Breve invito a rinviare il suicidio - Brief Invite to Put Off Suicide

Va bene, hai ragione Se ti vuoi ammazzare Vivere è un offesa Che desta indignazione... Ma per ora rimanda... E' solo un breve invito, rinvialo Va bene, hai ragione Se ti vuoi sparare Un giorno lo farai Con determinazione Ma per ora rimanda... E' solo un breve invito, rinvialo Questa parvenza di vita Ha reso antiquato il suicidio Questa parvenza di vita, signore Non lo merita... Solo una migliore Breve invito a rinviare il suicidio © 1995 Franco Battiato & Manlio Sgalambro "Breve invito a rinviare il suicidio" is based on a chapter of the same name from Sgalambro's book Theory of Song, published in 1997.

It’s fine, you’re right if you want to kill yourself. Living is an offense that deserves indignation . . . But for now, postpone . . . It’s only a brief invite, put it off. It’s fine, you’re right if you want to shoot yourself. One day I’ll do it with determination, but for now, postpone . . . It’s only a brief invite, put it off. This semblance of life has rendered suicide antiquated. This semblance of life, sir, doesn’t merit it . . . Only a better one. English translation © 2020 Dennis Criteser L'ombrella e la macchina da cucire was released in 1995. It was recorded at Battiato's home using only electronic instruments, and for him it was somewhat of a return to the musical experimentation that characterized his 1970s work. The lyrics were written by Manlio Sgalambro, the Sicilian philosopher who said that, for him, Hegel's The Phenomenology of Spirit sung like music in his ears. References to philosophy and literature abound; the title of the album is taken from a line by the French poet Isidore Ducasse: "Beautiful as a chance encounter between a sewing machine and an umbrella on an operating table." This line, according to Max Ernst, is the key to understanding surrealist poetry - "the search for beauty through the pairing of two seemingly irreconcilable realities." Battiato felt liberated by not having to write lyrics, and he was stimulated to explore and discover new musical realms by the different aesthetic that Sgalambro brought to wordsmithing, one that flows from a man in many ways his opposite. Sgalambro described it this way: "Spiritual, transcendent, ascetic the first [Battiato]. Materialist, fleeting, anti-poetic, even cynical, the second [Sgalambro]."

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