Ballata del piccolo An
1974 · I Dischi del Sole DS 78 · Italy
- Artist
- Ivan Della Mea
- Title
- Ballata del piccolo An
- Release
- La nave dei folli
- Year
- 1974
- Label
- I Dischi del Sole # DS 78
- Format
- 7" · EP
- Language
- Italian
- Country
- 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 enjoy the ylang-ylang in flower / 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
I Dischi del Sole DS 78 (Edizioni del Gallo, Milan; Serie Sperimentale "Canzoni d'uso", November 1974; ℗ Bella Ciao Ed. Mus.), 7-inch 33 rpm EP "La nave dei folli": A1 "Votare lottare cambiare" 3:35, A2 "Ballata del piccolo An" 4:15, B "La nave dei folli" 8:15, all words and music by Ivan Della Mea, who sings and plays, with Alberto Ciarchi and Paolo Ciarchi (guitars) and Renato Rivolta (flute) on this track. Two sleeve printings: one dated "novembre 1974", the other overprinted "XX. Congresso FGCI" with a label crediting the songs to Esposito–Della Mea and Cuppone–Della Mea (the SIAE registrations). The back sleeve opens with Enrico Berlinguer's line from the Venice Festival dell'Unità of 24 June 1973 — "you cannot be a revolutionary without imagining what tomorrow's world must be" — and prints all three lyrics. The ballad is addressed to Cheu, far away in North Vietnam, from Kam-Tho…
Themes
Vietnamese Perspective · Vietnamese Children · Child · Guerrilla Warfare · Grenade · Ho Chi Minh · Reunification · South Vietnamese