Lucio Dalla
Anna e Marco

Anna like so many others

Anna thin-skinned

Anna beautiful glance

glance that every day loses something

Anna is an ordinary girl, one we could describe as abandoned by time, living by inertia. Anna is the representation of our lives, debased by monotony and the repetitiveness of actions. Anna is the one who is caged. Anna does not notice the passing of time, or perhaps she does, but by now she is resigned to the unilateral nature of her actions and her days. But Anna dreams, closes her eyes and dreams, and surpasses the barriers of the sad suburbs and the hypocrisies of friends, Anna dreams of a change, Anna dreams of a person who will make her fulfilled and happy.

Marco big shoes little flesh

Marco heart on alert

With his mother and a sister

Little life, always the same

Marco is a young boy, probably fragile physically and also caged in a family monotony, few novelties, days pass and he doesn't even notice. Family life is suffocating, the continuity of his years has made him a slave to a desire for escape and evasion from a reality he does not recognize. Marco's heart is hungry for life. Marco is the desire to run away. Marco is the other side of a coin whose other side is Anna.

And the moon is a ball and the sky is a billiard

How many stars in the pinball machines are more than a billion.

Who knows if it's the same sky that both Anna and Marco look at while they abandon themselves with their minds and flee into their desires. The fact is that the sky, as often in Dalla's lyrics, is life, and perhaps here it gives a response. It's the same sky the two kids look at, and suddenly they find themselves both flying in fantasy.

Anna beautiful glance does not miss a dance

Marco who dancing looks like a horse

In a place that's a wreck, few people watching them

There is a queen cheering for them

And as in a symbiosis of fantasies, here the two dream of the same thing, they have the same image in their minds, the same vision. A poor and bare environment, but what does it matter to them? Each one has what they want, and it's right in front of them. Anna and Marco have finally met.

But tell me where will it be

where is the road to the stars

while they dance

they gaze at each other and exchange skins

and start to fly

with three jumps they're outside the venue

with an American comedy air

this week is ending too.

The dream is the manifest expression of desire, the two crave life. They unite in a dance, and like in a surge of euphoria leave the venue. Their desire to live is through the roof, while dancing they feel as if sailing in a sea of stars. Everything is magical, everything as they always dreamed eyes closed in their sad evenings. All like an American comedy.

But America is far away,

on the other side of the moon

which watches them even if it laughs

to see it almost scares.

A dream in the drawer, a goal, America. We know America is not around the corner, but how can a material distance hinder such a great explosion of passion. The moon, a bright beacon, so beautiful and suggestive that it almost intimidates. Yet the moment is splendid, nothing is out of place, the dream of two young boys has just come true. And it's magic.

Then passes a dog which senses something, looks at them barks and leaves.

But like every dream, also that of the two youngsters is destined to end. A dog scared by something barks awakening them from their daydream and bringing the two young back to earth. The illusion shatters, the magic crumbles. Everything returns as before, Anna with her desire to escape and Marco in his family cage. Both will continue their lives, divided, distant, and probably will never know each other. But they don't realize how much they have in common and how easy it is to ignite a spark.

Anna would have liked to die

Marco wanted to go away far

Someone saw them return

Holding hands

A splendid end crowning an equally wonderful song. After the end of the dream, Anna was devastated by the pain, by that feeling that would have wanted what she dreamed to be true. Marco in despair wanted to run away. But the ending completely surprises, Dalla leaves us with an open ending, widely open to interpretation. Someone saw them return, holding hands. Who knows if they really met, we don't know, probably not. Probably it is their craving for life that will reappear again, giving a different flavor than the bitter aftertaste to the two young ones. And will continue to give them moments of joy unfortunately short-term.

Lucio Dalla - Anna and Marco (1979)