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Translation
Cart
[*please read the "Author's comment" below first*]
I’ve been told that women
Oxen and motors are joy and pain
And not to put women and motors
In front of the cart, in front of the oxen
But I did it, and the flying woman
- Constant danger - broke my cart
And if she breaks something, she takes a shit 1
And the pieces are hers and her country’s oxen’s
The flying woman takes a shit with her oxen
Damn the flying woman
And the constant danger!
And now that I haven’t got my cart anymore
What am I supposed to put in front of my oxen?
What should I do with the motors
And with women
If there’s no cart anymore?
I’ll give fuel to the motors
But what about the women?
There’s lack of carts
And women are feeling this lack
Damn the lack of carts
And the abundance of constant danger!
– Wisdom from proverbs
But joy from the cart –
The “I want” grass doesn’t grow
Even in the neighbor’s lawn
I want the king’s grass, give it to me!
The king is near
The neighbor’s garden
Is becoming greener and greener
The neighbor is green too
Help him
Now there's a company
And its spokesperson remembers me to give
One blow to the hoop and one to the full barrel
And one to the drunken wife, but
Between talking and taking action there’s an “and”
And one metallic washer doesn’t mean it’s spring 2
So he gives me a new cart
Equipped with a rocket launcher
To constantly bomb
The flying woman
I fire my rockets into the universe
And I’m about to hit the flying woman
She tries to dodge
Flying into a cloud, but that’s a tragic mistake
That wasn’t a normal cloud
But a Cloud called Strife 3
She’s flown into Cloud Strife’s ass
Dying from it
God creates us and then kills us, I’ve got it 4
That’s life
The hasty cat made the kittens
In the king’s lawn
The king is blind, so whatever
The kittens run around the lawn
The king says: “I hear the sound of kittens
Running around my lawn”
Meanwhile, the neighbor, looking out of his window
Says: “Give me my cats back, you thief!”
Deacon✕
Elio e le Storie Tese: Top 3
| 1. | Il vitello dai piedi di balsa |
| 2. | Parco Sempione |
| 3. | Servi della Gleba |
Comments
About translator
This song is almost entirely based on puns on Italian proverbs and idioms, with two or even more of them mixed together in each verse.
Here's a translation of every one of them. I've tried to translate them literally, even thought many of them have English equivalents, so that the translation won't diverge too much from the original (with one exception, see note #3).
- Donne e motori son gioie e dolori = women and motors are [both] joy and pain.
- Non mettere il carro davanti ai buoi = don’t put the cart in front of the oxen.
- Donna al volante, pericolo costante = Driving woman, constant danger (extra pun: “donna al volante” = driving woman; “donna volante” = flying woman).
- Chi rompe paga e i cocci sono suoi = if you break something you have to pay for it, but you may keep the pieces.
- Mogli e buoi dei paesi tuoi = choose wives and oxen from your own country.
- L'erba voglio non cresce neanche nel giardino del re = the “I want” grass doesn’t grow even in the king’s garden.
- L'erba del vicino è sempre la più verde = neighbor’s grass is always greener.
- Un colpo al cerchio ed uno alla botte = one (hammer) blow on the hoop and one on the stave.
- Non puoi avere la botte piena e la moglie ubriaca = you can’t have the barrel full and your wife drunk.
- Tra il dire e il fare c'è di mezzo il mare = between talking and taking action there’s the sea.
- Una rondine non fa primavera = one swallow doesn't mean it's spring.
- Dio li fa e poi li accoppia = God makes us and then match us (in couples).
- La gatta frettolosa fa i gattini ciechi = the hasty cat makes blind kittens.