| Ora piena Ada Negri Ora mia, tutta mia, di solitudine piena!… Dardeggia l’anima al suo vertice, vermiglia come il sommo di quegli alberi che il sol d’Ottobre, declinando, imporpora. Fui dunque cieca sino a ieri?… I liberi giochi dell’ombra e della luce, il ritmo d’ogni forma terrena, le flessibili grazie dei bimbi e delle donne, i rapidi voli nel cielo di quell’auree frecce che son gli uccelli, e l’anelar degli uomini verso un lor segno, e l’acre ansia di gioja e di potenza che a lottar li scaglia, nulla io vidi sinora?… Alita e sfolgora la vita bella, dentro e intorno a me!… La vita è bella, anche se il cuore piange!… Ov’è il torvo dolor che inconsolabile ieri mi parve—e m’uncinava fibra per fibra—ed io per isfuggirlo uccidermi volevo?…—Forse in quel polverìo d’atomi che in un raggio di sol purpurei danzano?…— Serenamente or mi contemplo vivere: ondeggia il ritmo del mio sangue al ritmo dell’ore in terra, delle stelle in cielo: carne son io che si fa luce ed aria, puro elemento dell’eternità. | Ora piena Ada Negri Now mine, all mine, of solitude full!…The soul darts to its vertex, vermilion like the summits of those trees that the October sun, declining, reddens. So, was I blind ‘til yesterday?…The unbound play of shade and light, the rhythm of every terrestrial form, the lithe graces of children and women, the rapid flights in the sky of those golden arrows that are the birds, and the endeavouring of men towards an end, and the acrid anguish of joy and of power that to strive presses them, nothing did I notice ‘til now?…Breathes and blazes the good life, inside and around me!… Life is good, even if the heart sobs!… Where is the surly pain that so inconsolable seemed yesterday―and grasped me fibre by fibre―and I to escape it to kill myself wanted?…―In that pulverization of atoms that in a ray of burgundy sun danced perhaps?…― Serenely now I contemplate myself living: the rhythm of my blood sways to the rhythm of the hours on earth, of the stars in the sky: flesh am I that becomes light and air, pure element of eternity. Translation ©Matilda Colarossi 2021 |
In a series of anastrophes that make us pause, that create the rhythm and give depth to the words, Ada Negri presents us with a hymn to life: “Serenely now I contemplate myself living…” she says. And in the contrasts that make up life, her soul is now full. Other poetic devices include repetition la vita bella/ la vita è bella), alliteration (verice vermiglia; l’ace ansia) and assonance (ov’è il torvo dolor che inconsolabile…).
Other poems by the author can be found here: https://paralleltexts.blog/tag/ada-negri/
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parallel texts: words reflected 
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