While re-reading my copy of Dante Giacosa’s wonderful memoir Forty Years of Design with Fiat, looking for material for the buyer’s guide to the Fiat 600 I was writing for the April issue of Sports & Exotic Car, I re-encountered the following sonnet. Included at the end of Chapter XII, “The ’100′ project leading to the 600,” the poem was written by an anonymous factory worker in praise of the little four-cylinder, rear-engine car. (The Valletta referred to in the last line is Vittorio Valletta, Fiat’s president from 1946 to 1966.) Do today’s auto workers write poems about the cars they assemble? It seems unlikely. Some credit here must go to Richard McKeon Sadleir, who provided the English translation for the book.
By the way, Centro Storico Fiat has republished Giacosa’s memoir, making a digital version free for download here.
The 600
You are so lovely, who would ever say
That you were born of factory’s heavy toil?
You seem made by some skilled couturier
Or like a flower that grows in fertile soil.
On your first appearance, best of cars,
Your great success and all the fans you made
Aroused the envy of the other stars
And even put our Lollo* in the shade.
The limousines that tower in empty pride
Dwarfing you, in price and stature grand,
Dare them to race you up some mountainside.
You’ll scale the heights and share the pride we feel,
Guided by the firm and steady hand
Of our beloved Valletta at the wheel.
–L.P.
*Gina Lollobrigida
