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Tre città Umberto Saba MILANO
Fra le tue pietre e le tue nebbie faccio villeggiatura. Mi riposo in Piazza del Duomo. Invece di stelle ogni sera si accendono parole.
Nulla riposa della vita come la vita.
TORINO
Ritornerò dentro la cerchia amabile dei tuoi monti, alle vie che si prolungano come squilli. Poi tosto in uno strano silenzio fuggirò ritrovi, amici. Ma cercherò il Soldato Salamano, il piú duro a parole, il piú al dovere fermo, che in sé la tua virtú rispecchia.
Cercherò l’officina ov’egli invecchia.
. FIRENZE
Per abbracciare il poeta Montale -generosa è la sua tristezza – sono nella città che mi fu cara. È come se ogni pietra che il piede batte fosse il mio cuore, il mio male di un tempo. Ma non ho rimpianti. Nasce – altra costellazione – un’altra età.
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Three cities Umberto Saba MILAN
Among your cobblestones and your fog I vacation. I repose in Piazza del Duomo. Instead of stars every evening words are set alight.
Nothing reposes of life like life.
TURIN
I will return to the amiable circle of your mountains, to the roads that draw out like chimes. Then resolute in a strange silence I will flee encounters, friends. But I will look for the soldier Salamano*, in legend stronger than any other, in duty firmer, who within your virtue reflects.
I will look for the workshop where he is growing old.
FLORENCE
To embrace the poet Montale – generous is his sorrow – I am in the city once dear to me. It is as if every cobblestone that sounds underfoot is my heart, my anguish of long ago. But I have no regrets. Born is – other constellation – another age.
Translation ©Matilda Colarossi
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* The soldier SALAMANO (Alessandro), born in Turin, received a Medal of Honour in 1921 for his courage: when, during training, a bomb accidentally fell among his soldiers, he threw himself on it to save them.
Umberto Saba (Umberto Poli) was an Italian poet and novelist, born in Trieste. He is positioned alongside Eugenio Montale and Giuseppe Ungaretti as one of the three most important Italian poets of the first half of the twentieth century. The poems found here are from Il Canzoniere, Einaudi.
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