La primavera del mare, and: Spring of the Sea
- La primavera del mare, and: Spring of the Sea
Anche il mare ha la sua primavera:rondini all’alba, lucciole alla sera.Ha i suoi meravigliosi pratidi rosa e di violache qualcuno invisibile là falcia,e ammucchia il fienoin cumuli di fresche nuvole.Si perdon le correnticome pallide stradetra le siepi dei venti,da cui sembra venire nella pioggiacome un amaro odoredi biancospino in fiore.E certo nella valle più lontanaun pastore instancabil tondeil suo gregge infinito di onde,tanta è la lanache viene a spumeggiare sulla riva.Verdognolo e lillastro come l’arcobalenogemmeo elastico refrigerante,d’accordo con il cieloprofondo arioso concavo specchiantecome il cristallo con il fiore,tutto abbandoni e improvvise malinconiecome il primo amore.Così fresco ed azzurrocome se trasparisserodalla sua limpiditàle sue tacite forestesottomarine [End Page 320]
avvinghiate di alghe serpentinequest’edera senza foglie,scorse dai freddi scivoliidi pesci di maiolica e d’argento,alati come uccelli muti,tra i coralli irrigiditiquesti peschi sempre fioriti.Son le rondini fisse le conchiglie.E le lucciole enormi son le seppie morte,lanterne sordedi palombari annegatifari di naufraghi pericolati.Una barca, con un’immensa velasembra qualche straccionefermo in un crocevia sotto l’ombrello,in attesa che passi l’acquazzone. [End Page 321]
Spring of the Sea
The sea has its spring:swallows at dawn, fireflies in the evening.Has its wondrous meadowsof pink and violet and someone invisible,mowing, piling the hay into heapsof fresh clouds.It unfurls currents of pale roadsbetween hedgerows of wind. There seems to be,in the rain, a bitter smellof hawthorn blossoms. Surely, in the farthest valley,a tireless shepherd rounds up his flockof infinite waves, such is the woolthat goes foaming on the shore,greenish and lilac, rainbowish, gemlike,springy, cooling, in congress with the sky,these deep, empty curls reflecting (as with the mineralto the flower) total abandonment, a rushof sadness like first love, so newand blue, as if arising from limpidity from silent,submerged foreststangled with twisting algae,leafless ivy killed by cold bladesof fish made of silver and majolica, wingedlike mute birds among stiff corals like everbloomingpeach trees. Shells like stilled swallows,dead cuttlefish huge fireflies, the deaflanterns of drowned divers become the beaconsof dangerous castaways. [End Page 322]
A boat with its immense saillooks like a beggar child stopped at a crossroads,waiting beneath an umbrellafor the downpour to pass. [End Page 323]
corrado govoni (1884–1965) was a leading figure in the Italian literary movement of crepuscularism. Derived from “twilight,” crepuscularism concerns itself with humble subjects, melancholy, and introspection.
paula bohince has authored three poetry books, most recently Swallows and Waves, and has served as the Amy Lowell Poetry Travelling Scholar and the John Montague International Poetry Fellow at University College Cork.
