1.

halfway

in the dark i

n the

dense fores

the tree pre

fers the cal

m but the wind doesn’t let

up the struggle of

the revolutionary is to

eliminate the

of the class system it’s an ob

jective fact it’s in

dependent of

the will of mankin

overthrown

the

ideo

logical power of the bourgeoisie

the situation is peace

ful in Turin after the sixteen h

ours of guerilla warfare yes

terday today everything

must be subordinate to

the trees make a lot of noise

at the definition o

f a strateg

fiat did not invent a

nother man say

ing you are

my slav

the great

the

overthrow of the do

minant

ideas

 

2.

the great ideological trans

gression of this era

and

its secular justifications

a reality that is sink

ing suddenly into the past

o

f raging fires automobiles and

the barricades con

structed with wood

en tables s

prayed with tear gas

as the strong arm of the police

moved closer

approaching the barricades then

it was about to start the

and the woods

all around

today everything must be

subordinated

the

truth of violence the

violence as

a final reason for everythi

today it’s openly

spoken about

the political reality is

now

the reality the violence or the

word

of the oppressed class

 

3.

and so

it’s

for this reason we rebel be

cause we’ve been exploited enoug

completely the old ideo

logy

the culture of the bour

geoisie or the culture of ex

change value

the

task of the word

is to eli

minate logic the bourgeoisie lo

st its ideological

hegemony in

this

death

already played out

the matter

is substantially clear

and

the old cul

ture and the old w

ays and the costum

endured by all

the

ex

ploited class

for thousands of years such that

the

mind

of the people

is poisoned

it’s either cultural u

topia or

nothing will ever be

as before

 

4.

what

we want

EVERYTHI

cars set on fire massive vehicles

lie aslant on the road

ways remnants of the barri

cades timber stolen fr

om construction sites

blackened by flames con

torted traffic lights uprooted

a steamroller

EVERYTHING

if

you don’t str

ike down the enemy

overthrown power gen

erators burnt the pavements torn a

part and stones scattered

all over

the place storefronts neon signs

of businesses smashed frames

of

you strike the enemy of the classes

destroyed automobiles or the

burnt plate glass windows of

the entranceways to tenement buildings

collapsed after being bom

barded with stones

shipyards devastated and fences

consumed by flames

piles of stones fragments

of cement pipes

and the trees

all around

the enemy of the classes will not fall

 

5.

to

the definition of a

strategy

the in

version of a po

litical line from 20 years dominat

at the moment when the

working

class took control of

its own organization

and the politics of the strug

the word

meanwhile

transformed into a social insti

tution it achieves with dis

cipline its

the trees make a lot of noise

balanced functions guaran

tee order it’s every

where within this

societ

but cre

ate shape and in

the struggle

a word and a wor

d but mat

erial practice cre

ated in the

masses in the struggle

to form n

ew cus

toms

and new

 

---

Translation by Peter Valente

First published here:
VERSO

 

Written during the “hot autumn” of 1969, Nanni Balestrini’s poem “Senza lacrime per le rose” was formed in the wave of Italian strikes and political action that would define that season.

“The poem,” John Picchione has written, “evinces Balestrini’s attention to direct political practice, referring to the social and political violence that, in 1969, followed the student revolts…[it] is constructed through an account of events that shaped that year and through a series of its major slogans.”