06-22-2017, 07:52 AM
So, a little introduction is necessary here: as the subject suggests, this isn't an original poem, rather a translation of one of my favourite ones, and since english isn't my native language, I'd like to hear what native speakers (and whoever else) have to say about it!
The poem is "A Silvia" by Giacomo Leopardi (1798 - 1837), italian poet, scholar and intellectual.
Compared to other languages, English for instance, Italian has changed a lot less over the 19th century, and only during the second half of the 20th century, probably under the impulse of a higher number of translations after WWII, there has been an increment in the changes registered in the language.
Such rambling speech is to say that to the native italian speaker, the original poem sounds both very clear and contemporary at times, as it does ancient and distant other times; I tried to reproduce this effect, hence the choice of words; I also tried to maintain inversions and other similar aspects, which aren't of easy comprehension to the native speaker, but are essential to the structure of the poem.
The poem is a Canzone with free strophes and free rhyme scheme.
Here is a link to the original version: http://www.recitarleggendo.com/001testo.htm
Without further ado, here's my attempt:
Silvia, do you still remember
That time of your mortal life,
When beauty shimmered
In your eyes' fleeing smile,
As you, merry and pensive, walked
Youth's last mile?
Resounded the silent
Rooms, and the streets' maze,
With your ceaseless song,
While you on feminine tasks intent
Sat, much content
With that faint future you had in mind.
Thus May the perfumed did find
You spent your days.
I my beloved studies
At times forsook and my sweated papers,
Where my earliest time
And of me was spent the greatest
Upon my paternal mansion's balcony,
I lent my ears to your voice's sound,
And your swift hand around
The arduous weave bent.
It aimed for the sky's clear belt,
The golden streets and the yards,
Hence for the sea afar, thence the mount(ain).
Mortal tongue says not
What my heart felt.
Such mellow thoughts,
Such hopes, such feelings, oh Silvia of mine!
So different seemed the sign
Given by life and fate!
When I recall so great a desire,
Grasp me does a dire
Passion desolate.
And I pine anew for my misfortune.
Oh nature, oh nature,
Why don't you grant then
What you once promised? Why do you
So greatly deceive your children?
You, ere the greenery winter parched,
By inner a disease worn and won,
Died, oh tender one. And saw you not
The bloom of your youth;
Soothed not your heart
Smooth praise of your dusky tresses,
Nor the fleeting enamoured glances;
In holy days' talks of love 'mongst maidens,
You took no part.
Too shall soon perish
My sweet hope: my years
Were denied by fate
Youth too. Oh how,
How did you flee,
Dear companion of my prime,
My lamented hope!
Is this the world? These
The deeds, events, love, felicity?
We discussed so long together?
Is this what awaits humanity?
As truth appeared,
You, wretched, fell, and showed in dismay
Cold death and a naked tomb
Yonder, far away.
The poem is "A Silvia" by Giacomo Leopardi (1798 - 1837), italian poet, scholar and intellectual.
Compared to other languages, English for instance, Italian has changed a lot less over the 19th century, and only during the second half of the 20th century, probably under the impulse of a higher number of translations after WWII, there has been an increment in the changes registered in the language.
Such rambling speech is to say that to the native italian speaker, the original poem sounds both very clear and contemporary at times, as it does ancient and distant other times; I tried to reproduce this effect, hence the choice of words; I also tried to maintain inversions and other similar aspects, which aren't of easy comprehension to the native speaker, but are essential to the structure of the poem.
The poem is a Canzone with free strophes and free rhyme scheme.
Here is a link to the original version: http://www.recitarleggendo.com/001testo.htm
Without further ado, here's my attempt:
Silvia, do you still remember
That time of your mortal life,
When beauty shimmered
In your eyes' fleeing smile,
As you, merry and pensive, walked
Youth's last mile?
Resounded the silent
Rooms, and the streets' maze,
With your ceaseless song,
While you on feminine tasks intent
Sat, much content
With that faint future you had in mind.
Thus May the perfumed did find
You spent your days.
I my beloved studies
At times forsook and my sweated papers,
Where my earliest time
And of me was spent the greatest
Upon my paternal mansion's balcony,
I lent my ears to your voice's sound,
And your swift hand around
The arduous weave bent.
It aimed for the sky's clear belt,
The golden streets and the yards,
Hence for the sea afar, thence the mount(ain).
Mortal tongue says not
What my heart felt.
Such mellow thoughts,
Such hopes, such feelings, oh Silvia of mine!
So different seemed the sign
Given by life and fate!
When I recall so great a desire,
Grasp me does a dire
Passion desolate.
And I pine anew for my misfortune.
Oh nature, oh nature,
Why don't you grant then
What you once promised? Why do you
So greatly deceive your children?
You, ere the greenery winter parched,
By inner a disease worn and won,
Died, oh tender one. And saw you not
The bloom of your youth;
Soothed not your heart
Smooth praise of your dusky tresses,
Nor the fleeting enamoured glances;
In holy days' talks of love 'mongst maidens,
You took no part.
Too shall soon perish
My sweet hope: my years
Were denied by fate
Youth too. Oh how,
How did you flee,
Dear companion of my prime,
My lamented hope!
Is this the world? These
The deeds, events, love, felicity?
We discussed so long together?
Is this what awaits humanity?
As truth appeared,
You, wretched, fell, and showed in dismay
Cold death and a naked tomb
Yonder, far away.