Come un branco di lupi che scende dagli altipiani ululando O uno sciame di api accanite divoratrici di petali odoranti Precipitano roteando come massi da altissimi monti in rovina Uno dice che male c'è a organizzare feste private Con delle belle ragazze per allietare Primari e Servitori dello Stato? Non ci siamo capiti E perché mai dovremmo pagare anche gli extra a dei rincoglioniti? Che cosa possono le Leggi dove regna soltanto il denaro? La Giustizia non è altro che una pubblica merce Di cosa vivrebbero ciarlatani e truffatori Se non avessero moneta sonante da gettare come ami fra la gente La linea orizzontale ci spinge verso la materia Quella verticale verso lo spirito Con le palpebre chiuse s'intravede un chiarore Che con il tempo e ci vuole pazienza Si apre allo sguardo interiore: Inneres Auge, Das Innere Auge La linea orizzontale ci spinge verso la materia Quella verticale verso lo spirito La linea orizzontale ci spinge verso la materia Inneres Auge Quella verticale verso lo spirito Das Innere Auge Ma quando ritorno in me, sulla mia via A leggere e studiare, ascoltando i grandi del passato... Mi basta una sonata di Corelli, perchè mi meravigli del Creato! Inneres Auge © 2009 Franco Battiato & Manlio Sgalambro "Inneres Auge" recycles a few verses already used in "L'ignoto" on the Campi Magnetici album, verses that come from Sgalambro's book Opus Postumissimum. The song rails against a political class dedicated to the all-expenses-paid satisfaction of their baser instincts, and offers spiritual practice or the contemplation of art as routes of escape. |
Like a pack of wolves that descends howling from the high planes. Or a swarm of fierce bees, devourers of fragrant petals, they rain down swirling like masses from the highest mountains in ruin. One says what harm is there in organizing private parties with some beautiful girls to brighten up wards of the State or civil servants? There’s been a misunderstanding, and why should we ever pay even the extras and some stoners? What can the Law do, where only money reigns? Justice is nothing more than a public commodity. On what would charlatans and tricksters live if they didn’t have hard cash to throw out like fishhooks amongst the people. The horizontal line pushes us towards the material, the vertical one towards the spiritual. With eyelids closed, one catches sight of a glow that with time, and it takes patience, opens to the interior view: Inner Eye, the Inner Eye. The horizontal line pushes us towards the material, the vertical one towards the spiritual. The horizontal line pushes us towards the material. Inner Eye. The vertical one towards the spiritual. The Inner Eye. But when I return to myself, on my path, to read and to study, listening to the great ones of the past . . . I only need a sonata by Corelli, so that I marvel in the Creation! English translation © 2020 Dennis Criteser Inneres Auge - Il tutto è più della somma delle sue parti (Inner Eye - The Whole Is More Than the Sum of Its Parts) was released in 2009. The album consists of two originals, one cover and reworkings of previously released songs. |
Franco Battiato - musician, singer/songwriter, composer of electronic, avant-garde and classical music, filmmaker, painter, student of history and of esoteric and spiritual traditions. Battiato was by turns intellectual, poetic, visceral and meditative; his musical journey and artistic voice are absolutely unique in the landscape of Italian pop music. His career was marked by multiple reinventions as he followed his muse for over fifty years of making music and meaning.
Friday, October 4, 2019
Inneres Auge - The Inner Eye
Thursday, October 3, 2019
L'incantesimo - The Enchantment
Il cielo mi sembra di lacca e madreperla Che l'orizzonte adorna La costellazione del camaleonte emana poca luce È insignificante Dal sud affolla il vespertino E inonda di colori il giorno Per me, che amo quello che non è Salta dalla fantasia e via per il mondo, via per il mondo La corona boreale che Bacco scagliò verso l'ignoto Verso l'infinito Il sud inonda di colori il giorno Per me, che amo quello che non è L'incantesimo di perdute esistenze che non saranno mai Le speranze di presenze intorno a noi L'incantesimo che ama quello che non è L'incantesimo © 1998 Franco Battiato & Manlio Sgalambro "L'incantesimo" was inspired by contemplating the dawn sky. It originally appeared as part of a 4-song "single" with other songs from the Gomalacca album. |
The sky seems of lacquer and mother-of-pearl
that adorns the horizon.
