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Vent’anni fa

Denys E. W. Jones

Wednesday, May 18th, 2005

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 It was twenty years ago today,
In the very merry month of May.
We’d been playing from the start with style,
But that day our fans went really wild.
Well, we’re calling just to remind you,
That we once won the Scudetto too,
So let’s hear it for the gialloblù!

2 Leave a comment on verse 2 0 The name’s Hellas Verona Football Club,
We hope you ain’t forgotten us.
Two decades have now passed since we were Champs,
Forgive us if we make a fuss.

3 Leave a comment on verse 3 0 Hell Hell Hell Hell Hellas
Hell Hell Hell Hell Hellas
Hell Hell Hell Hell Hellas
Ve-ro-na!

4 Leave a comment on verse 4 0 We beat Naples on the Opening Day!
Maradona? – He had nowt to say.
Yeah, we stuffed ‘em by three goals to one,
Never looked back from that moment on.
Galderisi, he was really cute.
And once Elkjaer scored without a boot!
There was Briegel, Fanna, Marangon,
(Tell me, where have all those great players gone?).
And our Gaffer was O. Bagnoli,
(He could teach José a thing or three).
Later on he managed Ge-no-a,
(But that didn’t get him very far…).
Though he had a spell at Inter too,
In his heart he was still gialloblù,
‘Cos gialloblù’s the colour that we wear!

5 Leave a comment on verse 5 0 Hell Hell Hell Hell Hellas
Hell Hell Hell Hell Hellas
Hell Hell Hell Hell Hellas
Ve-ro-na!

6 Leave a comment on verse 6 0 We don’t really wanna pound your ear,
But we gotta state it loud and clear,
That although we’re stuck in Serie B,
Well, at least we ain’t in Serie C.
And last year we flirted with the Drop,
But this time we’re up quite near the top.
And we think we need just one more heave,
‘Cos we truly, firmly do believe,
That we’ll soon be back in Serie A,
Then we’ll all pile into Piazza Bra,
And we’ll only have one thing to say:

7 Leave a comment on verse 7 0 Sempre e solo Hellas
Sempre e solo Hellas
Sempre e solo Hellas
VE-RO-NA!!!

8 Leave a comment on verse 8 0 18/5/05
Denys E. W. Jones

© 18/5/05

Notes

Vent’anni fa = twenty years ago… Hellas Verona clinched their first, and to date, only Scudetto on 12th May 1985, so this poem, a re-working of the Fab Four’s Sergeant Pepper, arrives just a few days late. I am not a Hellas supporter myself. This is a present for my fellow expatriate, the writer Tim Parks, author of (to name but one of his many works) A Season with Verona.

Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/ventanni-fa/