Leopardi - Il Primo Amore, Part 2
For Kitty
Oh come viva in mezzo alle tenebre
Sorgea la dolce imago, e gli occhi chiusi
La contemplavan sotto alle palpebre!
Oh come soavissimi diffusi
Moti per l’ossa mi serpeano, oh come
Mille nell’alma instabili, confusi
Pensieri si volgean! qual tra le chiome
D’antica selva zefiro scorrendo,
Un lungo, incerto mormorar ne prome.
E mentre io taccio, e mentre io non contendo,
Che dicevi, o mio cor, che si partia
Quella per che penando ivi e battendo?
Il cuocer non più tosto io mi sentia
Della vampa d’amor, che il venticello
Che l’aleggiava, volossene via.
Senza sonno io giacea sul dì novello,
E i destrier che dovean farmi deserto,
Battean la zampa sotto al patrio ostello.
Ed io timido e cheto ed inesperto,
Ver lo balcone al buio protendea
L’orecchio avido e l’occhio indarno aperto,
La voce ad ascoltar, se ne dovea
Di quelle labbra uscir, ch’ultima fosse;
La voce, ch’altro il cielo, ahi, mi togliea.
Oh how the sweet image rose alive
amidst the shadows, and how my closed eyes
contemplated it beneath their lids!
Oh how those soft, elusive movements
snaked around my bones, oh how
a thousand confused, uncertain thoughts
roiled in my soul! The way a wind
riffling in the hair of an old wood
excites a long, uncertain murmuring.
And though I was silent and uncomplaining,
what did I say, my heart, when she for whom
you were suffering and beating left?
No sooner did I feel the burning heat
of the flame of love than the little breeze
that could relieve it up and flew away.
I lay sleepless till the new day dawned,
and the horses that soon would leave me lonely
pawed the ground outside my father’s house.
And I, afraid and still and maladroit,
leaned out my window in the dark
watching in vain, cocking my eager ear
to hear her voice, if it would only issue
from those lips one final time; her voice,
for heaven, alas was taking the rest of her.
(translated by Jonathan Galassi, photograph by Edward Steichen)
