Noises in the night.

I swear, it happened many a time during Spring, between March and May in particular. Passing down towards Pietra Porzia directed to Casale Marchese, at dawn, in that twilight zone when it's neither night nor day, with my wine cart that crunched along the road. The vineyards deserted as they awaited the women to tie them. A loud metallic sound, a lapping of the lake waters and cries of ancient warriors…every time I stopped my horse, at first, just silence and then clearer and clearer I could hear the clash enrage..there in the mist I awaited... and the Regillo still seemed to divide the last Tusculum Latins and the invincible Capitoline Dioscuri. Then I re-lit my pipe calmly and started back on my way to the Blond Tiber with my load of wine. A minor, fanciful heir, of a similarly fatal destiny.

I started in Foligno, and from there it was a continuous escalation 
of hanging, drawing, quartering and beheading. 
Always donating a penny first towards a soul-redeeming mass for the condemned.
I made it my art. I saw them all, 
murderers, rapists, rebels, 
and never questioned why and how, 
I was a tool, not a judge; 
responsible only for human-death, never of its cause.
Then, three glasses from the Frascatano inn keeper would lift my spirits.
There in Via della Lungara I was feared, hated, flattered and courted.
And yet today, I can tell you that from all this, my name remains notorious; 
in my own field I was a futurist-artist; 
today that men skin each other in the name of gods, old and new, I can boast being a giant of the axe, still around in many a gazette.
Today, watching over briefly from the after-life, 
I recall those stories that I was attached to, because even they were vanquished
and I lived despite that cloudy darkness...
'Oste portace un antro litro e se ce metti l’acqua nte pagamo, 
se poi ce rode er culo te sgozzamo.'

('Landlord, bring us another litre. And if you dare water it down, don't ask to be paid, because if we're bloody minded you'd better watch your throat').

Mastro Titta, His Last Execution was in Frascati.