General, behind the hill
The dark killer night is there,
And in the middle of the field
A peasant, curve on the sunset
As a girl in her fifty with five children,
Coming in this world as rabbits do
Leaving this world as soldiers,
Not yet back.
General, behind the station,
You see the train, which goes to the sun.
It never stops, not event to piss,
You go straight home
Without thinking
That war is good, even if it makes bad
That we’ll be back singing again and
Nurses will make love to us
General, the war has finished,
The enemy has left, has been won and defetead,
Behind the hill, nobody anylonger,
Just pine needles, silence and mushrooms,
Good to be eaten and dried,
For the Cristmas sauce,
When children cried,
As they don’t want to sleep.
General, these five stars,
These five tears on my skin,
What is their sense inside the noise of this train,
Which is half empty and half full,
It goes back quickly,
In two minutes it’s almost day,
It’s almost home, it’s almost love.(from Generale, Francesco de Gregori)