Anime salve: Princesa - Princess

Sono la pecora sono la vacca che agli animali si vuol giocare sono la femmina camicia aperta piccole tette da succhiare Sotto le ciglia di questi alberi nel chiaroscuro dove son nato che l'orizzonte prima del cielo ero lo sguardo di mia madre "che Fernandino è come una figlia mi porta a letto caffè e tapioca e a ricordargli che è nato maschio sarà l'istinto sarà la vita" e io davanti allo specchio grande mi paro gli occhi con le dita a immaginarmi tra le gambe una minuscola fica nel dormiveglia della corriera lascio l'infanzia contadina corro all'incanto dei desideri vado a correggere la fortuna nella cucina della pensione mescolo i sogni con gli ormoni ad albeggiare sarà magia saranno seni miracolosi perché Fernanda è proprio una figlia come una figlia vuol far l'amore ma Fernandino resiste e vomita e si contorce dal dolore e allora il bisturi per seni e fianchi in una vertigine di anestesia finché il mio corpo mi rassomigli sul lungomare di Bahia sorriso tenero di verdefoglia dai suoi capelli sfilo le dita quando le macchine puntano i fari sul palcoscenico della mia vita dove tra ingorghi di desideri alle mie natiche un maschio s'appende nella mia carne tra le mie labbra un uomo scivola l'altro si arrende che Fernandino mi è morto in grembo Fernanda è una bambola di seta sono le braci di un'unica stella che squilla di luce di nome Princesa a un avvocato di Milano ora Princesa regala il cuore e un passeggiare recidivo nella penombra di un balcone o matu (la campagna) o cèu (il cielo) a senda (il sentiero) a escola (la scuola) a igreja (la chiesa) a desonra (la vergogna) a saia (la gonna) o esmalte (lo smalto) o espelho (lo specchio) o baton (il rossetto) o medo (la paura) a rua (la strada) a bombadeira (la modellatrice) a vertigem (la vertigine) o encanto (l'incantesimo) a magia (la magia) os carros (le macchine) a policia (la polizia) a canseira (la stanchezza) o brio (la dignità) o noivo (il fidanzato) o capanga (lo sgherro) o fidalgo (il gransignore) o porcalhao (lo sporcaccione) o azar (la sfortuna) a bebedeira (la sbronza) as pancadas (le botte) os carinhos (le carezze) a falta (il fallimento) o nojo (lo schifo) a formusura (la bellezza) viver (vivere) Princesa © 1996 Fabrizio De André/Ivano Fossati "Princesa" is about Fernanda Farias de Albuquerque, who was born in Brazil in 1963 as a male but from the age of six years identified as female. She emigrated to Spain at the age of 25 and then to Italy, where she was a sex worker in order to pay for a sex change operation. She was incarcerated for the attempted murder of the madam of the brothel where she worked after the madam had stolen money from her. In jail, she met a Sardinian shepherd who had attempted a bank robbery. The two spoke about Brazil and Sardinia in a mix of languages. Another inmate, sentenced to two life sentences, undertook to write the story of Fernanda/Princesa, and after a year of collaboration the book was published in 1994, on which De André based this song. The happy ending of the song did not mirror what happened in real life - Fernanda/Princesa ended her life in 1999 without having completed the transition to being female. Fernanda Farias De Albuquerque

I am the ewe, I am the cow, because one wants to play at being animals. I am the female, open shirt, small tits to suck. Under the eyelashes of these trees in the light and shade where I was born, because the horizon before the sky, I was the look in my mother’s eyes. “Why is little Fernando like a daughter? He brings me coffee and tapioca in bed, and to remind him that he was born male will be instinct, will be life.” And me, in front of the big mirror - I screen my eyes with my fingers to imagine for myself, between my legs, a little twat. In the half slumber of a bus I leave my peasant infancy, I run to the spell of desires, I go to adjust my fortune. In the kitchen of the boarding house I mix dreams with hormones. When dawn comes there will be magic, there will be miraculous breasts. Because Fernanda is really a daughter, like a girl she wants to make love. But little Fernando resists and vomits and writhes in agony. And then the scalpel for breasts and hips, in a whirl of anesthesia, until my body looks like me along the seafront of Bahia. Tender smile of greenleaf, from her hair I withdraw my fingers when the cars point their headlights on the stage of my life where, amidst traffic jams of desires, at my buttocks a cock is hanging. Into my meat, between my lips, one man slides, the other surrenders. Because little Fernando died in my bosom, Fernanda is a silk doll. They are branches of a single star that blasts out light, Princess by name. To a lawyer in Milan Princess now gives her heart, and a customary stroll in the shadow of a balcony. the countryside the sky the path the school the church the shame the skirt the nail polish the mirror the lipstick the fear the street the fashion model the dizziness the charm the magic the cars the police the tiredness the dignity the fiancé the thug the elder gentleman the lecher the misfortune the bender the blows the caresses the failure the disgust the beauty living English translation © 2014 Dennis Criteser Anime salve was released in 1996, the last of De André's thirteen studio albums. The songs were co-written by De André and Ivano Fossati, and the studio recording was co-produced by De André and Piero Milesi. De André referred to the album both as "a type of eulogy for solitude" and "a discourse on freedom." Here you will discover an album with De André at his full powers as lyricist and singer with his rich baritone in a musical setting that is striking, musically sophisticated and varied, with musical references to South America, the Balkans and the Mediterranean. The album was voted best Italian album of 1997 by the readers of La Repubblica and critics voted De André as the best Italian artist. The album also received the prestigious Targa Tenco prize for best album of 1997.

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