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Versions.

from Various Sources.

By DAVID PLANTE.

 

Im Arme der Götter wuchs ich groß — Friedrich Hölderlin

A BOY, YOU trusted the Gods to save you
From harm, and the Gods did,
Playing in sunlight and shadow in the orchard.
How you loved the Gods, and how
You wished that the Gods knew
How you loved them. You gave them names
The way men name one another, and you
Knew them better than you ever knew men.
You understood their silence
As you never understood words.
You learned to love among the flowers
And you grew up in the arms of a God.

Passa, se vuoi vederlo — Torquato Tasso

AND AS HE looked for a way to cross the river,
A bridge of gold, with high grand arches, appeared,
And he crossed over, and, on the other side, turned
To see the bridge fall into the river that flowed calmly on.
He heard the songs of lovers hidden in the woods,
And lutes, viols, harps, and trilling birds,
And he walked on among trees whose fruit,
Red and yellow, fell amid flowers to the ground.

But then he couldn’t see, couldn’t hear,
Now all about him dark, all about him silent.
And in that dark he saw a myrtle, and in the silence
Heard wind in the myrtle’s branches, and he stood still.

Nearby, an old oak tree split open, and out
Danced nymphs, and, dancing, encircled him
Singing, “Your lover waits for you, sick with grief,
Sick with love for you.” And he, “But my love is dead
And can’t grieve, can’t love.” And they, “Look
How the dark myrtle has become bright, look!”

And from the myrtle stepped his love,
And held him in his arms.

Oh addio crudel che me da me divide,
O barbara partenza! – from a canzone of Giacomo Puccini Senior

THIS LEAVING IS not only you leaving,
But myself leaving myself too.
Aren’t we one?
Oh, not that that self torn from me
Will go with you,
Going as you go too far to follow—
No, my self remaining will watch from my window
My other self wander alone
In the dark woods.

Cosa bella mortal, passa e non dura — Francesco Petrarca

LOVE AS FIRE burns out to grace
Beyond love, there in the high air
Where grace moves in
Bright circles of smoke that rise and
Vanish in the still higher air.

Sonnet — Lorenzo de’ Medici

THE LIFE I lived with you I live no more
Since you have left me for a distant shore,
There where I’ll go when I’m dead too,
There where, dead, I’ll look for you
Among the multitude, so many in the dark,
And each alone, and each in shock,
So searching for you as compelled to do
By love, I’ll jolt against those who,
Searching for their own lost loves, are lost,
As lost as I among the dead, in the frost
And rocks of our stark island. Too many dead,
Too many, for me to find you: the dread
I have of dying, for Death unites no one
With no one, and loves no one.

L’armonia delle stelle — Dante Alighieri

OH SOMEWHERE OUT far among the stars
Where all harmony is set,
Is set, too, the harmony of Love–
Such harmony that comes to us as grace,
Come to us as grace in our gracelessness,
To produce a dance movement in the soul.

Veder la valle e’colle e’aer puro,
L’erbe e’fior, l’aqua viva chiara e ghiaccia!
Udir li augei svernar, rimbombar l’onde,
E dolce al vento mormorar le fronde. —Angelo Poliziano

LET THE WORDS come, Oh Muse,
Let us in the words see
The valley, and the hills beyond in the pure air,
And, about us, the late flowers in high grass, and water clear under ice.
And in these words listen to the winter birds, and the booming current,
And, oh, the fresh breeze murmuring among the sere leaves.

Fino alla sponda estrema della vita – Empédocle

GO, GO out, this poem,
And declaim among mortals,
That in Love’s love for us
We are all one,
However different one to one,
And in Love all life is fulfilled, full-blossomed—
That is, until all are separated
One against another,
Which is the end of human life.
But there remain the brush-land,
And the fish sleeping in deep water,
And the wild animals in their lairs,
And the high-flying birds.


SEE the introduction to these poems by Anthony Howell, here.

 

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