Un giudice

The speaker describes growing up as a very short person, mocked and judged by others. Their jokes and gossip turn a physical difference into a supposed flaw of character. The speaker responds by studying law and becoming a judge, gaining authority over people who once might have laughed at them. The emotional movement is from humiliation and resentment to power, but the ending unsettles any sense of triumph.

The “tongue beating on the drum” suggests gossip that keeps spreading loudly and persistently. The speaker says they prepared for exams during sleepless nights “of rancor,” making resentment a force that drives their ambition. As a judge, they become an “arbiter” of good and evil: this gives them power, but also hints that they may be using justice to settle personal scores.

The final line, about not knowing God’s height, is deliberately ambiguous. It may suggest that the judge, about to face death, cannot measure or control the ultimate authority before whom everyone is small. It can also question the speaker’s confidence in judging others. The song presents a person shaped by cruelty, but it does not make their revenge entirely admirable; the speaker’s pleasure in condemning others leaves room to doubt whether power has brought fairness or simply reversed the humiliation.