Monday, May 7, 2018

Radio Varsavia - Radio Warsaw

E i volontari laici
Scendevano in pigiama per le scale
Per aiutare i prigionieri
Facevano le bende con lenzuola
E i cittadini attoniti
Fingevano di non capire niente
Per aiutare i disertori
E chi scappava in occidente
Radio Varsavia
L'ultimo appello è da dimenticare e
Radio Varsavia
L'ultimo appello è da dimenticare e

E i commercianti punici
Prendevano sentieri di montagna
Per evitare i doganieri
Ed arrivare in Abissinia
La Cina era lontana
L'orgoglio di fantastiche operaie
Che lavoravano la seta
Le biciclette di Shangai
Radio Varsavia
L'ultimo appello è da dimenticare e
Radio Varsavia
L'ultimo appello è da dimenticare e

Radio Warsaw © 1982 Franco Battiato

"Radio Warsaw" recalls in its first verse the Warsaw Uprising of 1944, in which the Polish Resistance rose up to push the Germans out of Warsaw just ahead of the entry by the Russian Red Army. The Russians, however, halted their advance, ignoring the calls for assistance broadcast on Radio Warsaw, allowing the Germans to defeat the Poles and then systematically destroy 35% of Warsaw with mass evictions and executions, including many Jews who were being sheltered by Poles. The song was included as part of the soundtrack for the 2017 film Call Me By Your Name.

And the lay volunteers
descended the stairs in pajamas
to help the prisoners -
they made bandages with sheets.
And the astonished citizens
pretended to not understand anything
in order to help the deserters
and those who were escaping to the West.
Radio Warsaw –
the final appeal is forgettable . . .
Radio Warsaw –
the final appeal is forgettable . . .

And the Punic merchants
took mountain paths
to avoid the customs agents
and arrive in Abyssinia.
China was far away,
the pride of amazing laborers
who worked the silk,
the bicycles of Shanghai.
Radio Warsaw –
the final appeal is forgettable . . .
Radio Warsaw –
the final appeal is forgettable . . .

English translation © 2020 Dennis Criteser



L'arca di Noe was released in 1982. Giusto Pio collaborated on the musical compositions and arrangements. After its release, there were some critics who began to reassess Battiato and who charged him with putting forward right-wing ideas. To which Battiato responded, "Stupidly, there are those who have defined me as 'idealogue of the new right,' but in reality I am a conservative, in the ancestral sense. Because I think that all the current technological and scientific development, indeed a sort of neo-religion, has strongly deteriorated the qualities of man. And I, to the contrary, am for the recovery of the best traditions of civilized man." These charges led Battiato to avoid encounters with both the press and the public and concentrate on his work in the studio as producer and writer for other artists.
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