A sa Libra - English translation

Piero Marras

Original lyrics

Translation

A sa Libra

Torramus a sa Libra, Mihalinu

pro chi paritzos non bi cherzan bènnere:

che un’àndala jara est su caminu,

bastat de non dar ‘orta pro b’assènnere.

Como su tempus chi disizaias

benit comente nie supra a crastu,

su tempus de su parpu e de s’arrastu,

su tempus forte ‘e sas ànimas bias.

Chie podet indùere a su malu sentidu?

Supra ‘che l’an a rùere sas fozas de s’olvidu.

Nàrami Mialinu, cantas bortas

chi depiamus sos metzanos prànghere

e totu cantas sas ànimas mortas

chi non b’at mancu su tantu ‘e las prànghere?

Torramus a sa Libra, Mihalinu

pro chi paritzos non bi cherzan bènnere:

che un’àndala jara est su caminu,

bastat de non dar ‘orta pro b’assènnere.

Let’s go back to the Libra,1 Mihalinu,

even if many don’t want to go there:

the path is like a plain, clear road,

just don’t move to and fro to arrive there.

Now the time that you were wishing

is coming like snow on a rock,

the time of touching and of smelling,

the strong time of living souls.

Who could induce into a bad judgement?

The leaves of oblivion will fall on him.

Tell me, Mihalinu, how many times

will we have to mourn for petty people

and for all those “dead souls”,2

who are not even worth mourning for?

Let’s go back to the Libra, Mihalinu,

even if many don’t want to go there:

the path is like a plain, clear road,

just don’t move to and fro to arrive there.

1. The whole song is full of literary reminiscences, mostly taken from the novel Sos Sinnos by the Sardinian writer Michelangelo Pira (here mentioned with his nickname Mihalinu). Libra was the name of Pira’s birthplace, actually a small farm near Bitti, a mountain village in inner Sardinia, many times mentioned in Pira’s novel as a place of peace and real wisdom, whence the world can be seen as it really is.
2. A reference to the novel Dead Souls by Nikolaj Gogol'.