Canzone capolavoro contenuta nell'album Sexus et Politica del 1970. Album interamente scritto e arrangiato dal compianto Virgilio Savona, il quale ripropose brani liberamente tratti dai più importanti pensatori latini. Non ne fa quindi eccezione questo pezzo che, come spiega bene Gaber, é ispirato dal libro IV dei "Colloqui con me stesso" dell'imperatore/filosofo Marco Aurelio Antonino.
Questo progetto fu in assoluto il primo a cui Gaber aderí per mostrarsi al suo pubblico in una veste nuova, lontana da quella del bravo presentatore - conforme al sistema - della tv generalista del sabato sera che tanto lo aveva reso famoso negli anni precedenti.
Ponder,My Friend
Ponder, my friend, it might seem strange to you,
but at the time of the empire of the great Vespasian
you can find those things that, inevitably,
also happen now, inexorably.
Ponder, my friend, reflect on it for a moment,
and try honestly to learn a lesson from it.
You can find many people who love one another and who get married,
who give birth to children, who take care of their home.
You can find people who get sick, you can find people who make merry,
you can find the rich, the peasant, the dishonest people.
Ponder, my friend, reflect on it for a moment,
and try honestly to learn a lesson from it.
You can find the pretentious, you can find the traitor,
people who whisper and people who shout, people who squander and people who die.
You can find people who trust, you can find people who suspect,
people who go to war, people who keep silent and people who plot.
Ponder, my friend, reflect on it for a moment,
and try honestly to learn a lesson from it.
You have to agree that, inexorably,
nothing is left of all those people,
and those who lived with Titus and Trajan
are all six feet under, together with Domitian.
Ponder, my friend, reflect on it for a moment,
and try honestly to learn a lesson from it.
Then look around you, observe the living world,
observe it extensively, it will be very informative.
You’ll see that nowadays there are people who love and people who make war,
people who cry and people who make merry, people who die and people who bury.
Ponder, my friend, reflect
