Mantis 19 (Spring 2020)
Translation

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Giacomo Leopardi

translated from Italian by Beverley Brie Brahic

Alla luna

O graziosa luna, io mi rammento
che, or volge l’anno, sovra questo colle
io venia pien d’angoscia a rimirarti:
e tu pendevi allor su quella selva
siccome or fai, che tutta la rischiari.
Ma nebuloso e tremulo dal pianto
che mi sorgea sul ciglio, alle mie luci
il tuo volto apparia, che travagliosa
era mia vita: ed è, né cangia stile,
o mia diletta luna. E pur mi giova
la ricordanza, e il noverar l’etate
del mio dolore. Oh come grato occorre
nel tempo giovanil, quando ancor lungo
la speme e breve ha la memoria il corso,
il rimembrar delle passate cose,
ancor che triste, e che l’affanno duri!

To The Moon

O gracious moon, I remember,
Now the year has turned, how I came
To this hill, flled with anguish to gaze
At you: and you hung over the wood
And you lit all of it, as you do now.
But to me your face seemed cloudy
And tremulous from the tears that welled
To my eyes, so troubled was my life:
And is still, not a thing has changed,
Beloved moon. And yet, it pleases me
To remember, and to count the ages
Of my pain. Oh, how sweet, in youth,
When hope is long and the path of memory
Is short, to conjure up the past,
Even the saddest things, and yes,
Even when the anguish endures!

GIACOMO LEOPARDI (1798-1837) is one of the greatest Italian poets. His Canti (1818-37) marked the most influential transition from the classicist poise of the eighteenth century to the imaginative and philosophical restlessness of Romanticism, and along with his “infnite diary,” the Zibaldone di pensieri (1817-32) and his “small moral works” (Operette morali, 1824-35) decisively anticipated many of the themes and concerns of Nihilism and Existentialism.

BEVERLEY BIE BRAHIC is the author of four collections of poetry, including the 2012 Forward Prize fnalist White Sheets. She has translated works by Charles Baudelaire, Yves Bonnefoy and Hélène Cixous. Francis Ponge: Unfinished Ode to Mud was a 2009 Popescu Prize finalist; Guillaume Apollinaire: The Little Auto won the 2012 Scott Moncrieff Prize for translation.