File:Belli. Er commercio libbero.ogg

Giuseppe Gioachino Belli was a roman poet who lived in Rome in the first half of the 19th century. At his time, Rome was under the roman catholic pope. He is the first who dared to write poems in the roman dialect which was - and is still - particularly coarse and direct.

In this sonnet, Er commercio libbero (The free market), the poet tells the story of a prostitute and her major fears ...

The free market

So what? I'm a bitch, I sell my own flesh:''
I'm a whore, yeah, I stay in front of my door (waiting for clients):
I'm available for both holes, the wide and the narrow:
you need to know more? How curious!

But I also have been, you jerk!,
spinster like all other spinsters:
and, now, there's no-one who save money
on the wool and the straw of my bed.

You know what I complain of? Not the job,
which could be very good, and sometimes, when that happens,
you can find no pleasure like that.

I complain of these hidden great ladies
who keep observing me and realize how much
I can earn, then they steal my best clients from me.

— Giuseppe Gioachino Belli, sonnet 616, Er commercio libbero, Rome, 16 December 1832

, in: Er commercio libbero

Bbe’! Ssò pputtana, venno la mi’ pelle:''
fo la miggnotta, sì, sto ar cancelletto:
lo pijjo in cuello largo e in cuello stretto:
c’è ggnent’antro da dì? Che ccose bbelle!

Ma cce sò stat’io puro, sor cazzetto,
zitella com’e ttutte le zitelle:
e mmó nun c’è cchi avanzi bajocchelle
su la lana e la pajja der mi’ letto.

Sai de che mme laggn’io? nò dder mestiere,
che ssaría bbell’e bbono, e cquanno bbutta
nun pò ttrovasse ar monno antro piascere.

Ma de ste dame che stanno anniscoste
me laggno, che, vvedenno cuanto frutta
lo scortico, sciarrubbeno le poste.

Belli's sonnets can be freely downloaded from here

Quality of sound: tolerable

Quality of recitation: poor