“happiness is a very small thing” – Trilussa (Carlo Alberto Salustri

Felicità  
di Trilussa  

C’è un’ape che se posa
su un bottone de rosa:
lo succhia e se ne va…
Tutto sommato, la felicità
è una piccola cosa.
Happiness  
by Trilussa  

Swooping down, a busy bee
lands on the bud of a rose tree:
it sucks the nectar and takes wing…
All things considered, happiness
is a very small thing.  

Translation ©Matilda Colarossi 2020

As always, something is lost: I had to sacrifice the rhyme scheme this time (from A, A, B, B, A to A, A, B, C, B) but I hope the playfulness of this very short poem remains. It made me happy: I just wanted to pass it along!

Trilussa, Carlo Alberto Salustri (1871 – 1950) was a Roman author who wrote in the dialect of Rome. Trilussa is an anagram of his surname, “Salustri”. He is best known for his poems and sonnets.


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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