Roberto Benigni Gives a Eulogy

Ho ho! Welcome, welcome! My friends! Please, sit. Stand. Dance if-a you please. Make love to the people. This is a day to celebrate, no? Today we must celebrate the joy that is life.

Life – what a sad and beautiful thing it is! A poet once say, “It is a-sad because it ends. Beautiful because it ends too.” Ah, and the life of Richard, my friend, his life was a-very beautiful. I did not a-know him, but I a-love him very much.

When I first pass the, how do you say, funeral home ten minutes ago, I say to my driver, “This was a very a-special man. I love this man.” I see you people – Mrs. Richard, the children, the grandchildren, the grand-grandchildren – you come to say goodbye and to give back the joy he a-gave to you. What a wonderful gift he a-gave, this joy and love to the world. I imagine all the times he make beautiful love to the bella donna Mrs. Richard, and I bring tears to know that there is so much love in the world. I want to be, how do you say, this much love in my world. Like Richard.

But now he kick the bucket. This is the way he crumble the cookie.

When I was a boy, in small village in Italy, my Mama cook for us the chocolate cakes on our birthday. This was a-the best chocolate cakes in all of Italy. Like a beautiful sunset, they taste. In Italy we say, “merda di angeli – the shit of the angels” they a-taste so good. One day my Mama die. I love my Mama Giorgia. I love a-her cakes. I love a-Richard.

I write a poem for Richard. It is a poem in English. I put my heart to make this poem. And now I am sad. It is a sad poem, so I burn it now. My apologies to you. I must remember to never be sad in this world, because there is so much love. “Love is the beauty of the soul,” St. Augustine say. He is right. Love is a-beauty. Beauty is a-love. Of the soul. No? Yes.

Now, to show you the joy and beauty of this day, I make a puppet show for you. You have heard of famous Italian Luigi Galvani, no? Please, open the box. I show you now.