Mark Strand

The night is warm and clear and without wind.
The stone-white moon waits above the rooftops
and above the nearby river. Every street is still
and the corner lights shine down only upon the bunched shapes of cars.
You are asleep. And sleep gathers in your room
and nothing at this moment bothers you. Jules,
an old wound has opened and I feel the pain of it again.
While you sleep I have gone outside to pay my late respects
to the sky that seems to gentle
and to the world that is not and that says to me
“I do not give you any hope. Not even hope.”
Down the street there is the voice of a drunk
singing an unrecognizable song
and a car a few blocks off.
Things pass and leave no trace,
and tomorrow will come and the day after,
and whatever our ancestors knew time has taken away.
They are gone and their children are gone
and the great nations are gone.
And the armies are gone that sent clouds of dust and smoke
rolling across Europe. The world is still and we do not hear them.
Once when I was a boy, and the birthday I had waited for
was over, I lay on my bed, awake and miserable, and very late
that night the sound of someone’s voice singing down a side street
dying little by little into the distance,
wounded me, as this does now.

*

La sera è mite e chiara e senza vento.
La pietraluna ci aspetta sui tetti
e sopra il fiume vicino. Ogni strada è silenziosa
e le luci dei semafori brillano sulle forme arpionate delle auto.
Tu dormi. E il sonno si spande nella stanza
nulla in questo momento ti tange. Jules,
si è riaperta una vecchia ferita e io sento di nuovo il dolore.
Mentre dormi sono uscito per porre i miei omaggi tardivi
al cielo che mi sembra così gentile
e al mondo che invece non lo è e mi dice
“Io non ti do alcuna speranza. Neanche la speranza”. Continua a leggere