeans live //

abguss - mastered by Tea Are Sea

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