Ragazzo da Napoli
During my recent hiking experience, my friend, Marek, brought a guitar and a songbook with the most popular songs of our youth. One of these songs - Ragazzo da Napoli - (I know, I know, it should be "di" Napoli, but gotta respect the original title) stayed with me. It constantly plays on my mind. It is a fine tune (the music is by the popular in 1970s Italian singer, Drupi), but nothing too special. No particular reason why my mind should pick this tune over so many others.
The lyrics to the song were written by Jacek Zwoźniak, a popular at that time student bard. The song tells the story of a young Polish woman who fell to the charms of "Ragazzo da Napoli," a rather shallow visitor from Italy, who impressed her with his Fiat Mirafiori, when he brought it to the sidewalk ("na sam trotuar wjechał kołami"). As the song goes, the woman allows herself to be taken advantage of, and then feels bad coming back to her Polish boy-friend who, in machismo impulse, kicks her out.
This songs, though quite banal, had become enormously popular in Poland in the early 1980s. I believe the reason for this was that it spoke to the insecurities experienced by millions of young Polish men. Those were the times when the communistic economy was on a "death bed" - the shelves in the stores were empty and everybody was poor. There was not much young Polish men could offer to their partners - if they were lucky, at the best, they drove small Polish Fiats.
Currency exchange rates were so irrational that any foreigner appeared to be the richest man on Earth. Not surprisingly, women were falling for this, and, in their eagerness, were making mistakes. There was a story, repeated in my circles, of one Basia who, not knowing much about currencies, gave herself to an Italian guy for ... 100 liras! (next to nothing).
So the song was touching upon something really atavistic - what Sting expressed in one of his songs as "instant fear of another man." After all, it is not only in the world of humans that females go to the strongest and the smartest males available. In our world, it often means a "rich guy." This is not even something that should be judged on moral grounds - it is simply as it is.
Humorously, I was once on the receiving end of this equation. We walked with my girl-friend over the Plants in Cracow when a guy, sitting on a bench, started saying things to her, as if I could not understand him. I was of a rather "dark complexion" at that time so he probably took me for an foreigner. Though it was not aggressive, he was still scolding my girl-friend for "taking an Italian, willing to marry him and give him children." We were both amused, though it was definitely an expression of the same fear as in the Ragazzo da Napoli.
Luckily, things have evened out for Polish men. Since 1989 Poland made enormous progress. Polish people travel everywhere, ski in Italian Alps, and so on. A few years ago, I flew with an Italian couple from Venice to Cracow. Hearing that I spent a couple of days in Venice, they expressed envy. According to them, they were flying to Cracow because Venice ... was too expensive for them. (It was, for sure, expensive for me too).
Also, when hiking in Italian Dolomites, I met a young Italian couple. It was the opinion of the young lady that her boy-friend, "a typical Italian man," was quite insecure. She even hesitated to take a picture with me, not wanting to provoke some reaction on his part. How paradoxically things can turn around!
One way or another, it seems to be all about women. A bit of machismo can help to impress them. Ragazzo da Napoli? No, Ragazzo di Edmonton!
(PR).
This songs, though quite banal, had become enormously popular in Poland in the early 1980s. I believe the reason for this was that it spoke to the insecurities experienced by millions of young Polish men. Those were the times when the communistic economy was on a "death bed" - the shelves in the stores were empty and everybody was poor. There was not much young Polish men could offer to their partners - if they were lucky, at the best, they drove small Polish Fiats.
So the song was touching upon something really atavistic - what Sting expressed in one of his songs as "instant fear of another man." After all, it is not only in the world of humans that females go to the strongest and the smartest males available. In our world, it often means a "rich guy." This is not even something that should be judged on moral grounds - it is simply as it is.
Humorously, I was once on the receiving end of this equation. We walked with my girl-friend over the Plants in Cracow when a guy, sitting on a bench, started saying things to her, as if I could not understand him. I was of a rather "dark complexion" at that time so he probably took me for an foreigner. Though it was not aggressive, he was still scolding my girl-friend for "taking an Italian, willing to marry him and give him children." We were both amused, though it was definitely an expression of the same fear as in the Ragazzo da Napoli.
Luckily, things have evened out for Polish men. Since 1989 Poland made enormous progress. Polish people travel everywhere, ski in Italian Alps, and so on. A few years ago, I flew with an Italian couple from Venice to Cracow. Hearing that I spent a couple of days in Venice, they expressed envy. According to them, they were flying to Cracow because Venice ... was too expensive for them. (It was, for sure, expensive for me too).
Also, when hiking in Italian Dolomites, I met a young Italian couple. It was the opinion of the young lady that her boy-friend, "a typical Italian man," was quite insecure. She even hesitated to take a picture with me, not wanting to provoke some reaction on his part. How paradoxically things can turn around!
One way or another, it seems to be all about women. A bit of machismo can help to impress them. Ragazzo da Napoli? No, Ragazzo di Edmonton!
(PR).
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