Fabrizio De André
Jan 12, 2019
Yesterday, January 11th, marks the 20th anniversary of the passing of Fabrizio De André, one of the greatest italian singer-songwriters.
Fabrizio is best known for his lyrics, so much to be considered a poet, but since this is an english written blog, I chose a song where the words' meaning isn't so important: Crêuza de mä
A crêuza in Sant'Ilario
"umbre de muri, muri de mainæ / dunde ne vegnî, duve l'è che'anæ?" It's the opening song and gives the title to the album. As already mentioned, the Ligurian expression crêuza de mä, in the genovesato, defines a path or mule track, sometimes made of steps, which usually defines the boundaries of private property and connects (as indeed do virtually all roads in Liguria) the hinterland with the sea. The literal translation is therefore "sea lane" or, using a ligurism, "sea crosa".The text speaks of sailors who, returning from the sea, poetically described as a place where the Moon is bare (ie not shaded by hills, plants or houses) and where the night has pointed the knife to the throat, go to eat at the tavern of Andrea, the fountain of doves in the stone house, and think of who they might find: people of Lugano and girls of good family not recommended.
The text focuses on the figure of sailors and their lives as eternal travelers, and tells precisely about a night return of sailors to shore, almost as strangers. De André talks about their feelings, about their experiences on their skin, about the rawness of being at the real mercy of the elements; then emerges an ostentatious joking distrust, which can be seen in the assortment of food imagined, acceptable and normal (or almost, for a true sailor), as opposed to others, such as the brains of lamb, or the mess of "hare of tiles" (the cat, passed off as a sort of rabbit), decidedly and deliberately less acceptable, evidently cited to make irony about the reliability and steadfastness of Andrea (about whom it is stressed that he is not a sailor) and, perhaps, of a whole world to which they know they do not belong.
"E 'nt' a barca du vin ghe navighiemu 'nsc'i scheuggi" (And in the boat of wine we'll sail [also] on the rocks) "until the day of the... bacan d'a corda marsa d'aegua e de sä" (until the morning... master of the rope rotten with water and salt") with that rope will end up tying us up and taking us back to the sea [to our destiny] along a crêuza de ma.
Source is this Wikipedia article I took chance to edit myself today taking from the excellent work done on its Italian equivalent
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