Quando ci penso, che il tempo ritorna,
che arriva il giorno che il giorno raggiorna,
penso che è culla una pancia di donna,
e casa è pancia che tiene una gonna,
e pancia è cassa, che viene al finire,
che arriva il giorno che si va a dormire.
Perché la donna non è cielo, è terra
carne di terra che non vuole guerra:
è questa terra, che io fui seminato,
vita ho vissuto che dentro ho piantato,
qui cerco il caldo che il cuore ci sente,
la lunga notte che divento niente.
Femmina penso, se penso l'umano
la mia compagna, ti prendo per mano.
Edoardo Sanguineti
Three prostitutes and a disabled boy called Arturo live in a filthy and miserable one-room hotel. During the day, the women knit shawls, and after sunset they sit at the entrance to their house and offer their weak bodies to passers-by.
“Arturo is never still for a moment - Dante continues - he is a hyperactive little boy. Every evening at the same time he goes to the window to watch the band go by, and his dream is to play the bass drum.” Arturo’s mother was called Lucia; she was as thin as a rake and had a little radio that was permanently on. La casa era china 'i musica e Lucia abballava p'i masculi! (Dialect from Naples) The house was full of music, and Lucia used to dance for the men! Above all, she used to dance for a carpenter who came to visit her every Thursday. He was the owner of a sawmill and produced crates for fruit. He made good money, yet he went around with a wool hat and worn-out gloves. His nickname was “Geppetto”. He was prone to violence. Arturo was conceived during his father’s beating, and Lucia died two hours after bearing him. Despite the hellish and terrible squalor, Anna, Nuzza and Bettina brought him up as their own child. Arturo, that block of wood, becomes a boy, thanks to the care of three mothers”.
(translated by piccoloteatro.org)
