Franz Kafka

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Eugenio Montale, 'Spesso il male di vivere', 'The ill of living', English Translation


From "Ossi di seppia" (1925)
Original cover
Spesso il male di vivere...
Spesso il male di vivere ho incontrato:
era il rivo strozzato che gorgoglia,
era l'incartocciarsi della foglia
riarsa, era il cavallo stramazzato.

Bene non seppi, fuori del prodigio
che schiude la divina Indifferenza:
era la statua nella sonnolenza
del meriggio, e la nuvola, e il falco alto levato. 
by Eugenio Montale (1896-1981)

From "Cuttlefish bones" (1925)
Often the ill of living...
Often have I met the ill of living:
it was the choked stream that gurgles,
it was the shriveling of a leaf,
parched, it was the horse, crashed.

Good I have not known, outside the miracle
which discloses divine's Indifference:
it was the statue in the somnolence
of noon, and the cloud, and the lofty hawk.

Translation by A. Baruffi, Literary Joint

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