"L’Odissea", by Francesco Guccini

In his 2004 album "Ritratti", Francesco Guccini released the song "Odysseus", his musical interpretation of the "Odyssey", inspired, by his own admission, not only by Homer, but also by Dante, Ugo Foscolo, Constantine Cavafy and Jean-Claude Izzo. These numerous references give rise to a multi-layered Odysseus who is not born a seafarer, but possesses a “peasant’s soul” and is driven towards the sea by a desire for knowledge. Rather than recounting the return to Ithaca, in fact, the song reflects on the constant tension between the desire to set out and that to return, on nostalgia, on restlessness and on the impossibility of finding a final resting place. Odysseus’s journey becomes a symbol of the human condition, of advancing age and of the search for meaning that never ends with the arrival at one’s destination. It was a song of which the Maestrone was very proud. In an interview in 2022, to mark the release of the album "Canzoni da intorto", he said: “From a lyrical point of view, it’s one of the best songs I’ve ever written.”

Below you will find the song and the full lyrics:

This needs to be emphasised strongly

That, of course, I did not belong to the sea

Even though the gods of Olympus and mortal folk

One day, it prompted me to browse

And if I were to look at the rocky island

Olive groves and flocks of sheep on every hill

My heart was at the very top of everything

There was my soul, which is that of a peasant

An island of ploughs and wheat

Without sails, without fishermen

The sweat and the earth were silver

Wine and olive oil were my treasures

But if you look at a mountain that’s facing you

You feel another mountain pushing you on

An island embraced by the sea

Another island opposite is calling you

And I gave form to my own chimeras; I built ships of daring design

Concave ships with black sails

And in the sea, my life changed

And the neglected sea swept me away

I knew my future lay at sea

However, one doubt remained unresolved

My browsing had no future

But in the future, plots from the past

They come together in fragments of the present

Water brings out the best in it, and it tastes best when savoury

Mind-blowing

And on every journey, reinvent yourself as a legend

Redesigning the world at every meeting

And lose yourself in the thrill of the forbidden

Further and further down

And to days as white as the scorching heat

A breath of wind and the strength of one’s arms

Hand on the helm and gaze into the pure

Foam that leaves a fleeting trace

Step into the night that envelops you

Gazing at the twinkling stars

Above, the Great Bear and a sign pointing towards you

Straight north of the North Star

And carry on as if driven by fate

Towards a war, towards an adventure

And to defy every prediction

Against the Gods and Against Fear

And set off for enchanted islands

Towards other loves, towards arcane forces

Lost comrades and shipwrecks

For months, years, or just weeks

Memory confuses and leads to oblivion

Who was Nausicaa, and where were the sirens Circe and Calypso, lost in the hubbub?

Entries that I don’t know how to link together

I’m missing the rudder, sail and oar

The divide between the beginning and the end

The cry of the blind Polyphemus

And my browsing to escape

And in fleeing one dies, and my death

I feel close to it when all is quiet

By the sea, and I curse my fate

I cannot find peace. Perhaps because I am all alone

But my hand wasn’t shaking then

And the oars turned to wings for the mad flight

Beyond human

The sea route marks out false courses

Every route at sea is deceptive

Just legends lost in the night

An evergreen from the one who once sang to me

But granting me eternal life

Enclosed in verses, in rhythms, in a rhyme

Still giving me the boundless joy of entering previously unknown harbours