Campana to Montale: Versions from Italian

Kendrick Smithyman. Campana to Montale: Versions from Italian. Edited by Jack Ross. ISBN 0-476-00382-2. Auckland: The Writers Group, October 2004.

Contents:

Introduction

Dino Campana

Born in 1885, near Faenza; died of septicaemia at Castel Pulci in 1932. Before being committed in 1918 to the mental hospital where he died, Campana’s life was characterised by compulsive wandering, tormented love affairs, and extreme disdain for the literary establishment. Major work: Canti Orfici (1914).

Old Florence
Firenze vecchia
from The Evening of the Fair
La sera di fiera
Campana in an Autumn Garden
Giardino autunnale
Woman of Genoa
Donna genovese
The Skylight
L’invetriata


Sandro Penna

Born in Perugia in 1906; died in Rome in 1977. A somewhat isolated figure in modern Italian poetry, Penna is generally described as the one working-class poet among the intellectuals of the Hermetic school. Major works: Tutte le poesie (1970); Stranezze (1976).

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‘Esco dal mio lavoro …’
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‘Il treno tarderà …’The Journey
Il viaggio
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‘Tutto il giorno passai …’untitled
‘Con il cielo coperto …’Morning
Mattinountitled
‘L’ombra di una nuvola …’
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‘Alfio che un treno Porta …’
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‘Voglio credere ancora …’
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‘Lungo è il tragitto ...’untitled
‘Viaggiava per la terra …’
In a Small Venetian Square
La veneta piazzetta
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‘Lasciami andare ...’
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‘Sulla riva del fiume …’untitled
‘Sole con luna …’
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‘Se desolato io cammino ...’
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‘Nel chiuso lago …’
Woman in a Tram
Donna in tram
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‘Sul campo aperto …’
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‘Imbruna l’aria …’
News of Spring
Cronache di primavera
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‘Forse sull’erba verde …’


Nelo Risi

Born in Milan in 1920. A qualified doctor, but writer by vocation, he spent most of World War II in Russia, and was subsequently interned in Switzerland. His work concerns itself mainly with “the dilemma of the individual in an age of mass-consciousness.” Major works: L’esperienza (1948); Il mondo in una mano (1994).

Mister Risi: The Poet
Il poeta
Risi’s Tautology
TautologiaRisi Says Muses Played Out
Le muse sono stanche


Giuseppe Ungaretti

Born in Egypt, at Alexandria, in 1888; died in Milan in 1970. He served as an infantryman in World War I, an experience which confirmed him in his vocation as a poet. With Montale and Quasimodo, one of the “big three” of twentieth-century Italian poetry. Major work: Vita d’un uomo (1969).

Quiet / Quietus
Quiete
Evening
Sera
Nostalgia
Nostalgìa
The Vigil of Ungaretti
Veglia
Agony
AgoniaUngaretti’s Drowned Port
Il Porto sepolto


Leonardo Sinisgalli

Born in Montemurro in 1908; died in Rome in 1981. His background in physics and graphic design led him to formulate a poetry of detached understatement, in opposition to the frenzied aesthetics of his contemporaries. Major works: Cuore (1927); 18 Poesie (1935).

Children Tossing Red Coins
I fanciulli battono le monete rosse
How Sr Sinisgalli Eyeballed the Muses
Vidi le Muse


Alfonso Gatto

Born in Salerno in 1909; died in a road accident near Orbetello in 1976. He was imprisoned in Milan in 1934 for opposition to the Fascist regime, and was active in the Resistance during World War II, experiences which informed much of his later poetry. Major works: Poesie (1941); La madre e la morte (1960).

For the Martyrs of Loreto Square
Per i martiri di Piazzale Loreto


Vittorio Sereni

Born in Luino, Lago Maggiore, in 1913; died in Milan in 1983. Fought as an infantry officer in Greece and Sicily, where he was taken prisoner. His initial adherence to Hermeticism was succeeded by a more realistic approach to war and post-war austerity. Major works: Diario d’Algeria (1947); Stella variabile (1981).

