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Giosuè Carducci
Ode a Miramar
[Loosely translated by Mary Arms Evans , a.k.a.
M.W. Arms (1881–1966)]
Miramare, a le tue bianche
torriii
attedïate per lo ciel piovorno
fósche con volo di sinistri augelli
vengon le nubi. |
O
Miramar, about your fair white towers,
Weary with weight of the rain-burdened sky,
Like some dark cluster of ill-omened birds
Gather the clouds. |
O Miramare, contro i tuoi graniti
grige dal torvo pelago salendo
con un rimbrotto d'anime crucciose
battono l'onde. |
O Miramar, against your granite rocks,
Grey-rising from the grim deeps of the sea
With echoing shriek as of tormented souls
Thunder the waves. |
Meste ne l'ombra de le nubi a' golfi
stanno guardando le città turrite,
Muggia e Pirano ed Egida e Parenzo
gemme del mare; |
In melancholy shadow of the clouds
Stand, keeping watch above the double gulf,
Turreted cities of the Istrian shore
Gems of the sea. |
e tutte il mare spinge le mugghianti
collere a questo bastïon di scogli
onde t'affacci a le due viste d'Adria,
rocca d'Absburgo; |
And all its roaring anger still the sea
Hurls ’gainst the rocky rampart whence you look
Over the Adriatic on both sides,
Hapsburgian hold. |
e tona il cielo a Nabresina lungo
la ferrugigna costa, e di baleni
Trieste in fondo coronata il capo
leva tra' nembi. |
O'er Nabresina thunder bursts and rolls
Along the iron coast; and, lightning-crowned,
Distant Triesté through a mist of showers
Raises her head.
|
Deh come tutto sorridea quel dolce
mattin d'aprile, quando usciva il biondo
imperatore, con la bella donna,
a navigare! |
Ah, how all nature
smiled on that fair morn
Of April when, his lovely dame beside,
Forth came the fair-haired Emperor, to sail
For distant shores. |
A lui dal volto placida raggiava
la maschia possa de l'impero: l'occhio
de la sua donna cerulo e superbo
iva su 'l mare. |
Upon his placid
countenance there beamed
The manly strength of one to empire called;
The blue eyes of his lady wandered proud
Over the sea. |
Addio, castello pe' felici
giorni
nido d'amore costruito in vano!
Altra su gli ermi oceani rapisce
aura gli sposi. |
Farewell, O castle of
the happy days,
Vainly constructed as a nest for love!
An alien zephyr toward the desert ocean
Bears off the twain. |
Lascian le sale con accesa speme
istorïate di trionfi e incise
di sapïenza.
Dante e Goethe al sire
parlano in vano |
With kindled hopes, they
leave the halls adorned
With chiselled wisdom and triumphal story;
Dante and Goethe to the castle’s lord
Make vain appeal. |
de le animose tavole: una sfinge
l'attrae con vista mobile su l'onde:
ei cede, e lascia aperto a mezzo il libro
del romanziero. |
A sphinx of changeful
aspect lures him on
To follow in her path across the sea.
He yields, and half-way open leaves the book
Of old romance. |
Oh non d'amore e d'avventura il canto
fia che l'accolga e suono di chitarre
là ne la Spagna de gli Aztechi! Quale
lunga su l'aure |
Ah, ’twas no song of
love or high exploit,
No music of guitars that waited him
To sound a welcome in the Aztec Spain!
Long on the air, |
vien da la trista punta di
Salvore
nenia tra 'l roco piangere de' flutti?
Cantano i morti veneti o le vecchie
fate istriane? |
What is that wail which
from
Salvore’s sad Point
Sounds midst the raucous sobbing of the flood?
Do dead Venetians sing, or else the old,
Old Istrian Fates? |
-— Ahi! mal tu sali sopra il
mare nostro,
figlio d'Absburgo, la fatal
Novara.
Teco l'Erinni sale oscura e al vento
apre la vela. |
—“Ah, Son of Hapsburg,
in an ill-starred hour
You mount, upon our seas, the fated ship![1]
Darkly the Furies, by you, to the wind
Shake out the sails. |
Vedi la sfinge tramutar sembiante
a te d'avanti perfida arretrando!
È il viso bianco di Giovanna pazza
contro tua moglie. |
See how the sphinx
perfidiously gives back
As you advance, and puts on other forms!
It is mad Joan’s livid look that fronts
That of your wife; |
È il teschio mózzo contro te ghignante
d'Antonïetta. Con i putridi occhi
in te fermati è l'irta faccia gialla
di Montezuma. |
8It is the severed head
of France's Queen[2]
Grinning at you; and with deep-sunken eyes
Fastened on yours, ’tis Montezuma's fierce
Yellow-hued face. |
Tra boschi immani d'agavi non mai
mobili ad aura di benigno vento,
sta ne la sua piramide, vampante
livide fiamme |
While, midst dark tufts
of savage plants, unstirred
By any breathing of benignant airs,
Huitzilopotli in his pyramid
Sits keeping watch. |
per la tenèbra tropicale, il dio
Huitzilopotli, che il tuo sangue fiuta,
e navigando il pelago co 'l guardo
ulula - Vieni. |
Out from the
god are darting livid flames
Into the tropic night; he scents your blood,
And with his gaze o’ersweeps the spreading main,
Howling, “Oh come |
Quant'è che aspetto! La ferocia bianca
strussemi il regno ed i miei templi infranse;
vieni, devota vittima, o nepote
di Carlo quinto. |
Long have I
waited; the ferocious whites
Destroyed my kingdom, broke my temples down,
Come, self-devoted victim, nephew thou
Of the Fifth Charles. |
Non io
gl'infami avoli tuoi di tabe
marcenti o arsi di regal furore;
te io voleva, io colgo te, rinato
fiore d'Absburgo; |
“I wanted not
your forebears of ill fame,
Rotten with vice, consumed with royal madness;
For you I waited, you I pluck, reborn
Hapsburgian flower. |
e a la
grand'alma di Guatimozino
regnante sotto il padiglion del sole
ti mando inferia, o puro, o forte, o bello
Massimiliano.
