Alfonso Gatto: Le vittime / The victims

Le vittime

Alfonso Gatto

La storia fosse scritta dalle vittime
altro sarebbe, un tempo di minuti,
di formiche incessanti che ripullulano
al nostro soffio e pure ad una ad una
vivide di tenacia, intente d’essere.

Gli inermi che si scostano al passaggio
delle divise chiedono allo sguardo
dei propri occhi la letizia ansiosa
d’essere vinti, il numero che oblia
la sua sabbia infinita nel crepuscolo.

Dei vincitori, ai ruinosi alberghi
del loro oblio, più nulla.
Rimane chi disparve nella sera
dell’opera compiuta, sua la mano
di tutti e il fare che è del fare il tenero.
È il nostro soffio che gli crede, il dubbio
di perderlo nel numero, tra noi.

The victims

Alfonso Gatto

If history were written by the victims
it would be different, a time of minutes,
of incessant ants that swarm yet again
at our breath and also one by one
alive with tenacity, intent on being.

The powerless who move aside at the passing
of uniforms ask the expression
in their own eyes for the apprehensive joy
of being won, the number that obliviates
its infinite sand in the dusk.

Of the winners, in the ruinous hotels
of their oblivion, nothing more.
Remaining is he who vanished in the night
of what came to pass, his is the hand
of all and the way that is the way of the gentle.
It is our breath that believes him, the doubt
of losing him in the number, among us.

Translation ©Matilda Colarossi 2026

This poem, published in La storia delle vittime. Poesie della Resistenza (Mondadori, Milan 1966) is composed of three stanzas of loose hendecasyllables.

In the notes to this collection Gatto wrote: “It is the wait for the numbers, for the yield, offset by a pain that is equal for all and for all unfailing. We shall be the victims of our own actions, but overcome with the shared desire to be the event, the radiant cry that changes the world and ourself.”

The theme of the poem is obviously that of war, what was left after WWII, what was lost and forgotten, and it is a tribute to the victims, all the victims, of violence and oppression everywhere.

For more work by the poet: https://www.ibs.it/tutte-poesie-nuova-ediz-libro-alfonso-gatto/e/9788804659600?srsltid=AfmBOoqmN5o7GnSJzi9zGm5RwVoEZYdzD536D8n910KtZbYCkfuLiezc

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/