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:

  1. The "Novara" - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Novara_(1850%2529
  2. 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

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
  • 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)
  • 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: 16 November, 2021
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