| IN THE MORNING YOU ALWAYS COME BACK
CESARE PAVESE
Lo spiraglio dell’alba respira con la tua bocca in fondo alle vie vuote. Luce grigia i tuoi occhi, dolci gocce dell’alba sulle colline scure. Il tuo passo e il tuo fiato come il vento dell’alba sommergono le case. La città abbrividisce, odorono le pietre – sei la vita, il risveglio.
Stella perduta nella luce dell’alba, cigolío della brezza, tepore, respiro – è finita la notte.
Sei la luce e il mattino.
(19-20 marzo 1950)
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IN THE MORNING YOU ALWAYS COME BACK
CESARE PAVESE
The glimmer of dawn breathes from your lips at the end of barren backstreets. Grey light your eyes, gentle drops of dawn on the dusky hills. Your step and your breath like the wind of dawn engulfs the houses. The city shudders, the scent of cobblestones – you are life, the awakening.
A lost star in the light of dawn, the creaking of the breeze, warmth, breath – the end of night.
You are the light and the morn.
(19-20 March 1950)
Translation by ©Matilda Colarossi
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| VERRA’ LA MORTE E AVRA’ I TUOI OCCHI
Verrà la morte e avrà i tuoi occhi – questa morte che ci accompagna dal mattino alla sera, insonne, sorda, come un vecchio rimorso o un vizio assurdo. I tuoi occhi saranno una vana parola, un grido taciuto, un silenzio. Così li vedi ogni mattina quando su te sola ti pieghi nello specchio. O cara speranza, quel giorno sapremo anche noi che sei la vita e sei il nulla. Per tutti la morte ha uno sguardo. Verrà la morte e avrà i tuoi occhi. Sarà come smettere un vizio, come vedere nello specchio 7 riemergere un viso morto, come ascoltare un labbro chiuso. Scenderemo nel gorgo muti.
(22 marzo 1950) |
DEATH WILL COME AND IT WILL HAVE YOUR EYES
Death will come and it will have your eyes – this death which accompanies us from morning till night, sleepless, deaf, like an ancient remorse or an absurd habit. Your eyes will be an empty word, a stifled cry, silence. You see them thus in the morning when alone you lean towards the mirror. Oh treasured hope, that day we too will know that you are death and are the void. For all death wears an expression. Death will come and it will have your eyes. It will be like quitting a habit, like seeing in the mirror a deathly face re-emerge, like listening to closed lips. Silently we will sink into the current.
(March 22 1950)
Translation by ©Matilda Colarossi
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The poems by Cesare Pavese ‘In the morning you always come back’ and Verrà la morte e avrà I tuoi occhi- dedicated to the actress Constance Dowling, with whom he was once involved – are from the collection Verrà la morte e avrà i tuoi occhi, published in 1951, after his death. They are the before and after of a love story that will leave the author helpless. In the second poem it is clear that the poet is resigned to a future without hope. The poem Verrà la morte prefigures his death by suicide.
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parallel texts: words reflected 
Reblogged this on parallel texts: words reflected and commented:
The very first poem I learned by heart in Italian: Verrà la morte e avrà i tuoi occhi…
#CesarePavese committed suicide on this day, August 27,1950.
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