Italy

Cry No Longer

by Giuseppe Ungaretti: Cease to murder the dead, / Cry no longer, do not cry out

Solo

by Salvatore Quasimodo: Each of us, alone on the earth’s heart

Old Grief

by Leonardo Sinisgalli: The old cry easily.

Women Behind Genoa and Elsewhere

Translated by Nicholas Benson While they walked the dusty Sunday road echoes with their laughter— women young and old took another road, closing kerchiefs in fists, later in summer, on another Apennine, covered with chestnuts— here’s a clearing where they paused quietly it’s almost midday in the mountains behind Genoa as they emerge and laugh, …

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Vanity

Suddenly the limpid stupor of the immensity towers above the debris And the man bent over the water surprised by the sun discovers a shadow Wafting in pieces and gently floating away

Azzurra D’Agostino

Selections from C​anti di un luogo abbandonato
Songs of a World Abandoned
Translations by Kayla Rodney and Janel Spencer

Giuseppe Ungaretti

Giuseppe Ungaretti was an Egypt-born Italian poet. His work was translated by Gilbert Wesley Purdy in Volume V of Poetry International.