Un Chimico Lyrics in English by Fabrizio De André
Bivacchi refers to temporary encampments, the kind of makeshift camps soldiers or travelers set up outdoors for the night, often near a fire.
In "Per bivacchi di fuochi che dicono fatui" ("For bivouacs of flames they call will-o'-the-wisp"), the word conjures a mysterious, flickering nighttime image, blurring the line between a real camp and ghostly lights in the dark.
Imagine a scientist who can manipulate the secrets of hydrogen and oxygen, yet is completely baffled by the explosive chemistry of human feelings. In “Un Chimico,” Fabrizio De André lets a deceased chemist narrate his own story from atop a lonely hill, where his body now simply feeds the earth. The song contrasts the cold precision of laboratory reactions with the unpredictable alchemy of love: molecules obey rules, lovers do not. Our narrator marvels at how smiles and colors bloom on the faces of those who seek love, only to fade on the faces of those who have found it. Fascinated yet frightened, he chose to stay outside the game, and his life ended in a failed experiment that he wryly compares to the way “idiots” die for love.
Beneath its playful irony and poetic imagery, the song poses big questions about life, passion, and mortality. Is dying for science really so different from surrendering to spring’s call and risking heartbreak? By putting cold reason and fiery emotion under the same microscope, De André invites us to ask whether there is a “better” way to live—or die—than following the volatile reaction we call love.
