Saturday 16 October 2010

Giorgio Gaber: One guy was a Communist - Qualcuno era comunista

I do not know exactly why, but I feel to post this tonight






"One guy was a Communist because he’d been born in Emilia.

One guy was a Communist because his grandpa, his uncle, his dad ... not his mom, though.

One guy was a Communist because Russia seemed like a promise, China seemed like a poem, and Communism seemed like a heaven on earth.

One guy was a Communist because he felt alone.

One guy was a Communist because he’d grown up much too Catholic.

One guy was a Communist because the movies demanded it, theater demanded it, painting demanded it, and so did literature: everything demanded it.

One guy was a Communist because they told him to.

One guy was a Communist because they didn’t tell him everything.

One guy was a Communist because before (long, long before) he’d been a Fascist.

One guy was a Communist because he understood Russia was moving slow and steady, but it was winning the race (!)

One guy was a Communist because Berlinguer was a great man.

One guy was a Communist because Andreotti wasn’t....

One guy was a Communist because he was rich, but he loved the people....

One guy was a Communist because he drank a lot of wine and got teary-eyed when he went to working-class rallies.

One guy was a Communist because he was so firmly atheist that he needed a different God.

One guy was a Communist because he was so fascinated by the working man that he wanted to be one, too.

One guy was a Communist because he couldn’t take another minute of being a working man.

One guy was a Communist because he needed a raise.

One guy was a Communist because ... the revolution? Not today, no. Could be tomorrow. But the day after that, guaranteed!

One guy was a Communist because ... “the bourgeoisie the proletariat the class struggle, shit!”

One guy was a Communist to piss off his father.

One guy was a Communist because the only TV channel he watched was RAI3.

One guy was a Communist because it was trendy, another guy as a question of principle, another one out of frustration.

One guy was a Communist because he wanted the state to take control of EVERYTHING!

One guy was a Communist because he didn’t know any government workers, civil servants, or their ilk....

One guy was a Communist because he had confused dialectical materialism with the Gospel According to Lenin.

One guy was a Communist because he was convinced the working class was behind him.

One guy was a Communist because he was a better Communist than anybody else.

One guy was a Communist because of the Great Communist Party.

One guy was a Communist in spite of the Great Communist Party.

One guy was a Communist because there wasn’t anything better.

One guy was a Communist because Italy had the worst Socialist Party in all of Europe!

One guy was a Communist because, when it comes to government, the only country in worse shape was Uganda....

One guy was a Communist because he’d had it with forty years of Christian Democrat governments made up of idiots and mobsters.

One guy was a Communist because Piazza Fontana, Brescia, the Bologna train station, the Italicus Massacre, the DC-9 crash over Ustica, and so on, and so on, and so on!

One guy was a Communist because if you were opposed, you were a Communist!

One guy was a Communist because he couldn’t tolerate that filthy thing they insisted on calling democracy!

One guy, one guy thought he was a Communist, and maybe he was something else entirely.

One guy was a Communist because he dreamed of a freedom that wasn’t like what they had in America.

One guy was a Communist because he believed he could be happy in life only if other people were, too.

One guy was a Communist because he needed a push toward something new, because he felt the need for a different sort of morality.

Because maybe it was just an aspiration, a flight of fancy, a dream. Maybe it was nothing more than an impulse, the wish you could change things, to live a different kind of life.

One guy was a Communist because, when that impulse took you over, each one of us became more than just himself: it was like being two people in one. On the one hand, every single day, there was your personal toil. On the other, the feeling that you belonged to a tribe that longed to take wing and fly off toward a different kind of life.

No, no regrets. At the time, maybe, a lot of people spread their wings without really being able to fly, like a flock of theoretical seagulls.

And what about now?

Now we still feel torn in two. On the one hand, we’re men and women well-integrated into society, obsequiously moving through the squalor of our daily survival. On the other hand, we’re that seagull, who doesn’t have any intention to fly anymore. Because, by now, the dream has withered.

A double torment in a single body.

- Giorgio Gaber & Sandro Luporini
(from “E pensare che c’era il pensiero” [Just Think What We Used To Think], 1995)

36 comments:

mario said...

Caro, carissimo Giorgio! ci manchi tantissimo!!
Grazie Laura
un forte abbraccio

nouvelles couleurs - vienna atelier said...

Ciao Mario, grazie della visita... notte

Anonymous said...

Great! Thank you for sharing this tonight.

Carla, i colori...pensieri della mia mente. said...

Grande Giorgio...
Un caro ricordo ed una persona speciale.
ciaoo Laura

Romantik Seelchen said...

du weißt, wir erfrieren an der Welt,das kleine bischen Wärme kann nicht retten, ich denke an dich, liebe Grüße Jasmin...

Jean Spitzer said...

Thank you for sharing this; I hadn't seen it.

Denise SCARAMAI said...

Cara,
Grazie per mostrare Giorgio Gaber
e questo testo geniale ...
baci

黄清华 Wong Ching Wah said...

Very expressive creation !
非常に良い写真キャプチャ
Wong

Roger Gauthier said...

Thank you for sharing this one. At first I laughed to death, then I was not laughing anymore, and then it was not funny.

You know, it is very hard for someone like me, living in Québec where there has been no war and tolerable politics for generations, to understand the torments of a good part of Europe. You have courage, while we take everything for granted.

Roger

Anthony Duce said...

I want to thank you for sharing this too, just like most of the others. The contradictions on the subject are many, as are the phases and the history all go through and at some point have to share…

Caio Fern said...

wow !! Laura.
what unspected post.

i liked this .
very touching.

