THREE ITALIAN POEMS ABOUT LOVE, FRIENDSHIP AND

THREE ITALIAN POEMS ABOUT LOVE, FRIENDSHIP AND TOLERANCE
Umberto Saba was born in Trieste in 1883. His father left his family before Saba were born. He was
raised by his mother, a jewish woman, and his aunts. He married Carolina in 1909, a woman who would
be the main character of many poems, and was called with the nickname Lina. He died just a few
months after her, in 1957.
He published many poetry books during his life. But, in the same time, he worked all life long to a
unique poems book, the Canzoniere (literaly: songbook), whose title is the same as Petrarca's poems:
Saba's poetry is in the same time a literary work and the story of his life. It changed many times during
Saba's life, following the poet's interior changings and getting even more perfect until the last edition of
1954.
Trieste, when he was born, was not in Italy yet. It was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, and one
of the most lively cities regarding culture: Saba read Nietzsche, he was a patient of a Freud's disciple,
and knew very well Heine's poetry.
However, this cultural background, that come out in his tales and in his unfinished autobiografical
novel Ernesto, is hard to be found in his poems. Saba was, first of all, a plain poet, who believed in
'honest poetry', the only means that man can use to get to the heart of life. His poems are full of every
day words and themes, such like football, animals without any literary background (goats, chickens,
cows, rabbits, ants), vile city landscapes. Saba's realism takes into poetry his true life: people he loved
(his wife, first of all, his daughter, his nanny), people he saw everyday in his city, everyday situations and
problems. However, in the same time, his poetry is an allegory of man as a “creature of life / and
sorrow”.
This 'universal realism' is even found in Saba's need for participation and community with humanity,
from which he felt isolated.
Friendship
In this sonnet, the poet remembers a friend of his when they were young. His friend was a poet too,
but he never published anything, but Saba is still grateful to him for his friendship and because he was
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author,
and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. - The translation of these texts has
been realized by amateurs and not by professionals. It focuses above all on the sense of the the words and not on their poetic value. It must be seen as a process of cultural and
linguistic opening and aspires to no literary exigeance.
the one who made Saba become a poet.
Il canzoniere, Autobiografia (1924)
6.
6.
Ebbi allora un amico; a lui scrivevo
lunghe lettere come ad una sposa.
Per esse appresi che una grazia avevo,
e a tutti ancor, fuor che a noi due, nascosa.
I had a friend then; to him I wrote
long letters, as if he was my bride.
I learnt through them that I had a grace
hidden yet to everyone but the two of us.
Dolci e saggi consigli io gli porgevo,
e doni a tanta amicizia amorosa.
Sulle sue gote di fanciul vedevo
l’aurora in cielo dipinta di rosa.
I gave him sweet and wise advices
and gifts and plenty of lovely friendship.
On his childish cheeks I saw
the pink-painted dawn in the sky.
Su quelle care chiome avrei voluto
por di mia mano l’alloro una sera
di gloria, e dir: Questo è l’amico mio.
I wish I had put with my own hand on his
beloved hair some bay tree leaves on a glorious
night, and I said: “This is my friend”.
Fede il destino a lui non ha tenuto,
o forse quale mi apparve non era.
Egli era bello e lieto come un dio.
Fate did not believed in him,
or maybe he did not look to me as he really was.
He was handsome and graceful like a god.
Tolerance:
Saba was a jew. In this poem he compares himself to a goat, and he compares its sorrow to his own: as
the jews are apart from the people that do not love them, the goat stands alone, tied, and becomes a
symbol of everyone sorrow.
Il Canzoniere, Casa e campagna (1909-1910)
La capra
The goat
Ho parlato a una capra.
Era sola sul prato, era legata.
Sazia d’erba, bagnata
dalla pioggia, belava.
I talked to a goat.
She was alone on a meadow, she was tied up.
Sated with grass, wet
by the rain, she was bleating.
Quell’uguale belato era fraterno
al mio dolore. Ed io risposi, prima
That identical bleat was brother
to my sorrow. And I answered, before
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author,
and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. - The translation of these texts has
been realized by amateurs and not by professionals. It focuses above all on the sense of the the words and not on their poetic value. It must be seen as a process of cultural and
linguistic opening and aspires to no literary exigeance.
per celia, poi perché il dolore è eterno,
ha una voce e non varia.
Questa voce sentiva
gemere in una capra solitaria.
as a joke, later because sorrow is ethernal,
it has a voice and it does not change.
I heard this voice
groining inside a lonely goat.
In una capra dal viso semita
sentiva querelarsi ogni altro male,
ogni altra vita.
Inside a semitic-face goat
I heard every other evil complaining,
every other life.
Love:
This is one of the many poems that Saba dedicated to his wife, Lina. Here we can see a dialogue
between them, who, despite the difficulty of their relationship, decide to love each other as they can not
do anything else.
Il Canzoniere, Nuovi versi alla Lina
14.
14.
Dico: «Son vile...»; e tu: «Se m’ami tanto
sia benedetta la nostra viltà»
«... ma di baciarti non mi sento stanco».
«E chi si stanca di felicità?»
I say: «I'm a coward...»; and you: «If you love me so much,
blessed be our cowardness»
«...but I'm not tired of kissing you.»
«Who could get tired of happiness?»
Ti dico: «Lina, col nostro passato,
amarci... adesso... quali oblii domanda!»
Tu mi rispondi: «Al cuor non si comanda;
e quel ch’è stato è stato».
I tell you: “Lina, with our past,
loving us... right now... it would be such an oblivion!»
You answer: «The heart has its reasons;
and you can't change the past».
Dico: «Chi sa se saprò perdonarmi;
se piú mai ti vedrò quella di prima?»
Dici: «In alto mi vuoi nella tua stima?
Questo tu devi: amarmi».
I say: «I guess I could forgive myself;
I guess I can see you as you were before».
You say: «You want to have a high regard for me?
Here is what you need to do: loving me».
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author,
and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. - The translation of these texts has
been realized by amateurs and not by professionals. It focuses above all on the sense of the the words and not on their poetic value. It must be seen as a process of cultural and
linguistic opening and aspires to no literary exigeance.