The Chameleon constellation
emits little light,
it’s insignificant.
From the south it crowds the evening
and floods the day with colors,
for me, who loves that which is not.
It leaps from fantasy and heads for the world, heads for the world. The Corona Borealis that Dionysus hurled towards the unknown, towards the infinite. The south floods the day with colors, for me, who loves what is not, the enchantment of lost existences that will never be, the hopes of presences inside us, the enchantment that loves that which is not. English translation © 2020 Dennis Criteser Inneres Auge - Il tutto è più della somma delle sue parti (Inner Eye - The Whole Is More Than the Sum of Its Parts) was released in 2009. The album consists of two originals, one cover and reworkings of previously released songs. |
Wednesday, October 2, 2019
Stage Door
Mi sembra di viaggiare In zone rarefatte del pensiero Dove si affina la mia disposizione a vivere Che si inebria di stili e discipline In un insieme irridente di parche voglie Celebro il mio vanto i miei sensi la mia unicità Furono giorni di stanchezza assurda e depressiva Di una totale mancanza di lucidità Quando ti chiedi in qualche letto sconosciuto Che cosa hai fatto e perchè vivi in tanta estraneità Sapessi che dolore l'esistenza Che vede nero dove nero non ce n'è Il fatto è che non posso più tornare indietro Che non riesco a vivere con te né senza di te Credimi Ma io vorrei essere un'aquila Vedere il piano del mondo che inclina verso di noi E le leggi che si inchinano Lanciarmi a inseguire il tuo deserto E i poteri solenni E le porte dorate Cominciare di nuovo il viaggio Stage Door © 1998 Franco Battiato & Manlio Sgalambro "Stage Door" is about states of being that allow one to decouple from needless suffering, through perhaps a meditative discipline or service. It originally appeared as part of a 4-song "single" with other songs from the Gomalacca album. |
I seem to travel in rarefied zones of thought where is refined my availability to live, which gets drunk on styles and disciplines, in a mocking set of park cravings. I celebrate my glory, my senses, my uniqueness. There were days of tiredness, absurd and depressed, of a total lack of lucidity, when you ask yourself in some unfamiliar bed what you are doing and why you live in such alienation. I knew what sadness existence, that sees black where there is no black. The fact is that I can no longer turn back, I can’t manage to live with you or without you. Believe me. But I would like to be an eagle, seeing the plan of the world that tilts toward us, and the laws that bow down, launching myself to follow your desert and the solemn powers and the golden doors, to begin again the voyage. English translation © 2020 Dennis Criteser Inneres Auge - Il tutto è più della somma delle sue parti (Inner Eye - The Whole Is More Than the Sum of Its Parts) was released in 2009. The album consists of two originals, one cover and reworkings of previously released songs. |
Tuesday, October 1, 2019
'U cuntu - The Tale
’U sennu Stamu piddennu ’u sennu Ti ni stai accuggennu Unni stamu jennu a finiri ’Ccu stu munnu ca sta ’mpazzennu Luceunu ’i stiddi dda La’ luntanu supra ’u mari Li cosi cari parunu cchiù beddi Nan sacciu cchi fu a ieri visti ’a motti Addummisciuta ’nda ’na gnuni Nan si uosi arrusbigghiari Hic et nunc non habeo dispositionem mentis Latus mundi insanus est Malus imbutus malis libidinibus. 'U cuntu © 2009 Franco Battiato & Manlio Sgalambro "'U cuntu" is a song in the Sicilian dialect, with some Latin at the end. Battiato imagined the Latin section as if it were spoken by "fathers of the desert, against the most vulgar worldliness, the shallow sexuality." |
Sense, we are losing all sense. You’re realizing where we are going to end up with this world that’s going crazy. The stars shone distant above the sea, dear things seem more beautiful. I don’t know if it was yesterday I saw death asleep in a corner, it didn’t want to waken. Here and now I don’t have the disposition of mind, the flank of the world is crazy, negatively inspired by foul passions. English translation © 2020 Dennis Criteser Inneres Auge - Il tutto è più della somma delle sue parti (Inner Eye - The Whole Is More Than the Sum of Its Parts) was released in 2009. The album consists of two originals, one cover and reworkings of previously released songs. |
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