Credited on the record as C. Rapisarda e il Nuovo Canzoniere Milanese.
Tu lo sai compagno a Marzabotto
1972 · I Dischi del Sole DS 1012/14 · Milan, Italy
- Artist
- Cristina Rapisarda
- Credited on the record as
- C. Rapisarda e il Nuovo Canzoniere Milanese
- Title
- Tu lo sai compagno a Marzabotto
- Release
- Compagno Vietnam
- Year
- 1972
- Label
- I Dischi del Sole # DS 1012/14
- Format
- LP · Compilation
- Language
- Italian
- Country
- Milan, Italy
- Songwriter
- Ivan Della Mea
- Genre
- Folk · Contemporary Italian Folk Music
- Primary theme
- Peace, Protest & Anti-War
Lyrics
English: You know, comrade, that in Marzabotto / The fascists took a woman / They tore the child from her womb / And, laughing, shot him. // I tell you, comrade, that in Vietnam / Paratroopers and marines took a woman / They tore the child from her womb / And, laughing, shot him. // But how sweet it is to be able to say 'peace / Peace, brothers, across the whole earth'— / Hitler said it, and today Nixon says it, / As do the masters who wage war against us. // You know, comrade, that time / Is still red with old wounds / And bears the voices of bereaved mothers / And the silence of the ovens in the death camps. // Oh, partisan—through all these years / We have built a party, a creed— / Yet there is a woman today who does not believe / In this 'peace' that brings no peace. // But how sweet it is to be able to say 'peace / Peace, brothers, across the whole earth'— / Hitler said it, and today Nixon says it, / As do the masters who wage war against us. // Now we know, comrades, that in Vietnam / There is that woman, more alone, and she remains silent— / And one cannot, one simply cannot say 'peace' / Over a womb that bears no fruit. // Because we are not 'former' partisans, / We say 'enough' to the fascists and the masters, / To their murderous, scoundrel lackeys— / We say 'war,' and war it shall be. // So enough talk of peace— / We are not brothers across the whole earth; / We are partisans, and we wage war— / Our own war, for the sake of our own peace. __________ Italian: Tu lo…
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 B5. Ivan Della Mea's 1966 song setting the Nazi massacre at Marzabotto beside the war in Vietnam; sung by Cristina Rapisarda with the Nuovo Canzoniere Milanese.
Themes
WW2 · Nazis · Civilian Casualties · Vietnam Analogy · Solidarity · Anti-Imperialism · Anti-War
From the release Compagno Vietnam
In collections
European Songs · Peace, Protest, & Anti-War Songs [War Years] · Vietnam as Comparison