“The Piave murmured calmly and placidly as the first infantrymen passed by on May 24”. Thus began the “Legend of the Piave”, one of the most famous patriotic songs in Italy. The song was written during the last days of the First World War by the Neapolitan composer and dialect poet Giovanni Ermete Gaeta and became famous especially in the years following the conflict. The author
EA Mario, pseudonym of Giovanni Ermete Gaeta, was born in Naples in 1884. Italian lyricist and composer, he was the author of numerous highly successful songs, such as “La song del Piave”. Some pieces were composed in Italian, others in Neapolitan language; of them, almost always, he wrote both the lyrics and the music.
Together with Salvatore Di Giacomo, Ernesto Murolo and Libero Bovio, he is to be counted among the greatest exponents of the Neapolitan song of the first half of the twentieth century and one of the undisputed protagonists of Italian song from the first postwar period to the fifties. Patriotic poems and songs
Gaeta was the author of numerous poems and songs with a fervent patriotic content. In 1915, at the beginning of the war, he was granted service in the military post and was charged with transporting correspondence to the front. The experience inspired him some patriotic texts such as the “Serenade to the emperor” (referring to Franz Joseph, emperor of Austria) which went like this: “My dear Emperor / primma ca dies, ‘a vide’ a nuvita: / l ‘ Italy trase to Trieste / ce trase e hadda stays! ” (“Emperor, before dying, see the news: Italy enters Trieste, enters and stays there”).
In November 1917, after the Austrian breakthrough at Caporetto, the front line had settled on the Piave river. In June 1918 Austria tried to strike the final blow: the offensive began on June 15, but the Italian army managed to stop it and on June 22 the “battle of the Solstice” ended with the Italian victory. In those days Gaeta was at work in a post office, and “from the heart”, as he himself recounts, three stanzas that he wrote straight away on the internal service forms: “The Piave murmured calmly and placidly as the first infantrymen passed by on May 24 ». The genesis of poetry
The first verse referred to the beginning of the war, May 24, 1915. The second to the defeat of Caporetto: “But in a sad night we speak of betrayal / and the Piave could hear anger and dismay”. At that time it was believed that the Austrian success was due to the betrayal of an Italian unit; in the post-war period it was discovered that that department, in fact, had resisted but had been destroyed, and the word “betrayal” was replaced by “dark event”. Finally, the third verse referred to the battle of the Solstice and the Italian victory. On November 9, 1918, five days after the end of the war, Gaeta added the fourth and last verse: “I retreat the enemy as far as Trieste, as far as Trento / and the victory melted its wings in the wind”. The Legend of the Piave
Even after the war, the “Legend of the Piave” remained very popular. On 4 November 1921 it was carried out at the inauguration of the monument to the unknown soldier, at the Vittoriano in Rome. The song was considered a sort of national anthem, as it expressed anger and bitterness for the defeat of Caporetto and pride in the recovery on the Venetian front. Here is the full text.
The Piave murmured
Calm and placid, at the passage
of the first infantry, on the twenty-fourth of May
The army marched
To reach the frontier
To make a barrier against the enemy
Muti the infantry passed that night To keep
quiet, and go forward
Meanwhile we could hear from the beloved banks
The jubilation of the waves is subdued and light
It was a sweet and flattering omen.
The Piave murmured: “The stranger does not pass”
But in a sad night
There is talk of a gloomy event
And the Piave heard the anger and dismay
Ouch, how many people have seen
Coming down, leaving the roof
. the enemy broke into Caporetto
Refugees everywhere, from the distant mountains
They came to fill all its bridges One
could hear then, from the violated banks
The murmur of the waves Soft and sad
Like a sob, in that black autumn
The Piave murmurs: “Return the stranger ”
And the enemy returns
For pride, for hunger
He wanted to vent all his
desires He saw the open plan
From up there, he still wanted to
feed
himself and rejoice as then
“No” said the Piave, “No” the
infantrymen
said
. haughty enemy
The Piave command: “Go back, foreigner”
The enemy backs away
Up to Trieste, up to Trento
And victory loosened the wind’s wings
The ancient pact was sacred
Among the ranks,
Oberdan, Sauro, Battisti
Shattered, were seen Rising, alfin, the Italian value
The forks and the arms of
the hanger Secure the Alps, the banks free
And the Piave fell silent: “The waves calmed down”
On the homeland soil, defeated the grim Empires
Peace I find neither oppressed nor foreigners
