POPPY: the flower of the Revolution

the strongest meaning of the poppy is linked to the revolution

and Italians do it better…. ^_^

and even Netflix with “La Casa del Papel” or “The Money Heist” have to come to Italy to draw on our revolutionary blood for a TV series like this

why?

What does the Revolution of “La Casa del Papel” have to deal with the “Revolution of the Poppies”?

it is easy to say ^_^

but if by chance you missed the other fifteen meanings of the poppy and you are curious as a monkey, you can find them HERE

so, let’s get to serious things:

 

in Italy, April 25 is the Liberation Day

 

the celebration of the defeat of the Nazis by the partisans

the celebration of  revolution
la festa degli italiani

the celebration of memory

of Italians remembering other Italians

 

the symbol of April 25 is the song “BELLA CIAO”

 

bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao…

“And if I die as a partisan

oh bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao

and if I die as a partisan

then you must bury me

 

bury me up in the mountain

oh bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao

bury me up in the mountain

under the shade of a beautiful flower

 

and all those who shall pass

oh bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao

and all those who shall pass

will tell me “what a beautiful flower!”

 

this is the flower of the partisan

oh bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao

this is the flower of the partisan

who died for freedom!”

 

and the symbol of partisans is the poppy

 

it’s the symbol of their death and rebirth
of their red hearts full of fire

 

poppies are the flowers under which the partisans were buried

in fact, they’re red as the partisans

 

every year those poppies bloom to remind us of all the Italians who died for our freedom

the same freedom that nowadays seems so vital for us, as we’re locked down in quarantine for an absurd global pandemic

 

immeasurable

strong

so damn essential

 

and we keep staying home, waiting for our April 25

 

April 25 belongs to everybody

it’s apolitical

it’s the celebration of people, of each single individual

 

it’s the celebration of those who chose resistance

optimism

of those who intimately chose their homeland

 

and the partisans’  grave

is in these meadows

that are located around us, located everywhere

where they resisted

where they sowed a freer future for us all

 

that we can’t wait to embrace again

 

poppy is a free flower

and on this day, April 25, is pinned on the jackets of the Italians

to unite us all

to remind us that we are all together, that we are all Italians

 

“OH BELLA CIAO”

is the hymn of resistance and freedom

 

it’s said that this song wasn’t sung by the partisans during the resistance, but that became a symbol later on…

maybe twenty years later

when the war was already over

but Italy wasn’t united yet

 

we needed something to unite all the different anti-fascist factions, 

all the dialects, all the varieties, all the souls

united for real, from North to South under the same flag

 

united not only against the invaders

 

but also united to escape the devastation caused by WW2 and by twenty years of Fascism regime 

 

April 25, 2020 is getting closer

and perhaps we still won’t be free

but perhaps we’ll all be closer to each other than yesterday

 

separated by a mask, a pair of gloves and keeping one-meter distance

 

separated from the walls of our apartments

but united, as a community

 

to get out of the devastation that the pandemic will leave around us

in our hearts, in our memory,

and that we will see in the streets when the padlocks will reopen

 

with love, but always irreverent

L A D Y S A R A