Vittorio Sereni’s First Night out from Athens
Prima sera d’Atene
Airborne
Non sa piú nulla
At Six in the Morning
Le sei del mattino
Vittorio Sereni and His Great Friend
Il grande amico


Camillo Sbarbaro

Born in Santa Margherita, Liguria, in 1888; died at Spoleto in 1967. Generally seen as an adherent of the turn-of-the-century Crepuscular school, Sbarbaro’s melancholic self-absorption in fact has more in common with later poets of disillusionment such as Montale or Eliot. Major works: Pianissimo (1914); Rimanenze (1956).

Now You Have Come
Ora che sei venuta
La bambina che va sotto gli alberi
La bambina che va sotto gli alberi


Luciano Erba

Born in Milan in 1922. Scholar, translator and critic, Erba’s elaborately ironic undercutting of traditional poetic language and attitudes have helped him to build up a biting commentary on post-war Italian values. Major works: Il prato più verde (1970); Il nastro di Moebius (1980).

Luciano Erba in Lombardo-Veneto
Lombardo-Veneto
Luciano Erba Entertaining Them
Lo svagato


Mario Luzi

Born in Castello, near Florence, in 1914. An early exponent of the hermetic movement, whose motto “letteratura come vita” [literature as life] dominated Italian literature in the 1930’s, his later work is less liable to assume the capacity of poetry to palliate suffering. Major works: La barca (1935); Tutte le poesie (1979).

Mario Luzi: But Where
Ma dove
Mario Luzi on Judging
Il giudice
From (Mario Luzi) One to Another
L’uno e l’altro


Giorgio Orelli

Born in Airolo in 1921. He studied Italian literature with Gianfranco Contini at Fribourg, then went to teach in Bellinzona, where he has been living since 1945. He is onsidered by many the greatest poet of Italian Switzerland. Major works: Poesie (1953); Sinopie (1977).

The Trout
La trota


Elio Pagliarani

Born in Viserba, near Rimini, in 1927. Teacher, editor, journalist, Pagliarini’s poetry attempts to replace the conventions of the Romantic lyric with a neo-realist but linguistically complex presentation of the lives of ordinary people. Major works: La ragazza Carla e altre poesie (1962); Lezione di fisica e fecaloro (1968).

from The Girl Carla
La ragazza Carla


Lucio Piccolo

Born 1903 in Palermo. Died in 1969 at his Sicilian property at Capo d’Orlando. Like his more famous cousin Tomasi di Lampedusa, lived out of the mainstream of Italian cultural life. Major works: Canti barocchi (1956); Plumella (1967).

Lucio Piccolo’s Days
I giorni


Eugenio Montale

Born in Genoa in 1896; died in Milan in 1981. His poetry, perhaps the most influential in twentieth-century Italian literature, constantly circles back to his childhood on the coast of Liguria. Largely self-educated, he lost his job as an editor in 1938 as a result of anti-fascist opinions, and supported himself afterwards with occasional journalism and translation. Major works: Ossi di seppia (1925); Le occasioni (1939); La bufera ed altro (1956); Satura (1971).

Promenade by the Sea
Lungomare
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‘Portami il girasole ...’
Intermezzo
IntermezzoThe Customs Officers’ House
La casa dei doganieri
The Eel
L’anguillauntitled
‘Un tempo …’
Honour
L’onore
When I Began to Paint
‘Quando cominciai a dipingere …’After the Rain
Dopopioggia
Heroism
L’eroismo
Reading Cavafy
Leggendo Cavafis
Disguises
I travestimenti
A Poet
Un poeta
On The Lake Of Orta
Sul lago d’Orta
In the Negative
In negativo
Culture
La cultura
In a Northern City
In una città del nord
The Inhuman
Nel disumano
A Dream, One of Many
Un sogno, uno dei tanti
That Woman from the Lighthouse
Quella del faro
From the Other Side
Dall’altra sponda
On the Beach
Sulla spiaggia
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‘Si aprono venature pericolose ...’
Aspasia
Aspasia
A Letter Not Sent
Una lettera che non fu spedita
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‘Oltre il breve recinto …’

