Gary Gilmore's Eyes
Barbed Wire Love

Translating is always betraying
I’m bringing back (lucky me!) my little series of free and unfaithful translations (more interpretations than translations); language—even when it’s the one you were born with by pure chance—is a barrier and communication is just a utopian desire; so take this stuff with a grain of salt as we only call it translation for convenience.
So, good @[DaniP] (who for me will always be the old Pinello!) asks, and I can’t refuse! Two not-so-easy texts, especially the second one which contains some practically untranslatable wordplays! I’ll try, but I’ll take even more liberties than usual...
A couple of notes just to add some curiosities: 1) Gary Gilmore (his story is online, if you don’t know it look it up) was allowed to choose his type of execution, firing squad or hanging—how humane are the Yankees! 2) When Stiffs sing “You set my arm alight,” any Irish person knows they’re referencing the ArmaLite arms factory that did big business with the IRA...

The Adverts - Gary Gilmore's Eyes
I'm lying in this hospital, nailed to the bed. A stethoscope listens to my heart, a hand holds my head. Now they remove the bandages, the light makes me flinch because the nurse is anxious (?), trembling with fear...
I’m looking through Gary Gilmore’s eyes.
The doctors avoid me (why?). I still see vaguely but I can hear the evening news on my headphones. A murderer was executed and donated his eyes to science. I’m locked up in a private ward. So it could be...
I’m looking through Gary Gilmore’s eyes.
I hit the lamp angrily and push my bed against the door. I close my eyes because I don’t want to look, but the eye receives the messages and sends them to the brain.
No guarantee that the stimuli must be perceived the same way...
When you look through Gary Gilmore’s eyes.
Now Gary doesn’t need his eyes to see. Gary and his eyes have separated by now.

Stiff Little Fingers - Barbed Wire Love
I met you in no man’s land, we walked hand in hand along the wire fence, hearts beating amid the bomb rubble. You give me love among the barbed wire, caught by love in a barbed enclosure
tangled in a barbed wire embrace I throw myself into this barbed wire love and the metal thorns tear my jeans
I fell in love, it was frighteningly beautiful, I was a prisoner but there was nothing perverse (nor risk of desertion)
and that night in that desolate yet vital land you laid bare our armaments. You give me love among the barbed wire, caught by love in a barbed enclosure, tangled in a barbed wire embrace I throw myself into this barbed wire love and the metal thorns tear my jeans
(Your breasts) like explosive traps made me blow up