Via Della Povertà Lyrics in English Fabrizio De André

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Below, I translated the lyrics of the song Via Della Povertà by Fabrizio De André from Italian to English.

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The beauty salon at the end of the alley

Is jam-packed with sailors

Try asking one what time it is

And he'll answer: "I never knew."

The postcards of the hanging

Are on sale for a hundred lire each

The blind inspector behind the station

For one clue reads you your bad luck

And the restless law-enforcement

Are looking for something wrong

While my lady and I lean out tonight

On Poverty Street

Cinderella looks so easy

Every time she smiles she grabs you

She really recalls Bette Davis

With her hands resting on her hips

Breathless Romeo shows up

And shouts to her: "You're my love!"

But somebody tells him to go away

And never try again

And the only sound that stays

When the ambulance drives off

Is Cinderella sweeping the street

On Poverty Street

While the dawn is killing the moon

And the stars have almost hidden

The lady who reads fortune

Has left with the innkeeper

Except for Abel and Cain

Everybody's gone to make love

Waiting for the rain to come

To water down joy and pain

And the Good Samaritan

Is sharpening his pity

He'll go to the Carnival tonight

On Poverty Street

The Three Wise Kings are desperate

Baby Jesus has gotten old

And Mr. Hyde cries dismayed

Seeing Jekyll laughing in the mirror

Ophelia's behind the window

Nobody ever told her she's pretty

At only twenty-two

She's already an old spinster

Her death'll be very romantic

Turning into gold she'll go away

For now she paces back and forth

On Poverty Street

Einstein disguised as a drunk

Has hidden his notes in a trunk

He passed through here an hour ago

Heading toward the farthest Thule

He seemed so shy and scared

When he asked to stop here a while

But then he started smoking

And reciting the A B C

And to see him you'd never say it

But he was famous some time ago

For playing the electric violin

On Poverty Street

Everyone's getting ready for the big party

Somebody's starting to get thirsty

The Phantom of the Opera

Has dressed in priest's clothes

He's force-feeding Casanova

To punish him for his sensuality

He'll kill him speaking of love

After poisoning him with pity

And while the Phantom screams

Three girls have already stripped

Casanova's about to be raped

On Poverty Street

Well done, prankster Neptune

The Titanic's sinking in the dawn

Every berth in the lifeboats is taken

And the captain shouts: "There's still room!"

And Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot

Are trading punches on the bridge

The calypso players laugh at them

While the sky is moving away

And leaning out their windows on the sea

Everybody's fishing mimosa and lilac

And nobody has to worry anymore

About Poverty Street

At midnight sharp the cops

Do their usual job

They snap handcuffs round the wrists

Of those who know more than them

The prisoners are dragged

Up an impromptu Calvary nearby

And Corporal Adolf has warned them

They'll all go up the chimney

And the wind laughs loud

And nobody'll manage to cheat their fate

On Poverty Street

I got your letter just yesterday

You tell me everything you're doing

But don't be ridiculous

Don't ask me: "How are you?"

These people you keep talking about

Are folks like all of us

They don't look like monsters to me

They don't look like heroes to me

And don't send me your news again

Nobody will answer you

If you insist on mailing your letters

From Poverty Street

Lyrics and Translations Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

Bob Dylan

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SONG MEANING

Welcome to Via della Povertà, a twilight street where fairytale damsels, biblical brothers, literary geniuses and unlucky sailors all rub shoulders in the same surreal crowd. Fabrizio De André turns the road into a living carousel of characters who seem ripped from history books and pop-culture posters, yet they are stripped of glory and left to wander among tarot-card fortune-tellers, corrupt police and a blind detective. The result is a darkly comic parade that exposes the fragile border between fame and oblivion, holiness and sin, reality and illusion.

Behind the fanciful cameos lies a sharp social critique: every figure – from Einstein disguised as a drunkard to Cinderella sweeping broken dreams off the pavement – reveals how easily society forgets, exploits or condemns its own creations. Authority arrests what it cannot understand, the rich fight on sinking ships, and lovers wait for a rain that will dilute both joy and pain. De André invites us to stroll with him, noticing that these outcasts are “people just like us.” The song whispers that poverty is not only about money; it is the shared human condition of loneliness, hypocrisy and missed connections. Once you have walked this street, ordinary life will forever look a little more like a carnival mirror.

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Fabrizio De André Via Della Povertà Lyrics