I know that the name of Paolo Conte attracts some interest from the visitors, and I hope the video below (produced by Guiseppe Ragazzini, whose work you have already seen in Notebooks) will inspire you to learn more. And no, I don’t expect you to be able to pronounce the name of the song (I do look forward, however, to seeing if this post generates any AT-related queries).
Update:
It has taken me some time to deliver my own promise, mainly because my Italian isn’t as good as the song demands. I had to resort to my friend’s assistance, and I sincerely thank Marco for being a great friend and, well, an Italian, too. The text below is the result of my effort at translating and his brainstorming and brushing of it. Mille grazie, Marco!
One of particular difficulties must be the dialect. As Giorgio Maimone, the reviewer of the album Danson Metropoli deftly put it, “Sijmadicandhapajiee” non è un mantra indiano (isn’t an Indian mantra), but “siamo dei cani da pagliaio” in the dialect of the Asti region in Italy. I found the explanation on another site of what this expression means: “Questo è un detto tipico dei contadini delle nostre terre per indicare le persone che coltivano pochi interessi o che comunque non escono mai dalla propria ristretta cerchia di conoscenze ed attività, persone “per cui le arti stan nei musei”.” That is: “Sijmadicandhapajee” is a person who has few interests or who restricts themselves by a very narrow circle of knowledge and activities; somebody “for whom the arts are in the museums“.
So, over to the translation:
Somebody is a mechanic,
Someone sends him to me
To fix the steering wheel,
And doesn’t ask me
Neither money nor thank-yous,
It doesn’t matter because
In the other room
He sees the bed occupied
By his deep sleep.
Sijmadicandhapajee…
At the end, it doesn’t matter
If there some woman
Has taken from the stars
The music that won’t give
To anyone
A permission to dance with her,
These are the folks for whom
The arts are in the museums.
Sijmadicandhapajee…
I have to say, you are very welcome to leave a comment with corrections, if such still need to be done. Otherwise, I and Marco shall content ourselves with the thought that we did a decent job.