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In dormiveglia Giuseppe Ungaretti
Assisto la notte violentata
L’aria è crivellata come una trina dalle schioppettate degli uomini ritratti nelle trincee come le lumache nel loro guscio
Mi pare che un affannato nugolo di scalpellini batta il lastricato di pietra di lava delle mie strade ed io l’ascolti non vedendo in dormiveglia
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As I doze Giuseppe Ungaretti
I assist the night defiled
The air is riddled like needle lace with a hail of bullets from the men trapped in trenches like snails in their shells.
It sounds like a frenetic swarm of stone cutters is beating on the pavement in lava stone of my streets and I listen without seeing as I doze
Translation ©Matilda Colarossi
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The poem describes a night in the trenches. The hail of pellets riddle the air, and the poet cannot sleep. He dozes unseeing, trapped in the trenches with other soldiers. The frenetic beating reminds him of his childhood in Alexandria, as the poet himself explains (“gli scalpellini pugliesi assunti dal Municipio dei Alessandria d’Egitto per lastricare con pietre di lava le strade della mia città”/the stone cutters called from Puglia to the city of Alexandria in Egypt to pave the streets in lava stone).
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