Monday, July 14, 2008

Laura Pausini: Dove L’Aria E’ Polvere

Language: English | 中文
Artist: Laura Pausini
Album: Resta In Ascolto (2004)

«Dove L’Aria E’ Polvere» is a song about an Iraqi boy, Ali Ismail Abbas, whose arms and entire family were taken away by American missiles.

The song begins with l'aquila, which means the eagle:
Cronaca del giorno in cui
L'aquila volò
Su confini dove l'aria è polvere
I spent some time figuring what l'aquila refers to. At first, I thought l'aquila could be the missile that hit the boy's house. I am quite sure about this because Laura described the missile as a big metal bird (grosso uccello di metallo). However, don't you think that a eagle reminds you of something, or, a country? You know what I mean, right?

Besides the eagle, here, it tells us where the event happened: dove l'aria è polvere, literally, where the air is dust.

After this, the song tells us what happened to the boy: the eagle took away the boy's arms. Then, the chorus begins:
Ed un soldato raccontò
Di come il cielo si oscurò
A soldier speaked of how the sky darkened. Does it really mean that the sky grew dark? Or, is it trying to tell us that our reason, our mind, and our relationship were darkened by this violent, unreasoning act?
E in terra pianse lacrime
Urlando ruggine
The soldier then cried on the ground, shouting. Have you ever thought that a soldier may cry as well?

Then, Laura asks us a simple but meaningful question:
Ma che cos'è la libertà?
E che significato ha?
What is freedom? Is this the freedom that promised to bring to us? And freedom, what does it mean?

In the second verse, it says that the eagle sacrifices its heroes and displays its "stars" and trophies. But sadly:
Il bambino è orfano di casa e di poesia
Per l'indifferenza che
La guerra ha dentro sé
The boy is now an orphan, without home and without "poetry." (You may check my previous post for the meaning of the word poesia.) He became an orphan because of the indifference that war has in itself. How sad, and how cruel! War turns people cold-blooded!

Then, in the chorus, a similar question is asked:
Ma che cos'è la verità?
E che significato ha?
This time, the question is: What is the truth? And what does it mean? Honestly, this is a serious question. What is the truth? Is it what they tell us on TV? Or is it what we read in the newspaper? Does it give us both sides of the story? Can we trust it? How should one judge?

Then, in the 3rd chorus, after the questioning:
E' il sole che non sorge mai
E' il buio addosso a noi
The sun never rises. The dark is upon us. Is this freedom?

Then, at the end, Laura ends the song with a strong question:
[D]immi che cos'è la libertà... cos'è?
Tell me what freedom is... what is it? Great ending.

At first, I found this song a little bit sharp. The pain, the anger, and thouse powerful questions, they make it a bit hard to swallow, at the beginning. But, after you start questioning yourself, hate how ugly we have become, and shout the anger secretly in your heart, you will find that the song is actually fabulous. And you will start to love it immediately.

Here are some related clips on Youtube:

LAURA PAUSINI Donde el Aire es Ceniza TG
A brief reportage of the event with a short interview of Laura


Dove l'aria è polvere
A fan-made video with Portuguese subtitles. Few of the pics can be unpleasant and even terrifying.



For more about Ali Ismail Abbas: About Laura: About the album: