translation by Gilbert Wesley Purdy
O gracious moon, now, as the year turns,
I recall to mind how I came to this hill
full of anguish to see you again and again:
and you hung suspended above that wood
as you do now, illuminating everything.
But in my eyes you appeared clouded
and tremulous with tears that rose with you
above the verge, because my life was filled
with such torment: and it is, unchanged,
o my beloved moon. And yet the memory
does me good, and to number the ages
of my sadness. O how agreeable
in the days of our youth, when the path
of hope is long and memory is short,
is the remembrance of things past,
still so sad, and how the misery endures!
Gilbert Wesley Purdy has published poetry, prose and translation in many journals, paper and electronic, including: Jacket Magazine, Poetry International (San Diego State University), The Georgia Review (University of Georgia), Grand Street, SLANT (University of Central Arkansas), Consciousness Literature and the Arts (University of Wales, Aberystwyth), Orbis (UK), Eclectica, and Valparaiso Poetry Review. Links to his work online and to a selected bibliography of his work in paper venues appear at his Hyperlinked Online Bibliography.
Also at Virtual Grub Street by/about Giacomo Leopardi:
- The Giacomo Leopardi Page (with links to holographic manuscript images, essays, poetry, translations, photos and more);
- Translation of The Infinite by Giacomo Leopardi;
- Translation of To Himself by Giacomo Leopardi.
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