Poetry

This poem has a lot of emotional significance for me. I have a severe sleep disorder and as a result am not awake during the day. The things I miss the most are sunlight, and the small interactions with people in my area. The polite conversation at the cash register, giving folks compliments, people telling me about their tattoos, wishing people a good day.

When I can't see the sun, and I can't leave the house because nowhere is open its so easy to feel disconnected from humanity. Its incredibly isolating. On the rare occasions that I skip sleep for an important appointment, or my sleep schedule gets so late that it becomes early for a brief period and I get to do those things I miss, this poem captures the feeling that makes me happy to be alive.

For a short window of time, I'm really glad I exist.

The forest was on fire. The trees were scared, and felt powerless. The two candidates offered to save them. The axe, whose handle was wood, suggested that if their neighbors were “relocated”, the rest of the forest would be safe from the fire. On the other hand the old growth tree in a clearing suggested that fire was a natural part of the forest, and they’d all be okay. In the end the axe was elected, but the forest all burned.

(Please check out this poem on the Italian Poetry website for the full experience: help with the translation, listening to the reading out loud, and some more notes to the most difficult words.)

Two young lovers are looking for a place where they can "make one life out of two." All the afternoon they wander around under the sun, surrounded by the noise and the comings and goings of adult, everyday life.

But then the night comes, the moon rises, and they find a quiet spot, where the only noise if that of crickets. And here the poem stops and the poet falls silent, presumably intent in better things than writing poetry.

Saba was an admirer of Tasso, and this poem might remind us of this sonnet of his.

And here are the full text:

> Vagammo tutto il pomeriggio in cerca > d'un luogo a fare di due vite una. > > Rumorosa la vita, adulta, ostile, > minacciava la nostra giovinezza. > > Ma qui giunti ove ancor cantano i grilli, > quanto silenzio sotto questa luna.

and my too-literal translation:

> We wandered all the afternoon looking for > a place [where] to make of two lives, one. > > The noisy, adult, hostile life > was menacing our youth. > > But [once we] arrived here, where still the crickets sing, > so much silence under this moon.

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