Wednesday, May 2, 2012

TC: Giuseppe Ungaretti: What would I want with images?


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File:Gentle waves come in at a sandy beach.JPG

Waves on sandy beach, Cabo Polonio, Uruguay: photo by Johntex, 2006





These wandering landscapes of the ocean's

Shifting surface, the incisive

Candour of daybreak on these

Or those leaves: these things no longer

Draw me; nor can my old eyes make

Out light from shade against the stones.




Forgot, what would I want

With images?




File:Leavessnipedale.jpg

Leaves of European Birch (Fagus): photo by The cat, 2006




Non più m'attragano i paesaggi erranti
Del mare, né dell'alba il lacerante
Pallore sopra queste o quelle foglie;
Nemmeno più contrasto col macigno,
Antica notte che sugli occhi porto.

Le immagini a che prò
Per me dimenticata?





File:Foggy sunset at Land's End.jpg

Foggy sunset with Brown Pelicans: photo by Mila Zinkova, 2009

Giuseppe Ungaretti: Poem IX (Non più m'attragano i paesaggi erranti) from Cori descrittivi di stati d'animo di Didone (Choruses Descriptive of the State of Mind of Dido), in La terra promessa (The Promised Land), 1950; translation by TC

6 comments:

Conrad DiDiodato said...

Love the Ungaretti piece with visuals, original and translation.

And I'm sort of nearing the age when I can relate. Regrettably

Thanks, Tom

TC said...

Thanks very much, Conrad.

Is it possible that an acute sense of time's passing might incorporate, also, the seed, or germ, or pearl of a first inkling of the meaning of timelessness?

ACravan said...

Beautifully conceived and executed by the poet, translator and photographers, and heartbreaking. Curtis

TC said...

Curtis,

Thanks.

I'm nearing the age when I can relate to execution, I think.

Nin Andrews said...

Oh, I don't think I can do without images. I love love love them. Is that a bad thing?
Beautiful post as always.

TC said...

I know, I could do without words in a heartbeat, but images... I would always keep wanting them.

Perhaps this is an addiction, like carbon or chocolate. Sightly guilty. But still.