In Spite of Wishing and Wanting

You think that's all I am?

You think I'm just a cruel bastard.

You saw me and said: it's the bastard, look out!

You saw them? Did you?

Beautiful, aren't they?

Full of force, full of energy, full of life.

Me too I was like them once.

When I was little I was just like them.

I was little but I was full of force, full of energy, full of life.

But they... they want one thing only.

When I was little, I wanted lots of things

When I got one thing, I wanted another thing,

and then another and another.

I was never satisfied. I drove my parents mad!

I was never satisfied, never.

One day...

I was having a bath...

And my mother, she had something in her hand...

And she went like that with it, all over my body, and it felt really nice, and I said :

What's that?

And she said: It's a sponge.

I said: Where does it come from?

And she said: From the depths of the ocean.

And I said: I want to be that. I want to be a sponge.

I would be at the bottom of the ocean...

Feel all the weight of the sea on my shoulders.

And I would stay in the water like a little fish.

Yes, that's what I wanted to be, a little fish!

I'd be a fish and I'd travel all over the ocean and all over the world.

I'd stay in the water all the time,

Iike a little fish, and my body...

A bird! I wanted to be a little bird!

I would fly in the sky and go everywhere, free as a bird.

I'd feel the wind passing through my feathers

I wanted so many things...

You are my little horse.

Together, we'll embark on a big voyage.

All the way to China.

All the way to the other end of the world.

You'll see, we'll make it.

Yes, I'll bring you something to drink and eat.

Come, let's go.

Look, we're already up in the mountains.

It's getting dark.

Come, little horse, one more stroke

But you don't know who'll get here later.

A bandit will come during the night

I won't be aware of anything.

Because when I'm asleep,

The bandit will have a big kitchen knife.

And a big hammer.

He'll chop your head off!

Yes, he'll chop off your head

And then he'll put you in the oven

And so you'll be dead.

I wanted so many things when I was little.

Like I wanted to be a panther.

Yes, a panther... Moving forward...

The panther smells his prey and then sees it.

It moves softly onwards and bares his claws and...

It devours the prey and takes it into its body.

I grew fat.

I grew fatter and fatter because I wanted so many things

I was greedy and I put things inside my body and I grew fatter and fatter.

And I put more and more things inside and I became so big!

But I didn't eat...

I didn't eat but I was greedier and greedier and I grew fatter and fatter...

and I said: Hey!

Easy now.

Take it easy, Benedetto, or you'll explode.

You'll explode!

You must go back to little things.

Like a little sponge.

At the bottom of the ocean.

Relaxed and calm.

Or maybe a little pebble.

A little pebble on the mountain.

A calm little pebble.

I want that too! No, you know what you can be?

You can be a camel.

And you, you could be a town.

With lots of streets, lots of traffic lights, lots of people.

And you'll be everybody's house.

Just imagine, being a town!

That's what you could be.

Or else... you know what you can be?

You could be really ugly.

A big lizard with its tongue hanging out.

You'll walk like this.

It's disgusting - Can't I be that?

No, you can be a princess.

No, an art work.

No, anything green.

Anything green.

That'll be good.

Yes, something green,

Iike the Amazonian rain forest.

Or chewing gum.

Chewing gum with chlorophyll.

I could be in everyone's mouth.

Or grass...

The field is over there, the ball's here...

Goal!

If you were snow, you'd live in the sky.

And you'll fall all over town.

No!

A volcano.

All hot inside.

And I'd go to the Antarctic.

And I'd make big holes in the Antarctic.

And everybody would be warm thanks to me.