Thursday, July 8, 2010

Tuscany

To Spend the Afternoon

To spend the afternoon, absorbed and pale,
beside a burning garden wall;
to hear, among the stubble and the thorns,
the blackbirds cackling and the rustling snakes.

On the cracked earth or in the vetch
to spy on columns of red ants
now crossing, now dispersing,
atop their miniature heaps.

To ponder, peering through the leaves,
the heaving of the scaly sea
while the cicadas' wavering screech
goes up from balding peaks.

And walking out into the sunlight's glare
to feel with melancholy wonder
how all of life and its travail
is in this following a wall
topped with the shards of broken bottles.

~Eugenio Montale translated by David Young

8 comments:

Robin said...

Ah, how I wish I was there right now......dark, damp and dreary in San Francisco.....

Hugs,

♥ Robin ♥

Theresa said...

Beautiful!!
FYI there is now a facebook fan page for Gary, my husband's music: http://www.facebook.com/garymarksmusic
and you can follow him on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/gmarksmusic.

:) Theresa

My Castle in Spain said...

ah...las cicadas..una de mis musicas preferidas del verano!
besitos desde Andalucia
Lala

rochambeau said...

I live here in this poem by David Young, this summer (sans the broken bottles). How are YOU Yo? And you family and all the pretty parrots?
xox
Constance

natsumi said...

Lovely picture! I would love to visit there someday. Looks like great place to visit!

Kenza said...

Oh! lovely poem. And thank you for your kind comments. Your visits always make me smile! Thank you. Besos esta vez desde la Nueva Delhi!

John said...

It is a nice post. Beauty can come from areas that you don't often think exist. This reminds me to take notice of the small things as much as the big.

Kyra said...

Beautiful!!