Prophets

Some people have indeed the gift of prophecy. I ignore when Fabrizio De Andre’ wrote the following words, but they could as well have been written yesterday:

“Si lamentano degli zingari? Guardateli come vanno in giro a supplicare l’elemosina di un voto: ma non ci vanno a piedi, hanno autobus che sembrano astronavi, treni, aerei: e guardateli quando si fermano a pranzo o a cena: sanno mangiare con coltello e forchetta, e con coltello e forchetta si mangeranno i vostri risparmi.

L’Italia appartiene a cento uomini, siamo sicuri che questi cento uomini appartengano all’Italia?”

I’ll try to translate for English readers:

“Do they complain about gypsies? Look how they go around begging for a vote: but they don’t walk, they have buses that look like spaceships, trains, planes: and look at them, when they stop for lunch or dinner: they know how to eat with fork and knife, and with fork and knife they’ll eat your savings.

Italy belong to a hundred men, are we sure these hundred belong to Italy?”

Sadly, prophets are getting scarce in our times.