My new favorite musician, Gianmaria Testa, has a song that tests my ability to understand the brittle and bad translation that I get from www.freetranslation.com. Here is a translation of one of the phrases from one of my favorites, this one from Putumayo:
From "Dentro la Tasca di un Qualunque Mattino" (Inside the Pocket of Any Morning)
"Inside the pocket of any morning / I would hide you inside the pocket"
It's uncanny that other people are so much better at understanding artists than I: for example, Putumayo's website includes the following comment about his music, borrowed from other reviewers: "the Italian Leonard Cohen." I am astonished. I am a huge Leonard Cohen fan, but did not originally see the connection.
I have the Putumayo CD, "The Wine Lands," that includes a Testa song, but I do not yet own "Italian Cafe," which ostensibly has at least one of his pieces. But one day, I shall.
Sometimes, when I consider how important words are to mean to me, I decide I should have been a word person and that I would have been a much happier guy had I chosen something that better fits my psyche than what I do. But, then, maybe I'm just bitching and, regardless of what I had done, I would still be bitching. I may just be a bitcher.
But words and music do have a way of making me think, a way of causing me to think and feel like nothing else does...so, still, I may be a word person who didn't follow his calling. Moral: follow your calling, whatever it is. Even if you don't make more money, eat at nicer restaurants, drive nicer cars, etc., you'll feel better from the mind on down.
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