|
And to
Guatimozino's mighty soul
That reigns ’neath the pavilion of the sun,
I send you, Maximilian, that are strong,
Beautiful, pure!” |
Notes :
- The "Novara" -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Novara_(1850%2529
- Marie Antoinette -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Antoinette
The Château of Miramar, from which the
Archduke Maximilian of Austria set out on his ill-fated expedition to
Mexico, is situated on the Adriatic, not far from
Trieste. The “double gulf”
(third stanza) consists of the Gulf of Venice and the Gulf of
Trieste,
which form practically one sheet of water; and the “turreted cities of
the Istrian shore” (whose names I omitted in the translation as
unnecessary) are Muggia,
Pirano, Egida, and
Parenzo. Huitzilopotli (stanza sixteen) is the Mexican god of war.
In his own note to the original poem, Carducci explains the rather
obscure allusions which occur in the ninth and tenth stanzas. “Certain
recollections of the Château of Miramar that find place in these verses
perhaps need elucidation,” he writes.
“In Maximilian's study, built to
resemble the cabin of the flagship ‘Novara,’ which later carried him
to Mexico, portraits of
Dante and Goethe are to be seen near where the Archduke was
accustomed to sit studying; and there still lies open upon the table
an old edition of Castillian romances — rare, if I remember rightly,
and printed in the Low Countries. In the main hall are engraved a
number of Latin maxims. Memorable among them, because of the spot
and the man, are these: “Si Fortuna juvat cavete tolli,” “Sæpe sub
dulci melle venena latent,” “Non ad astra mollis et terris via,”
“Vivitur ingenio, cætera mortis erunt.”
Source:
Poems of Italy: selections from the Odes of Giosue Carducci
(1906) -
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Poems_of_Italy:_selections_from_the_Odes_of_Giosue_Carducci
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author
Giosuè
Carducci (1835-1907)
The Italian poet, critic, and teacher Giosuè
Carducci is generally regarded as the greatest Italian poet of the late
19th century. He was born in Val di Castello, Tuscany (Toscana), and educated at
the University of Pisa. From 1860 to 1904 he was professor of Italian literature
at the University of Bologna. Carducci was opposed to the papacy, the monarchy,
and the romantic sentimentalism that dominated Italian literature at the time.
He advocated a return to the pagan spirit in religion and a revival of the
classical spirit and forms in literature. As a young man he frequently expressed
his radical ideas in his poetry, but in his later years his writing became less
polemical. He was the first to adapt successfully classical Latin meters
to modern Italian verse.
In 1906 Carducci became the first Italian to
receive the Nobel Prize for literature. Among his best works are
New Rhymes (1861-87; trans. 1916), Odi Barbare (Pagan Odes),
1877-89 trans. 1950, and
Lyrics and Rhythms, 1899; trans. 1942.
The Poet and the Lover
The Hotel Continentale in
Trieste, once
named “Al Buon Pastore”, is located on Via San Nicolò. Although in 1878 the
establishment was not the elegant hotel it is today, it was more than
acceptable for a "clandestine couple". The couple in question was Giosuè
Carducci and his muse "Lina" (at the time Carolina Cristofori in Piva,
mother of three children and wife of a government official from Rovigo).
The two lovers organized a secret journey to
Trieste on 7
July, 1878, after furtively exchanging many letters; naturally, they
travelled under assumed names. However, the day after their arrival the
couple was "discovered" by a journalist from the "Indipendente", and news of
the great poet's presence in the city spread like lightning.
Accompanied by
Attilio Hortis
and
Giuseppe Caprin, the
couple visited the city, the
Miramare Castle, the San Giusto hill, and Winkelmann’s cenotaph. They
were constantly followed and applauded by a festive and noisy crowd – so
much for privacy!
The following day they visited
Capodistria, once
again accompanied by their two "Virgils" and surrounded by a curious and
merry crowd.
They departed from
Trieste on the 11th, amidst a
joyous chorus of goodbyes, but evidently Giosuè Carducci was not pleased and
never again returned to
Trieste. [From
the book by: Halupca and Veronese,
Trieste Nascosta, Lint Seconda ed. 2005 - Prima ristampa 2006 -
Seconda ristampa 2007 - Terza ristampa 2009.]
Bibliography:
- Poem translation to English -
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Poems_of_Italy:_selections_from_the_Odes_of_Giosue_Carducci/Miramar
- Biography - Encarta.
-
Poem - De Bibliotheca, Biblioteca Telematica, Classici della Letteratura
Italiana - Giosuè Carducci.
Odi Barbare, Libro Primo -
http://digilander.iol.it/bepi/biblio2/odibarbare/odi1.htm#c22
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Photos - 1) Miramare - photographed by Marisa Ciceran on July 23, 1998,
and 2) Carducci - Le Tre Corone, poesie e prose, a cura di
Augusto Vicinelli, Edizione Scolastiche Mondadori (Verona, 1969)
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http://www.continentalehotel.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=16&Itemid=14&lang=en
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Created: Sunday, May 7, 2000; Last updated:
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