Union Songs
Cantata per Luigi Trastulli
A Song by Sante Carboni©Sante Carboni 1949
Non è canto di gioia,
nemmeno d'allegria
pur non vi sembri
triste questa canzone mia:[This song of mine / is neither for joy / nor for glee; / yet let it not sound sad to you.]
E' nata dal dolore
ma canta la speranza
del popolo che lotta
e sanguinando avanza.[It is born in sorrow, / but sings the hope / of the people who struggle / and shed their blood as they march on.]
Il 17 Marzo
lasciammo le officine
per dire a br signori:
Mai pii morte e rovine.[On March 17, / we walked out of the factories, I to tell those in power: I no more war and destruction.]
Il "Patto" che firmaste
è un tradimento nero
che renderà l'Italia
schiava dello straniero
[The Treaty you have signed / is a dark act of treason, / which will make Italy / a slave to foreigners.]
E Terni laboriosa,
Terni degli operai,
ve lo dice fin d'ora,
non l'accetterà mai![And hard-working Terni, / Terni the workers' town, / is telling you right now: / we'll never let it be!]
E andavarn cantando
sotto il bel sole d'oro,
i canti della pace,
i canti del lavoro![And as we marched, we sang / under the golden sun, / our songs of peace, / our songs of labor.]
Ma l'eccellenza e soci,
facendo colazione
avevan già deciso
di "darci una lezione"[But the prefect and his partners / as they sat down to eat, / had already made up their minds / to teach us all a lesson.]
Inermi marciavamo
quand'ecco la sbirraglia
ci affronta con le jepi,
i gas e la mitraglia.[Unarmed we marched, / when the dirty cops / rushed against us with jeeps, / tear gas, and machine guns.]
Noi le gridammo: pace!
Ma ci ris poser guerra
e di sangue innocente
si fe rossa la terra![We shouted to them: Peace! / But they answered us with war, / and the earth was reddened / with innocent blood.]
O guardia scellerata,
celere maledetta!
il sangue di Trastulli
dal ciel grida vendetta![You heartless guard, / you accursed cops! / Trastulli's blood / from heaven cries for vengeance.]
Aveva ventun anni
ed era ardito e forte
pace! vi disse, o infami,
e voi gli deste morte.[He was twenty-one years old, / and he was strong and bold; / he offered you peace, / and you, rascals, gave him death.]
Padre e sposo felice
gli rideva la vita
ma voi gliela troncaste
con raffiche di mitra![A happy father and husband, / life smiled on him; / but you cut him down / with a volley of your machine gun.]
O Sposa giovinetta!
a Te e al tuo pargoletto
giuriam che gli assassini
non moriran sul letto![To you, young bride, / and to your little child, / we swear that the killers / shall not die on their bed.]
E tu Gente Ternana,
che sulla bara hai pianto
raccogli il giuramento,
propaga questo canto![And you, people of Terni, / who wept upon his grave, take up this oath, / and teach the world this song.]
S'intenerisca il cuore
anche a chi l'ha di quarzo
ricordando l'eccidio del
17 Marzo! ...[Let every heart be melted, / even if made of stone, / remembering the massacre / of March 17!]
Terni, ricorda! . Terni ricorderà! ....
[Terni, remember! Terni shall not forget!]
Notes
Many thanks to Alessandro Portelli for permission to add this song to the Union Songs collection.
This Italian industrial song comes from Alessandro Portelli's 1991 book 'The Death of Luigi Trastulli and Other Stories: Form and Meaning in Oral History'
Portelli writes:
'On 17 March 1949, the 21 year old steelworker, Luigi Trastulli was killed by the police during a demostration against NATO. Sante Carboni, a mechanic, former railroad worker and draftsman, wrote a song about the event'
union songs..........a selection by mark gregory