“Poet is that person who expresses the word that everyone had on their lips and no one would have said.” – Giovanni Pascoli
| È maggio Giovanni Pascoli A maggio non basta un fiore. Ho visto una primula: è poco. Vuol nel prato le prataiole: è poco: vuole nel bosco il croco. È poco: vuole le viole; le bocche di leone vuole e le stelline dell’odore. Non basta il melo, il pesco, il pero. Se manca uno, non c’è nessuno. È quando è in fiore il muro nero è quando è in fiore lo stagno bruno, è quando fa le rose il pruno, è maggio quando tutto è in fiore. | It’s May Giovanni Pascoli In May one flower does not suffice. I saw a primrose: it’s not enough. It takes mushrooms in the turf: not enough: it takes crocuses in the woods. Not enough: it takes violets; snapdragons is what it takes and sweet woodruff. Apple, peach, pear trees do not suffice. If one is lacking, there are none. It’s when the black wall blooms it’s when the brown pool blooms, it’s when roses on blackthorns bud, it’s May when everything is in bloom. Translation ©Matilda Colarossi 2025 |
This poem by Giovanni Pascoli is found in the collection Poesie varie, posthumously published in 1912.
My wish, on this sunny 1 May, for a kinder future for all.
As new life blossoms all around us, may we learn to experience the joy of simple things, of nature awakening. This wonderful hymn to nature is a gift, Pascoli’s surely, but also mine, a wish that life might treat all humans kindly…especially those whose lands are being destroyed, whose lives are being destroyed, whose future is ever more uncertain. – M.C.
Photo: daisies leading somewhere special on my sunny, no longer solitary, walk!
This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
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