Va Pensiero: the Forto Song

Va Pensiero: the Forto Song

Verdi's opera Nabucco has a unique resonance with people’s struggle for justice.  It was first performed in Italy in 1842, and today is still best known for its ‘Va Pensiero’ chorus. At the time of its first performances, the Italian people immediately identified with the chorus, and sang it as the freedom song of the day.  To this day, this world-renowned chorus is associated with, by many, the plight of prisoners who are unjustly incarcerated ('der Gefangenenchor').

The English rendition of the chorus starts like this ...

Va' pensiero sull'ali dorate ...
(Fly, thoughts, on the wings of gold)
Cross the mountains and fly
Over the oceans.
Reach the land find the place
Where [Eritrean] children go to dreamland
Every night after singing this lullaby.

The opera is a lesson in governance and is based, through its illustrious tune and lyrics, on the importance of emotional qualities necessary for leadership.  Set in Biblical times, (Nabucco is King Nebuchadnezzar) the story deals with the conquest and enslavement of the Hebrews by Babylonian armies - the slaves in turn capturing the king’s daughter. 

The beauty of the opera lies within its depiction of power struggles, intrigue, loyalties, betrayals, love, and coups, musically composed with a dramatic tension that was uniquely Verdi's.  Va Pensiero is sung by the slaves as they await their fate at the hands of the Babylonian tyrants.

The chorus goes like this ...

Greet the banks of the [Red Sea]
Visit [Forto and the decaying city towers]
Oh, my country, so beautiful and lost!
Oh, my memories, so dear and so fatal!

To many, Verdi's opera was the passionate expression of the commitment one exhibits to the ideals of freedom, reflected in the struggle to create an even-handed nation-state. Ironically, patriotic Eritreans find themselves in a bind to save their own beautiful, but almost lost country today.

The Forto Conquest showed us the way, and we should hold hands in mobilising the cognitive capability and the passions exhibited by Forto trail-blazers. They have shown us the significance of  regaining the soul of our nation and restoring its moral purpose. Our strategy for victory should be based on this very significance.

Verdi’s fiery lyrics continue like this ….

[Kirar of gold] mime prophecies of Forto heroes,
Do not hang mute come out from [the valleys of Naqfa]?
Rekindle our bosom's memories,
and speak to us of times gone by!

If we kill the culture on which the history of Eritrea is based, then it will be inevitable we will sing songs of lamentations for years to come. The grievous, complex and dramatic history of our prisoners constitute a problem for many of us in diaspora and primarily our people back home.  What are we to make of the Forto episode?

The chorus concludes like this ….

Mindful of the fate of our Forto-heroes,
giving forth [the sound jubilation] and of sad lamentation,
may the Lord inspire us a harmony of voices
give us the strength to bear Eritrea’s sufferings!


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