Three metal benches have been installed in Bellevue. Two are replacements for the old wooden ones on Bellevue Terrace and Bellevue Place. The third is a new addition on Mansfield Place outside the southern end of Drummond Community High School’s playground.
Their appearance was greeted with pleasure by locals after a 6-month absence (Issue 344, p.2), but also irritation when it became clear that the additional seat was already covered in graffiti after less than a day in position.
Spurtle enquiries reveal that the bench, and the lines scratched into it, were originally situated elsewhere in Edinburgh. Council officials considered it uneconomic to strip back the paintwork to remove what few people would bother to read and even fewer would understand. The lines are, after all, inscribed in difficult-to-decipher Italian.
Spurtle enjoys a challenge and we transcribe the graffiti below for your interest and convenience:
IO SONO IL PANE PER GLI USUERAI MA GLI RESPINGO, NON FACCIO D'ALPACINO NON MI FACCIO DI
PACINCO, NON GRATTO, NON VINCO, NON TRINCO, NELLE SALE BINGO. MAN MANO MI CONVINGO,
CHE IO SONO UN EROE, PERCHE LOTTO TUTTE LE ORE, SONO UN EROE, PERCHÉ COMBATTO
PER LA PENSIONE. SONO UN EROE, PERCHÉ PROTEGGO I MIEI CARI, DALLE MANI DEI SICARI DEI
CRAVATTARI, SONO UN EROE, PERCHE SOPRAVVIVO AL MESTIERE.
V V D ❤️
Spurtle contacted the Italian Institute of Culture on East London Street. Did they recognise the words, we wondered? Was this an unusual example of some outreach programme by the organisation?
A spokesperson replied: ‘It is a song called Eroe (Hero) by Italian singer Caparezza. It is about a precarious worker who, despite the many difficulties, refuses to resort to gambling or ask for money from usurers, and instead, manages to provide for his family through his own efforts.’
The full lyrics can be found here. The section which appears on the bench translates as:
I am bread for loan sharks but I don’t push them away, I don’t pretend to be Al Pacino I don’t do
pacinko, I don’t scratch [lottery cards?], I don’t win, I don’t drink in bingo halls. Little by little I’m convinced,
that I’m a hero, because I fight every hour, I’m a hero, because I fight
for my pension. I’m a hero, because I protect my loved ones from the hands of the
assassins, I am a hero, because I survive my job
We have no idea who V.V.D. is. Perhaps some reader can help.
In the meantime, there’s more about the Apulian rapper Caparezza here, and you can see him perform the song Eroe (Storia di Luigii Delle Bicocche), at some considerable length, here.
Image top-right: Giuseppe Milo, Wikimedia, Creative Commons.
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