Poco fa leggevo un bell’articolo su Rockit dal titolo Miles Davis era un fan di Nino D’Angelo? e poche settimane fa ho letto – non ascoltato, no, perché sono una purista – di una nuova versione di Ciucculatina d’a ferrovia, una delle canzoni più belle di Nino D’Angelo*, ad opera degli Almamegretta. E niente, considero questa canzone un capolavoro, nascosta com’è nell’album Tiempo. Racconta di una ragazzina cresciuta nei dintorni della Stazione Centrale di Napoli: scugnizza e santarella, la sua nascita è dovuta ad uno sbaglio e lei, mai guidata nella vita, ha accettato la condizione passivamente, e proprio come un cioccolatino il tempo la squaglia.

Adesso, l’ipotesi di una traduzione in lingua inglese delle canzoni neomelodiche – neomelodiche è inteso come “nuova melodia napoletana” – mi ha sempre affascinato. Ed ecco a voi Chocolate girl by the railroad che Miles Davis non c’è più, ma magari a qualcuno può interessare come fatto anche se, you know: when you write something on the internet it feels like you’re not the owner anymore.

Chocolate Girl by the railroad
rain of blond hair
caressed by the wind
and you, what are you thinkin’?
Chocolate Girl by the railroad
smuggled marlboro cigarettes
in front of a stand
scugnizz’ and little saint

And you have no expectation
when day becomes night
you will lose yourself
in a crowd that doesn’t know delight

And you grow up
where one is born already grown
you have not played
games, you never had them
maybe sometimes you fell in love with someone
but no one believed you
and you don’t consider that this life can change
you don’t think ‘bout it, tomorrow already came
and by time Chocolate girl you made you melt

Chocolate Girl by the railroad
eyes of blond hair
early 20s
and you already know the world

Chocolate Girl by the railroad
result of unwittingly beds
they didn’t give you anything
you are already rich in
They never drove you
as a daughter to school
they never looked for you
and you got wrong alone

And you fly away
in the smoke that yourself sold
in a hundred of unknown hands caressing
and you stay where you’re nobody’s daughter and one can live without God

And you surrend if a thought makes you tremble
And you fall asleep on the pillow of this darkness
And come back to make you eat, Chocolate girl

Chocolate Girl by the railroad
smuggled malboro cigarettes
in front of a stand
scugnizz’ and little saint

Goodnight Chocolate Girl, goodnight.
 

* non lo dico solo io, ma pure Goffredo Fofi, giuro.