TOWARD AN UNWRITTEN SONG OF ANTI-FASCISM (MILAN-NY-ROME)

As recounted by Tullia Calabi Zevi (1923-2011), a song in Milanese dialect her freemason father said had been discovered on the walls of Corso Buenos Aires at dawn— before the family's 1938 escape from Italy to NY, where they founded the Mazzini Society—

Caro il me Benitute

me cunscià pulitute

me cala la pagate

me cresù l'affittu.

Quando "Bandiera rossa"se cantava

trenta lirette al dì num se ciapava.

Adeso inves se canta "Giuvinesa"

se crepa tùch — ahimè — de debulesa.

and some attempt at translation:

My dear little Benito

What a great job you’ve done:

You’ve dropped my pay

And raised my rent.

When we went singing “Bandiera Rossa” ["Red Flag"]

We couldn’t even wrestle together 30 lire a day.

Now that we have to sing your “Giovinezza” ["Youth"] songs instead

We’re all croaking – alas — in powerlessness.

Found on the walls of Monteverde in early 2011:

"NOW OR NEVER AGAIN

WE WILL BE WITH THE STATE AND FOR THE STATE

EVERY TIME THAT IT DEMONSTRATES ITSELF TO BE JEALOUS GUARDIAN AND DEFENDER AND PROPAGATOR OF THE NATIONAL TRADITION, NATIONAL SENTIMENT, NATIONAL WILL, CAPABLE OF IMPOSING ITS AUTHORITY AT EVERY COST."

See to it, those with memory, please, that it's not the writing on the wall.