第一次看这部记录片，我想起的是卡尔维诺在《看不见的城市》里的一段：
The city of Leonia refashions itself every day: every morning the people wake between fresh sheets, wash with just-unwrapped cakes of soap, wear brand-new clothing, take from the latest model refrigerator still unopened tins, listening to the last-minute jingles from the most up-to-date radio.
On the sidewalks, encased in spotless plastic bags, the remains of yesterday's Leonia await the garbage truck. Not only squeezed tubes of toothpaste, blown-out light bulbs, newspapers, containers, wrappings, but also boilers, encyclopedias, pianos, porcelain dinner services.
It is not so much by the things that each day are manufactured, sold, bought, that you can measure Leonia's opulence, but rather by the things that each day are thrown out to make room for the new.
So you begin to wonder if Leonia's true passion is really , as they say, the enjoyment of new things, and not, instead, the joy of expelling, discarding, cleansing itself of a recurrent impurity. The fact is that street cleaners are welcomed like angels.
他们是城市的真正的天使，很重要的天使。
许多许多画面特别触动我。第一次看的时候哭了。
橱窗里有用大牌子标着价格的大块儿的帕尔马火腿，吊起来的一串串香肠。一位老爷爷扫着街道，扫着扫着停下来，盯着橱窗看了一会。
其实也没有看很久，然后他继续着自己的工作。
一对衣着光鲜的男女走过，女人戴着帽子，拿着手包，喋喋不休，似乎在和身后的男人生气；身后的男人戴着礼帽，穿着大衣，走着走着似乎也生气了，把手里的纸撕了个粉碎，随手扔了。他们仍在争吵着。
镜头跟着纸屑落地。
纸屑被扫进了簸箕里。
老人把簸箕里的纸屑，娴熟地倒进身旁的小垃圾车里。
坐在行进的小垃圾车上休息的一位先生，找到了一个面具，他戴上了。
车在晃动，我看不到他的表情。
最让我难过的，是他们吃饭的场景。
非常非常简朴的食物，他们认真地吃，他们的表情说不上高兴，也说不上悲伤。
在这里附上N.U.的意大利语和英文Commentary text：
Nel corso di una giornata molta gente, molte cose e lavori si sfiorano che sembrano consueti e noti e di cui si sa invece ben poco – quel poco soltanto che sta a diretto contatto con gli interessi e la vita di ciascuno di noi. Tutto il resto ci è estraneo. Chi siano e come vivano gli spazzini – questi umili e taciturni lavoratori che nessuno degna di uno sguardo o di una parola – sembra non ci riguardi. Gli spazzini fanno parte della città come qualcosa di inanimato, eppure nessuno più di loro partecipa alla vita cittadina. Con quali occhi la vedranno? Il loro lavoro è cominciato da un pezzo quando la città si sveglia.
In the course of a day, we brush against many people, things and work activities that seem habitual and familiar to us and yet we know very little about them: just that little amount that directly touches the interests and lives of each of us. Everything else is foreign to us. Who the street cleaners are – these humble and silent workers who nobody deigns to look at or talk to – seems not to concern us. The street cleaners are part of the city like inanimate objects, and yet no people are more involved than they are in the life of the city. With what eyes do they see it? Their work has already started a while ago when the city wakes up.
悄无声息和伟大，感伤而无可奈何。
