Tag Archives: Italian poem translation
A Poem For November Posted by Serena on Nov 8, 2018
Here’s a beautiful poem written by Giovanni Pascoli in 1891, which perfectly describes these early November days. In this poem, published in the poetry collection Myricae, Pascoli describes the period from the 2nd of November (I morti = All souls) to the 11th of November, San Martino, normally referred as l’estate di San Martino (Saint…
Fiocchi Di Neve Posted by Serena on Dec 13, 2017
Domenica la prima neve è caduta in paese rinnovando l’incantesimo di un mondo fatato ricoperto di un soffice manto bianco. Mi è tornata in mente una delicata poesia di Umberto Saba, che descrive la magia dell’arrivo della neve. L’immagine che Umberto Saba presenta della nevicata mi ricorda la mia fanciullezza. Beh, ad essere sinceri io…
Non Uccidete Il Mare Posted by Serena on Jun 28, 2017
Last week marked the start of gli Esami di Maturità (the A levels/final exams) for thousands of young Italians. The first exam consisted of writing an essay based on one of seven possible materie (subjects): literature, art, technology-science, history, history-politics, sociology-economics, and general. The students had six hours to complete their task, a break being…
Ode To An Odious Teacher Posted by Serena on Nov 25, 2016
A few days ago I wrote a post in which I recounted a pleasant episode that took place when I was a 15 year old student at the Liceo Classico in Lucca. This was a very strict old fashioned school, in which the teachers never paid compliments to the students, but only put them down…
An Italian Poem for Father’s Day Posted by Serena on Mar 18, 2016
Here in Italy, the 19th of March is La Festa del Papà (Father’s day). Here’s a beautiful poem written by Camillo Sbarbaro (1888 – 1967) and published in 1914 in the collection Pianissimo. The poem takes its title from the first line: Padre, se anche tu non fossi il mio padre (Father, even if you…
Timeless Emigrants – Part 2 Posted by Serena on Dec 4, 2015
As promised in my last post, here is Part 2 of Edmondo De Amicis’ poem Gli Emigranti (The Emigrants). In the first half of the poem De Amicis describes the emotions of the emigrants as they board the ship which will carry them away into the unknown: the desperate men, women and children, clutching onto…
Timeless Emigrants – Part 1 Posted by Serena on Dec 2, 2015
I came across the poem Gli Emigranti (The Emigrants) by chance, and I was immediately struck by its timeless message. In a period when the news is flooded by images of thousands of migrants leaving their war torn countries to the apparent ‘safety’ of the west, we can forget that we Italians have also been…