Salvatore Quasimodo

Born in Modica in 1901; died in Milan in 1968. His Nobel prize for literature in 1959 was awarded mainly for the wartime poems collected in Giorno dopo giorno [Day after day] (1943-46), an advance on the austere Hermeticism of much of his early work. The life of the Sicilian countryside and the classical Mediterranean past are two interests which constantly resurface in his poetry. Major works: Ed è subito sera (1943); Tutte le poesie (1960).

from Acque e terre (1920-1929)

Your Dress is White
E la tua vesta è bianca
Deadwater
Acquamorta
Winter in the Old Days
Antico inverno
Sorrow of Things I Don’t Know
Dolore di cose che ignoro
The Dead
I morti
Alley
Vicolo
Refuge of the Birds of Night
Rifugio d’uccelli notturni

from Òboe sommerso (1930-1932)

Sunken Oboe
Òboe sommerso
To My Land
Alla mia terra
Word
Parola
Of a Young Woman Lying Back among Flowers
Di fresca donna riversa in mezzo ai fiori
Lamentation of a Friar in an Icon
Lamentazione d’un fraticello d’icona
Without Memory Of Death
Senza memoria di morte
Prayer to the Rain
Preghiera alla pioggia
Woods Sleep
Dormono selve
To Night
Alla notte
Metamorphoses in the Saint’s Urn
Metamorfosi nell’urna del santo
Island
Isola
Where the Dead Stand Open-Eyed
Dove morti stanno ad occhi aperti
The Angel
L’angelo
Water Decomposes Dormice
L’acqua infradicia ghiri
Seed
Seme
First Day
Primo giorno
Green Drift
Verde deriva

from Erato e Apòllion (1932-1936)

Apollyon’s Song
Canto di Apòllion
Apollyon
Apòllion
Dead Heron
Airone morto
On the Hill of the “Terre Bianche”
Sui colle delle “Terre Bianche”
In Your Light I am Wrecked
Al tuo lume naufrago
Insomnia
Insonnia
Often a Shoreline
Sovente una riviera
Ulysses’ Isle
Isola di Ulisse
Salt-Pan in Winter
Salina d’inverno
Sardinia
Sardegna
In Light of the Skies
In luce di cieli
Quarries
Latomìe
For My Mortal Smell
Del mio odore di uomo
Stranger City
Città straniera
In the Feeling of Death
Nel senso di morte

Nuove Poesie (1936-1942)

The Magpie Laughs, Black in the Orange Trees
Ride la gazza, nera sugli aranci
A Street in Agrigentum
Strada di Agrigentum
The Gentle Hill
La dolce colline
What are You up to, Shepherd of Air?
Che vuoi, pastore d’aria?
Before the Statue of Ilaria del Carretto
Davanti al simulacro d’llaria del Carretto
Now Day Breaks
Ora che sale il giorno
The Rain is Already with Us
Già la pioggia è con noi
One Evening, the Snow
Una sera, la neve
The Piazza Fontana
Piazza Fontana
The Tall Ship
L’alto veliero
Elegy for the Dancer Cumani
Elegos per la danzatrice Cumani
Delphic Woman
Delfica
Imitation of Joy
Imitazione della gioia
Moon Horses and Volcanoes
Cavalli di luna e di vulcani
Once More a Green River
Ancora un verde fiume
Beach at St Antiochus
Spiaggia a Sant’Antioco
The Scrawny Flower is Already Flying
Già vola il fiore maoro
Verging on Puberty
Inizio di pubertà

Giorno dopo giorno (1947)

