La Mazurka Della Nonna

When you hear the little orchestra
In the middle of an American dance
Strumming a mazurka with a folksy vibe
You think back to the quadrille
From a beautiful time long gone
When they used to hitch the pair to the landau
When there were no tangos or fox-trots
Ah, the mazurka
That my grandma danced
With her braids hanging down
And her bloomers on
Under her skirt
When my grandpa
To kiss her hand
Didn't use a ladder
But rode his bike
Up to the second floor
The young lads
In their twenties or so
How handsome they were
With their mustaches curled up
Ah, the mazurka
From a time so far away
When before getting married
They'd just stare at each other, hands idle
Now they dance the carioca
The saxophone blares
But my grandpa still plays the gramophone with a horn
He thinks, alas, with nostalgia
Of his youthful days
When every Maria wasn't just Mariù
How beautiful that time was!
Ah, the mazurka that my grandma danced
When at the Valle and Manzoni
Falconi and Galli were already the leading ladies
When my grandpa
A corporal in the infantry
Would pose for four days
To send Rosa the photograph
Until progress
Invented the automobile
Oh, what a success
The thrill, the sport
Then my grandpa
Devoured mountains and valleys
Three kilometers in an hour
With the two-cylinder, five or six horsepower

Then my grandpa
Devoured mountains and valleys
Three kilometers in an hour
With the two-cylinder, five or six horsepower.