#versigiusti (1) I learned Sant'Ambrogio by heart in fifth grade. I was astonished thirty years ago to find it quoted in a pop music record "baffi di sego"... reminiscences from high school I have none (cit.)

SANT’AMBROGIO. (part 1 of 4) (Giuseppe Giusti. Published and unpublished verses. Florence, Felice Le Monnier, 1852.)

Your Excellency, who’s got it in for me
For those few petty little jokes,
And taxes me as anti-German
Because I expose the rascals,
Oh hear the recent affair,
Of me, wandering one morning,
Happening upon Sant’Ambrogio in Milan,
In that old place, out of the way.

My companion was the young son
Of one of those somewhat dangerous leaders,
Of that Sandro, author of a little novel
Where the Promessi Sposi is discussed......
What about the fool, Excellency? haven’t you read it?
Ah, I see: your brain, may God rest it,
Is busy with other matters,
To this stuff it is dead and buried.

I enter, and find a bunch of soldiers,
Those northern soldiers,
Like the Bohemians and Croatians,
Placed here in the vineyard to serve as stakes:
In fact they stood like stakes,
As they usually do in front of Generals,
With mustaches like goats and those faces,
Before God, straight as arrows.
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