Credited on the record as G. Marini.
Ballata del piccolo An
1972 · I Dischi del Sole DS 1012/14 · Rome, Italy
- Artist
- Giovanna Marini
- Credited on the record as
- G. Marini
- Title
- Ballata del piccolo An
- Release
- Compagno Vietnam
- Year
- 1972
- Label
- I Dischi del Sole # DS 1012/14
- Format
- LP · Compilation
- Language
- Italian
- Country
- Rome, Italy
- Songwriter
- Ivan Della Mea
- Genre
- Folk · Contemporary Italian Folk Music
- Primary theme
- Vietnamese Patriotic
Lyrics
English: O Cheu, I wish you were here / With me to delight in the ylang in bloom / With me to hear the bells ring / But you are far away in North Vietnam. // It is March in Kam-Tho, and it is poetry, / Our poetry, but I have no peace: / Our Kam-Tho with its avenues of sao trees / Is held tight in the enemy's iron mesh. // But one day the avenue of ylang flowers / Will be named the avenue of little An. // O Cheu, we too are fighting in the South / And in our hearts there is only one Vietnam; / For our Vietnam we resist, / For it little An has died. // Two leaps, a smile, he is full of life, / Little An is rich in joy; / His jacket over his arm and two hand grenades, / Little An is already a partisan. // But one day the avenue of ylang flowers / Will be named the avenue of little An. // But look, the enemy is combing the street / And if they catch us, it's over for us; / But at the end of the street is little An / Who runs and shouts, "The police are here!" // O little An, you are cunning and quick, / Far quicker than those mercenaries; / The pack pants and chases you fiercely, / And so you save us from those butchers. // And one day the avenue of ylang flowers / Will be named the avenue of little An. / Of ylang flowers / Will be named the avenue of little An. // Little An, you are in a blind alley / And your eye shines in your pale face; / You take a grenade, you smile calmly, / And then you throw it into the middle of the pack. // The blast, the silence, and then the other…
Notes
Mono LP issued November 1972, published by Edizioni Musicali Bella Ciao, graphics Gigi Romeo, liner notes Giovanni Pirelli and Ivan Della Mea; the companion songbook "Compagno Vietnam" (Edizioni del Gallo, 1974) prints the lyrics. Track B1. Giovanna Marini's recording of Ivan Della Mea's ballad, two years before Della Mea's own version on "La nave dei folli".
About the artist
Giovanna Marini (Rome, 1937–2024) — singer, composer and ethnomusicologist of the Nuovo Canzoniere Italiano. [Source: Wikipedia (it)]
Themes
Vietnamese Perspective · Vietnamese Children · Child · Guerrilla Warfare · VC · Anti-War · Civilian Casualties
From the release Compagno Vietnam