[Originally published on December 21, 2019.]
A couple stands by the wind-blown bus sign.
His chin, still fuzzy, merely a boy,
an unstrung guitar string hanging there.
With three strings he begins his song.
I love you so very much
I fear my heart will leave my chest.
It is no longer my own, you know.
It belongs to you and America.
Deep within her green eyes a flood
grows to drown them both.
If he looks too deeply he fears he will never go.
He coughs and resumes his song.
I love you so very much
I fear my heart will leave my chest.
It is no longer my own, you know.
It belongs to you and America.
In America they will make love and babies
far from fear and chains, he whispers.
He bravely hides his sorrow for their last selfie.
For now it will be her only reality. He resumes his song.
I love you so very much
I fear my heart will leave my chest.
It is no longer my own, you know.
It belongs to you and America.
He doesn’t know he will wait huddled,
cold, and afraid under orange sodium lamps,
afraid in America. He does not think ahead.
I love you so very much
I fear my heart will leave my chest.
It is no longer my own, you know.
It belongs to you
and America.
In video performance.
Background of the poem. Rarely have I ever encountered a work where I could feel my heart being torn from my chest. The song “Caruso,” performed by Luciano Pavarotti & Lucio Dalla1, is just such a work. Notes for the song inform us that it
was written for all of those who migrated from southern Italy and Sicily to America in the 50s and earlier. The men went first and left their wives and in many cases their children behind. The song is more than its lyrics, the pain of the separation is obvious. Lucio expresses this by using southern Italian and Sicilian words when, in torment and pain, he sings “Te voglio bene assai” rather than the proper Italian “Ti voglio bene tango.” He mentions America twice in the song. And when he speaks of the woman with the green eyes like the sea, it is in his memory that he is seeing her and he mentions America again. So he suffers not because he is dying physically so much as because he is in pain because of the miles between him and his woman and he is dying emotionally.Even before I understood this background, I was dumbfounded by the profound yearning and pain of separation of the lyrics. It is said music originated in the earliest cries of mourners for the dead. There is no more profound pain than the pain of loss and Italian opera is replete with this powerful emotional language.
In my own limited way I have tried to translate the emotion of the song to address the present immigrant crisis here in America. By creating and destroying so many millions of lives around the world, America has lost the profound hope and promise this land once gave to the huddled masses yearning to breathe free.
The music I chose for the background of my own video is from trumpeter Andrea Giuffredi2.
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| Copyright © 2019, 2021 by Bob Boldt |
The ultimate, sublime joy at this moment in history can only be found in tragedy.
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