translation by Gilbert Wesley Purdy
This solitary hill has always been dear to me,
And this hedgerow, which closes in the view
So well that one need hardly look upon the west.
But sitting and reflecting, from out of the endless
Expanse of night sky, and the supernatural
Silences and so profound stillnesses,
It comes to me here how I beguile myself;
For a moment, then, the heart no longer fears.
And, like the wind I hear whisper among these leaves,
I hear within that infinite silence a voice:
It overwhelms me with the eternal,
And the seasons passed away, and that present
And living, and with its own sound. Thus within
This immensity my thoughts are drowned...
And it is sweet to be shipwrecked in this sea.
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);
- To Himself by Giacomo Leopardi;
- To the Moon by Giacomo Leopardi.
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