Last Voyage: Selected Poems of Giovanni Pascoli

XXII. Along the Way

183 XXII. Along the Way And now he came to the island of lotuses. And there were men and women sitting along the shore, sated with lotus in a state of sweet oblivion. And they rose, offering the faithful old oarsmen that flower as food. “O, men wandering the seas, it is time, now for you to eat the honey of oblivion.” The ship passes and their sleepy cries vanish softly through the forgetful skies. And so they arrive at the stone island of the Lestrygonians. And on its cliffs were giants placed as sentinels and they rained heavy rocks down onto the ship, which shattered with a great crash. And the ship goes on to the island of the dead. And women and men lay around the banks of the ocean’s river, sated with life, under willows and poplars. They looked and saw on the ship sons older than themselves and then, moved by pity for the oarsmen, moaned: “Come and take your rest: it is time!” The ship had barely passed on when the lifeless murmuring disappeared. And then it came to the island of the sun. And the young bulls, black ones and white ones, grazed in the pastures, tended by goddesses; the men heard the cattle lowing in the golden light; and with great effort they steered the ship clear. 184 E di lì giunse all’isola del vento. E sopra il muro d’infrangibil bronzo vide i sei figli e le sei figlie a guardia. E videro la nave, essi, e nel bianco suo timoniere, parso in prima un cigno o una cicogna, uno Odisseo conobbe, che così vecchio anco sfidava i venti; e con un solo sibilo sul vecchio scesero insieme di sul liscio masso. Ed ora l’ira li portò, dei venti, per giorni e notti, e li sospinse verso le rupi erranti, ma così veloce, che a mezzo un cozzo delle rupi dure come uno strale scivolò la nave. E allora l’aspra raffica discorde portava lei contro Cariddi e Scilla. E già l’Eroe sentì Scilla abbaiare, come inquïeto cucciolo alla luna, sentì Cariddi brontolar bollendo, come il lebete ad una molta fiamma; e le dodici branche avventò Scilla, ed assorbì la salsa acqua Cariddi: invano. Era passata oltre la nave. E tornarono i venti alla lor casa cinta di bronzo, mormorando cupi tra loro, in rissa. E venne un’alta calma senza il più lieve soffio, e sopra il mare un dio forse era, che addormentò l’onde. 185 And they arrived at Aeolus’s island of the wind. On top of a wall of impenetrable bronze he saw a guard of seven sons and seven daughters, and they saw the ship, and in the light, its pilot appeared at first to be a swan or a stork, but one of them recognized Odysseus, who was old enough to defy the winds, and with just one whistle they descended from the slippery rocks to the old hero. And now the angry winds carried them forward, for days and nights, toward the wandering cliffs, where they arrived so abruptly that they almost smashed against those sharp and treacherous rocks, but then slipped through like a swift arrow. And then a violent change of wind threw them against Charybdis and Scylla. And now the hero heard Scylla yelping like a nervous dog howling at the moon and he heard the rumbling boil of Charybdis, like a cauldron on a raging fire; and the twelve arms of Scylla menaced them and Charybdis gulped down the salty water: in vain. The ship had already passed on through. And the winds turned around toward their home, surrounded by bronze, muttering darkly among themselves, in anger. And the ship came into a deep calm without the slightest breeze, breathless, and perhaps there was some god who hovered over the sea and lulled the waves to sleep. ...