“Pasolini’s ideology, and, therefore, the contents of his poetry, is the conscience of contradictions that today engages the modern-day intellectual, or, perhaps, modern culture, between freedom and Marxism, between the voices of history, and, finally, between poetry and Marxism. This conscience of contradictions is what Pasolini, traditionally, calls anguish.” Geno Pampaloni, “L’Espresso”. Nov. ‘57

Vicino agli occhi…   Pier Paolo Pasolini   Vicina agli occhi e ai capelli sciolti sopra la fronte, tu piccola luce, distratta arrossi le mie carte. Adolescente ardevo fino a notte col tuo smunto chiarore, ed era strano udire il vento e gl’isolati grilli.  Allora, nelle stanze smemorati dormivano i parenti, e mio fratello* oltre un sottile muro era disteso.  Ora dove egli sia tu, rossa luce, non dici, eppure illumini; e sospira per le campagne inanimate il grillo; e mia madre si pettina allo specchio, usanza antica come la tua luce, pensando a quel suo figlio senza vita.

Near my eyes … Pier Paolo Pasolini   Near my eyes and my hair loose on my forehead, you small light, distracted redden my pages. In adolescence I burned until night with your dim glow, and it was strange to hear the wind and the isolated crickets.   Then, in the forgetful rooms my parents slept, and my brother beyond a thin wall lay resting.   Now where he is, you, red light, do not say, and yet you shed light; and sighing about the inanimate countryside is the cricket; and my mother combs her hair in the mirror, as ancient a custom as your light, thinking about her lifeless son.   Translation ©Matilda Colarossi 2025

The poem Vicino agli occhi is from the collection Dal Diario, 1945-1947 (Edizioni Salvatore Sciascia, Caltanissetta. 1954). It is a snapshot of family life. The action of the poem takes place within a room in which the poet remembers, inspired by the red light of a dim lamp, the moments of his long-past adolescence, of his brother who is now dead, of his mother who now suffers for the loss of her child. The lamp, which, with him, once burned till late at night, even now sheds its red light, but it brings no enlightenment.

The poem is brief but the picture it depicts is clear, exhaustive, and invites us to share in the most intimate moments, past and present, of the author’s life.

The poem includes two main contrasts: temporal (as we see in the verb tenses, for in the past his brother was still alive, while today he is not); and between the material world and the emotional one (one distracted/one burning, one still merely shedding light/one changed by suffering, one inanimate/one sighing). It is interesting to note the difference in how the poet observes the light: in the first part of the poem, he merely sees the mechanical function, while in the second he states “eppure illumini”, “you shed light”, but not on the truth (of his brother’s death).

Especially touching is the image of his mother carrying out the ancient custom of combing her hair in the mirror: the “surface” remains the same (as the lamp so the”usanza antica“), while beneath it, his mother’s thoughts, the suffering she indures, has forever changed.

*About Guidalberto Pasolini, the poet’s brother, who died in the resistance. Here

More works by the poet here.

This work can be found in P.P.Pasolini, Tutte le poesie, a cura di W. Siti, 2 voll.,  Mondadori, Milano, 2003 (“I Meridiani”), vol. I, p. 608. Here.

Painting: Henri Matisse, “The Red Studio”, 1911

This work is protected under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/