✕
Translation
Those Who Right-Think
They are around us, among us,
in many cases it's us who make promises
without ever keeping them other than out of self-interest,
the end is just profit,
the means is any one at hand,1
the stakes are at their highest,
the imperative is to win and not let anyone else participate,
in the rationale of the game, the only rule is to be sly:
no scruples nor respect towards our fellow human beings,
because the last will be last, if the first are out of reach.2
They are many,
arrogant towards the weaker ones and bootlickers3 towards the powerful ones,
they are replicants,4
they all look the same, look at them,
they are behind masks and you can't tell them apart.
Like lizards, they climb,5
and if then they lose their tail, they buy it new.
They do what they want others to know they do,
they squander6 their money and they are what they have.
They are around me, but they don't talk with me.
They are like me, but they feel superior.
They are around me, but they don't talk with me.
They are like me, but they feel superior.
Like suppositories, they live in full-optional blister packs,
with dogs louder than 120 decibels
and garden gnomes as though it were Disneyland,7
they live in the fear that they might look poor;
what they have, they flaunt it, and all the rest, they envy it, then they buy it;
to keep up with the Joneses,8 they build:
they start from a nice lawn and go up to the sky,
they have more satellite dishes on their roof than Mark's Gospel has parables.9
And they are the ones who, on Saturdays, wash cars
which at night speed between tarmac and little kids,
mediocre as the class they belong to,10
simplistic like the missiles they resemble.11
All gussied up, they sniff, they get drunk
and then they splatter onto a tree. (boom!)
Nose as white as Fruit of the Loom
that becomes redder than a level of Doom.12
And they are around me, but they don't talk with me.
They are like me, but they feel superior.
They are around me, but they don't talk with me.
They are like me, but they feel superior.
Everyone for himself, God for themselves,
hands that shake one another among the pews on Sundays,
hypocritical hands, hands that do things that they don't tell one another,13
otherwise, who knows what other hands might think, they might be scandalised.
Hands that then sign evacuation petitions,14
hands as smooth as castor oil,
hands brandishing billy clubs,15
stuffing jewels,
raising to the brother's backs.
Those who say "it's no longer safe to go out at night",
those who go whoring while their children are watching TV,
who play the boss, who buy Class,16
who are so sophisticated that you have to call NAS,17
nightmares of plastic, who would like to set fire to every gypsy woman,
but the only one they turn on is the one who gives them a handout every evening,
when I hide on the dark side of their Black Moon.18
And they are around me, but they don't talk with me.
They are like me, but they feel superior.
They are around me, but they don't talk with me.
They are like me, but they feel superior.
And they are around me, but they don't talk with me.
They are like me, but they feel superior.
They are around me, but they don't talk with me.
They are like me, but they feel superior.
- 1. This is a play on "the ends justify the means".
- 2. This is a reference to the Gospel: "The last will be first, and the first will be last", though in our society the last will be last, full stop.
- 3. zerbino = doormat.
zerbino = bootlicker. - 4. Reference to the movie Blade Runner, in which replicants are androids indistinguishable from human beings.
- 5. scalare = climb.
(negative) scalatore sociale = social climber. - 6. spendere e spandere {spend and spread} = squander.
- 7. nani da giardino {garden dwarves} = garden gnomes.
- 8. Literally "in a steady escalation with their neighbour"
- 9. parabola = satellite dish.
parabola = parable. - 10. medio = medium, average (hence "mediocre").
medio = middle.
ceto medio = middle class. - 11. terra terra {earth earth} = down to earth, prosaic; here it is derogatory, to describe a person who is overly simplistic, too materialistic and ignorant.
missile terra-terra = ground-to-ground missile.
Those people look like missiles because they go too fast in their cars. - 12. Fruit of the Loom is an apparel brand, known for their white male underpants and white T-shirts.
Doom was a PC FPS (first-person-shooter), in which the screen became redder and redder as the character's health decreased.
