L'ombra e la macchina da cucire - The Umbrella and the Sewing Machine

Ero solo come un ombrello su una Macchina da cucire Dalle pendici dei monti Iblei A settentrione Ho percorso il cammino, arrampicandomi Per universi e mondi Con atti di pensiero e umori cerebrali L’abisso non mi chiama, sto sul ciglio Come un cespuglio: quieto come un insetto Che si prende il sole Scendevo lungo il fiume scrollando le spalle..... Che cena infame stasera Che pessimo vino Chiacchiero col vicino Lei non ha finezza Non sa sopportare l’ebbrezza Colgo frasi occidentali (Ragioni sociali mi obbligano all'amore, all'umanita) Schizzano dal cervello i pensieri - Fini le calze La Coscienza trascendentale No l’Idea si incarna Dice che questa estate Ci sarà la fine del mondo The end of the world Berretto di pelo e sottanina di tàrtan Have we cold feet about the cosmos? Ero solo come un ombrello su una macchina da cucire Dalle pendici dei monti Iblei A settentrione Ho percorso il cammino, arrampicandomi Per universi e mondi Con atti di pensiero e umori cerebrali (Ragioni sociali mi obbligano all'amore, all'umanita) L'ombrella e la macchina da cucire © 1995 Franco Battiato & Manlio Sgalambro Welcome to the new world of Battiato/Sgalambro, a world where the lyrics are replete with references to philosophy and literature. The choral interlude mid-song is a fragment from the opera Il cavaliere dell'intelletto, written in 1994 by Battiato and Sgalambro to celebrate the 800th birthday of the amazing Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, whose kingdom was based in Palermo, Sicily. There is also a reference to the opposing positions of Kant ("Transcendental Consciousness") and Hegel ("the Idea incarnates") as regards the nature of thought and reality (transcendental idealism vs. absolute idealism).

I was alone with an umbrella over a sewing machine. On the slopes of the Hyblaean Mountains in the north, I followed the road, scrambling along for universes and worlds with acts of thought and cerebral fluids. The abyss doesn’t call me, I stay on the edge like a bush: quiet as an insect that takes in the sun. I descended along the river rolling my shoulders. What a foul meal this evening, what horrible wine. I chat with the neighbor. She isn’t very refined, she doesn’t know how to handle intoxication. I understand western phrases. (Social reasons compel me towards love, towards humanity.) The thoughts splash out from my brain – the ends, the stockings, Transcendental Consciousness. No, the Idea incarnates. It says that this summer will be the end of the world, the end of the world. Fur beret and plaid sottanina - have we cold feet about the cosmos? I was alone with an umbrella over a sewing machine. On the slopes of the Iblei Mountains in the south, I followed the road, scrambling along for universes and worlds with acts of thought and cerebral fluids. (Social reasons compel me towards love, towards humanity.) 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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