“A man looks at his reflection in a stream of water, clear water, like he would in a mirror of certainty, and at first his shadow seems cradled, as if alive, but then it breaks, inadvertently, releasing, perhaps, the memory of the shadow that was once whole. And thus, in a furious day of battle, humanity is encumbered with its heaviness and its hate, unconscious of its frailty. Vanità is the title Ungaretti gave to this poem. And, perhaps, we have insisted too much on the relations and meanings which, if true, are presented in the vaguest and most fleeting form. ” G. De Robertis, Scrittori  del Novecento.

The poem Vanità, is from the collection L’Allegria, Milano, Mondadori.

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