Clint said...

Wow. There sure are a lot of reasons to be a communist. Ha.

Randy said...

Wonderful post. Thank you for sharing this.

trankilo- said...

No sabía quien era Giorgio Gaber y despues de consultar a San Google :) he llegado a la conclusión de que fué un genio.
Salud y muchos colores

marty said...

LAURA, tu es incroyable !! tout t'intéresse et tu m'intéresse !!
bisous

all ways 11 o'clock said...

Thank you for sharing this with us. Here in Canada we do not understand this first hand. i was very humbled.

~robert

bondearte said...

Ciao Laura!
Buona giornata!
Bravo!!!!!
Paulo

nouvelles couleurs - vienna atelier said...

--- Hugo
Thank you Hugo


--- Carla
Ciao Carla, grandissimo direi, un bacio


--- jasmin
:-) danke jasmin, du bist immer so lieb, danke herzlich


--- Jean Spitzer
I thank you jean, and I'm happy you like Gaber's ironic :-)


--- Denise Scaramai
grazie a te, mi fa piacere che ti piace, grandissimo Gaber


--- 黄清华 Wong Ching Wah
:-) yes, Gaber was great


--- Roger Gauthier
Hi Roger, I thank you very much to have dedicated your time too see that, I understand very well what you said, thank you for comming


--- Anthony Duce
Thank you Anthony


--- Caio Fren
thank you Caio


--- Clint
Hi Clint!
I'm so sorry, I think you have not understand completely the meaning of this post...
thank you anyway for comming here, it alwys nice to see you


---Randy
Thank you very much


--- Trankilo
Me alegro de que usted ha buscado mas y que te gusta


--- maty
:-) merci


--- all ways 11 o'clock
thank you Robert


--- bondearte
gracias Paulo

nouvelles couleurs - vienna atelier said...

This is the first time that I posted somethings about politics in this blog, and it will be probably the last time too.
I'm not a communist, but at the same time I'm not agree with the actually governemet in Italy, my home.
I'm living in Vienna-Austria as you know and for me it is so sad to see what happened in Italy, living outside I can have a paragon, I mean that I can see how things work here, health, education, social welfare and so on.
There is to much things in Italy that are in contrast with my saul

this lyric is ironic but it say lot of truth,
for example this:

"We could be happy in life only if other people were, too".



I thank you all my dear friends for comming

Paulo Duarte - Escultor said...

Olá! Laura
As minhas desculpas mas tenho estado ausente da Blogosfera.
Aqui estou a actualizar as minhas visitas e "regalar-me" com estas tuas criações e momentos espectaculares, muito grandiosos e fortes no seu conceptual.
Momentos de introspecção do tempo passado e presente.
Adoro estas tuas citações de Grandes Momentos do Ser "HOMEM".
Felicidades e continuação de momentos de criação e "IN-Reflexão" dos tempos.
Até sempre.

nouvelles couleurs - vienna atelier said...

Paulo Duarte

Thank you Paulo :-) Obrigado

Rachel said...

Liebste Laura,

und diese *Aufzählung* könnte ganz sicher noch länger sein...


ich umarme dich ganz fest,
lieb, Rachel

Celeste Bergin said...

This was so powerful. Thank you for the translation. I tried to put it together what was said when the image was of the ironworkers having their lunch on the skyscraper. I imagine it was the reference to America. My ancestors were ironworkers. The ending was so well done about the seagull who has lost the desire to fly. I think many people in America feel that too. Complacent and world weary. Thanks again, it made me understand that people everywhere tire of being told one thing and experiencing something so counter to what they've been told.

UIFPW08 said...

Dwcisamente..Fantastica. Scelta ottina.
Ciao Laura,
Grazie della visita
un abbraccio
Maurizio

Anonymous said...

Complimenti per il blog!

nouvelles couleurs - vienna atelier said...

Rachel
Danke Rachel, freue mich immer Dich zu sehen :-)
bussi

nouvelles couleurs - vienna atelier said...

Celeste Bergin

Thank you dear Celeste. You have captured exatelly the sence of this post, I'm really happy about

thank you another time, see you

nouvelles couleurs - vienna atelier said...

UIFPW08

Grazie Maurizio mi fa piacere che apprezzi

nouvelles couleurs - vienna atelier said...

ilaryexplorer

grazie!

Anonymous said...

Aw, this was a very nice post. Spending some time and
actual effort to produce a very good article… but
what can I say… I put things off a whole
lot and don't seem to get nearly anything done.
My blog - legitimate work from home online jobs

Anonymous said...

Quality articles or reviews is the important to attract the viewers to visit the website, that's what this site is providing.
Feel free to visit my web blog - day trading system

Anonymous said...

I always emailed this webpage post page to all my friends, as if
like to read it then my contacts will too.
Here is my page - jobs you can do from home online

Anonymous said...

Hey! Do you use Twitter? I'd like to follow you if that would be okay. I'm absolutely enjoying your blog and look
forward to new posts.
Here is my web page real cash

Anonymous said...

Very descriptive post, I enjoyed that bit. Will there be a part 2?
Visit my homepage work online from home jobs

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure where you're getting your info, but great topic.
I needs to spend some time learning much more or understanding more.
Thanks for wonderful information I was looking for this info
for my mission.
Look into my page - best stock trading site

Anonymous said...

Greate post. Keep writing such kind of information on your page.
Im really impressed by it.
Hey there, You've performed a fantastic job. I will certainly digg it and in my view recommend to my friends. I am confident they'll be benefited from this website.


Also visit my blog - basal metabolic rate calculator