There is a multiple play on words in these lines.
About drugs/booze:
tirare = sniff.
farina = cocaine.
infarinarsi = sniff cocaine.
alcolizzarsi {get alcoholic} = get smashed, get drunk.
pasta = drug pill.
impastare = take a drug pill.
nasi bianchi = white noses (because of the cocaine powder).
nasi rossi = red noses (because of alcohol).
About dough:
tirare = stretch.
farina = flour.
infarinare = spread flour.
pasta = dough.
impastare = knead oneself.
About people:
tirarsi, mettersi in tiro = gussy up, tart up.
They gussy up {tirarsi} to go clubbing, they do drugs {s'infarinano}, they get drunk {s'alcolizzano}, and then they drive and crash into a tree {s'impastano}. - 13. Reference to the Bible: "do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing", though here it doesn't mean that you must not be conceited, it means they hide their illegal/immoral activities.
- 14. Petitions to make gypsy people go away from their gypsy camps, since they are often accused to be thieves and to kidnap children.
- 15. andare liscio come l'olio {to go as smooth as oil} = to go as a milk run.
Castor oil is a powerful laxative that was used by Fascists (the "Camicie Nere", Black Shirts) to humiliate their opponents. They beat them with billy clubs and forced them to drink castor oil. Of course, the victim couldn't go out of his house for many days and was not very willing to oppose them again. - 16. Class is a lifestyle magazine.
- 17. NAS (Nucleo Anti Sofisticazioni, Anti-Adulteration Squad) is a police division (of the Carabinieri, not of the Polizia; Italy has multiple independent police forces) that investigates about food adulterations.
"sofisticato" (sophisticated) also means polished, snobbish. - 18. La zingara {The Gypsy Woman} was an Italian TV show, in which the participant had to pick some cards to try to win money prizes. The "gypsy woman" played the role of a fortune teller and turned the tarot cards. If they picked the "Luna Nera" ("Black Moon"), they would lose everything.
Guest on 2015-10-08✕
Frankie HI-NRG MC: Top 3
| 1. | Quelli che benpensano |
| 2. | Fight da Faida |
| 3. | Rivoluzione |
Idioms from "Quelli che ..."
| 1. | keep up with the Joneses |
| 2. | ognun per sé |
Comments
ϕιλομαθής
Thu, 08/10/2015 - 14:43
I just wanted to mention that in English "parables" and "satellites" are completely different words with different meaning. Maybe you can say that they have more satellite dishes on their roofs than Marks's Gospel has parables and explain the word play in a footnote.
annabellanna
Thu, 08/10/2015 - 15:13
Ciao Stefano. Credo che tu abbia fatto davvero un ottimo lavoro. Però dissento su un paio di punti.
“Tiratissimi”: i riferimenti alla coca sono moltissimi. Ma qui “tiratissimi” forse significa principalmente “in tiro”, nel senso di “elegantissimi”: elegantissimi, strafatti di coca e ubriachi persi (comunque il termine è volutamente ambiguo…).
Come non sono del tutto d’accordo sull’interpretazione di “si impastano”, come “prendono pasticche per sballare”. In quel caso ho sempre sentito usare “si impasticcano”
“Si impastano”(su un albero), secondo me, significa:” si spiaccicano/si smaltano/si spetàsciano/si spalmano/si smarmèllano” , a piacere… ;-)
Comunque, bravo!!!
Dario_P
Wed, 06/04/2016 - 10:40
Mi è sempre piaciuta questa rima perché ha mille significati. Un'altra immagina che vedo quando l'ascolto, può essere ridicolo, ma è quella culinaria:
farina + alcool = pasta
Ovvio che i significati primari sono quelli che hanno colto tutti, ma mi chiedo se nella scelta delle parole Frankie ha pensato o no anche a questo livello.
jackiechan
Fri, 01/05/2020 - 14:02
Thank you so much :)