Speaking about Willow Branches
Alle fronde dei salici
Letter
Lettera
19 January 1944
19 gennaio 1944
Snow
Neve
Day after Day
Giorno dopo giorno
Perhaps the Heart
Forse il cuore
Winter Night
La notte d’inverno
Milan, August 1943
Milano, agosto 1943
The Wall
La muraglia
O My Sweet Animals
0 miei dolci animali
Written Perhaps on a Tomb
Scritto forse su una tomba
Pilgrim
A me pellegrino
From the Rock Fortress of Upper Bergamo
Dalla rocca di Bergamo alta
Beside the Adda
Presso l’Adda
I Have Heard the Sea Again
S’ode ancora il mare
Elegy
Elegia
Of Another Lazarus
Di un altro Lazzaro
The Crossing
Il traghetto
Your Silent Foot
Il tuo piede silenzioso
Man of My Time
Uomo del mio tempo

from La vita non è sogno (1946-1948)

Lament for the South
Lamento per il Sud
Epitaph for Bice Donetti
Epitaffio per Bice Donetti
Colour of Rain and Iron
Colore di pioggia e di ferro
Almost a Madrigal
Quasi un madrigale
Italy is My Country
Il mio paese è l’Italia
Thànatos Athànatos
Thànatos Athànatos

from Il falso e vero verde (1949-1955)

The Dead Guitars
Le morte chitarre
False and True Green
Il falso e vero verde
In a Distant City
In una città lontana
How Long a Night
Che lunga notte
Beyond the Waves of the Hills
Al di là delle onde delle colline
Near a Saracen Tower, for His Dead Brother
Vicina a una torre saracena, per il fratello morto
Laude, 29 April 1945
Laude, 29 Aprile 1945
To a Poet Not Well Disposed
A un poeta nemico

from La terra impareggiabile (1955-1958)

Visible, Invisible
Visibile, invisibile
The Incomparable Earth
La terra impareggiabile
Today, the Twenty-First of March
Oggi ventuno marzo
From Disfigured Nature
Dalla natura deforme
An Open Arc
Un arco aperto
A Copper Amphora
Un’anfora di rame
The Scaliger Tombs
Le arche scaligere
In This City
In questa città
Once More about Hell
Ancora dell’inferno
Almost an Epigram
Quasi un epigramma
Soldiers Crying in the Night
I soldati piangono di notte
At Night on the Acropolis
Di notte sull’Acropoli
Mycenae
Micene
Following the Alpheus
Seguendo l’Alfeo
Delphi
Delfi
Marathon
Maratona
Minotaur at Knossos
Minotauro a Cnosso
Eleusis
Eleusi
To the New Moon
Alla nuova luna
An Answer
Una risposta
Another Answer
Altra risposta
Inscription for the Partisans of Valenza 1957
Epigrafe per i Partigiani di Valenza

from Dare e avere (1966)

Debit and Credit
Dare e avere
Varvàra Alexandrovna
Varvàra Alexandrovna
Only If Love Stabs You
Solo che amore ti colpisca
A Night in September
Una notte di settembre
Along the Isar
Lungo l’Isar
From the Shores of Lake Balaton
Dalle rive del Balaton
Tollbridge
Tollbridge
The Negro Church at Harlem
La chiesa dei negri ad Harlem
Cape Caliakra Capo
Caliakra
Silence Does Not Mislead Me
Il silenzio non m’inganna
Glendalough
Glendalough
The Bowmen Of Tuscany
Balestrieri toscani
In Chiswick Cemetery
Nel cimitero di Chiswick
The Maya at Mérida
I Maya a Mérida
Love Poem
Poesia d’amore
I Have Lost Nothing
Non ho perduto nulla
To Liguria
Alla Liguria
To Keep The World In Balance
Basta un giorno a equilibrare il mondo
I Have Flowers and by Night I Call on the Poplars
Ho fiori e di notte invito i pioppi