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Translation
Argenti lives
As we were ploughing the still swamp, a spirit covered in mud loomed up in front of me.1
He reached out for our boat, but Virgil promptly forced him back saying:
“Off you go, be gone among the damned likes of you!”.2
And I said: “Master, I would very, very willingly, before we leave this swamp, see him be plunged back into this sludge”.3
Shortly after, I saw the wrathful massacring him so ruthlessly, that I’m still glorifying and thanking God for it. 4
To Filippo Argenti!
Hey there Dante, remember me? I’m Filippo Argenti
I’m the one drowning in the mud
Beaten up by all the demons around
What? You want to provoke me, oh sublime?
All you can provoke in me is sleep
Alighieri, look, quiver, you fear me like erythema
Was it you who derided me?
You’re supposed to fight, but you take to your heels and run instead
You, a bard? Buzz off!
Hey, when-whenever, say-say where
I’m damned, but I’ll beat you like hell
That’ll teach you what happens when you give a bad rhyme to me
I wouldn’t curse you, I’d harm you, Alighieri
You’re not divine, individual
If I locate you, I’ll dislocate you8
Extolling your lover9is for nothing, Dante
You can only provoke a drop in libido
The world is not to poets, no!
The world is to us, the domineering
You go rhyming around that you’re slinging me in the mud
But I am still Argenti
Argenti lives, lives and will
I am still the most feared in this city
I am still the most respected, so what’s your making up stories for?
If this world is Hell, then know it belongs
To Filippo Argenti!
Poet, you are showing disdain
For Filippo Argenti!
But everyone consecrates this kingdom
To Filippo Argenti!
Your tercets are waste paper
Leave a mark
Poet, you are showing disdain
For Filippo Argenti!
But everyone consecrates this kingdom
To Filippo Argenti!
Your tercets are waste paper
My sets of five slapped on your face
Leave a mark
It’s not true that the pen is mightier than the sword, bullshit
What do you think keeps better at bay? Rhymed couplet or war club?
No dictator is talked into abdication
Seems like no one even knows what “abdication” means anymore, what are we wasting our breath on?
Attacking me won’t redeem you, no
It was you issuing directives, to annihilate every Ghibelline12
Circle 7, first ring13
“Ye were not made to live like unto brutes”14
Nice try, you’re still spitting revenge
Congrats for your production
Argenti lives, lives and will
People love my ferocity
Even you, who’s drowning me by fierce kicks in my mouth
Your name is Dante Alighieri, but your manners remind me more
Of Filippo Argenti!
Poet, you are showing disdain
For Filippo Argenti!
But everyone consecrates this kingdom
To Filippo Argenti!
Your tercets are waste paper
My sets of five slapped on your face
Leave a mark
Poet, you are showing disdain
For Filippo Argenti!
But everyone consecrates this kingdom
To Filippo Argenti!
Your tercets are waste paper
My sets of five slapped on your face
Leave a mark
Keep away from blazes, you’ll get burned
Watch your back, dear Dante, brutes are everywhere
Every grand orator has been done in
By violent and brawny lords
Even trees need to elbow their way for a sunray
The rest are just futile, pretty words
I’m pretty sure in the forthcoming, young minds
Will resemble Argenti
And art will bring my name:
Filippo Argenti
Filippo Argenti
Filippo Argenti
Filippo Argenti
We left him there, in the swamp. This is all I’m telling you.16
- 1. The song opens with a paraphrase in contemporary Italian of the original Dante’s lines (Inferno, Canto VIII, lines 31-32)
- 2. (Inferno, Canto VIII, lines 40-42)
- 3. (Inferno, Canto VIII, lines 52-54)
- 4. (Inferno, Canto VIII, lines 58-60)
- 5. (Inferno, Canto VIII, line 61)
- 6. Filippo Argenti became notorious for the aggressivity Dante uses against him in his Comedy, displaying harsh contempt toward him
- 7. Filippo Argenti was in fact Dante’s neighbour
- 8. lit. “divide you”
- 9. Beatrice, the woman Dante loves and often sings in his poems
- 10. Pun with the previous “tercets”: there’s no set of five lines in poetry rhyming schemes, here this “set of five” indicates a smack
- 11. It appears that Filippo Argenti actually slapped Dante Alighieri in the face
- 12. Dante sided with the White Guelphs, Argenti with the Black Guelphs, who eventually took control of Florance, forcing Dante into exile
- 13. Location destined to the violent against neighbours
- 14. One of the most famous quotations from Dante’s Comedy (Inferno, Canto XXVI, line 119)
- 15. It is Phlegyas who is ferrying Dante and Virgil across the swamp
- 16. (Inferno, Canto VIII, line 64)
Icey✕
Caparezza: Top 3
| 1. | Vieni a ballare in Puglia |
| 2. | Ti fa stare bene |
| 3. | Vengo dalla Luna |
Idioms from "Argenti vive"
| 1. | A gambe levate |
| 2. | La lingua ferisce più della spada |
| 3. | Solo belle parole. |
| 4. | The pen is mightier than the sword |
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