Hi everybody,
I recently started to exchange poems with one of my exchange partners: he sent to me English poems and I sent him back Italian poems. I found it a very good way to know the spirit, the feeling of a language, I liked it very much.
Then I tried to translate those poems into Italian, it was a challenge to keep the original poem’s meaning, rhythm and musicality.
Here is one of my translations, I hope you enjoy it. Please let me know your thoughts, opinions, suggestions…
Carla
A SUNSET
By Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Upon the mountain's Edge all lightly resting
There a brief while the Globe of splendor sits
And seems a creature of this earth; but soon
More changeful than the moon
To wane fantastic his great orb submits,
A distant Hill of fire: till sinking slowly
Even to a Star at length he lessens wholly.
Abrupt, as Spirts vanish, he is sunk
A soul-like breeze possesses all the wood;
The Boughs, the Sprays have stood
As motionless, as stands the ancient Trunk,
But every leaf through alll the forest flutters,
And deep the Cavern of the fountain mutters.
UN TRAMONTO
Sulla Cresta del monte lievemente posato
Per un fugace istante siede il Globo splendente
E sembra una terrena creatura; ma presto
Più mutevole della luna
la grande sfera cala vertiginosamente,
vago colle infocato: infine scende piano
Ridotta alla grandezza di una stella lontana
Brusca, come uno spirito svanisce, essa tramonta
Una brezza impetuosa possiede tutto il bosco
I Rami, i Ramoscelli sono rimasti fissi
Immoti, come resta in piedi il vecchio Tronco
Ondeggiano le foglie per tutta la foresta
E mormora sommessa la sorgente della Grotta
I recently started to exchange poems with one of my exchange partners: he sent to me English poems and I sent him back Italian poems. I found it a very good way to know the spirit, the feeling of a language, I liked it very much.
Then I tried to translate those poems into Italian, it was a challenge to keep the original poem’s meaning, rhythm and musicality.
Here is one of my translations, I hope you enjoy it. Please let me know your thoughts, opinions, suggestions…
Carla
A SUNSET
By Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Upon the mountain's Edge all lightly resting
There a brief while the Globe of splendor sits
And seems a creature of this earth; but soon
More changeful than the moon
To wane fantastic his great orb submits,
A distant Hill of fire: till sinking slowly
Even to a Star at length he lessens wholly.
Abrupt, as Spirts vanish, he is sunk
A soul-like breeze possesses all the wood;
The Boughs, the Sprays have stood
As motionless, as stands the ancient Trunk,
But every leaf through alll the forest flutters,
And deep the Cavern of the fountain mutters.
UN TRAMONTO
Sulla Cresta del monte lievemente posato
Per un fugace istante siede il Globo splendente
E sembra una terrena creatura; ma presto
Più mutevole della luna
la grande sfera cala vertiginosamente,
vago colle infocato: infine scende piano
Ridotta alla grandezza di una stella lontana
Brusca, come uno spirito svanisce, essa tramonta
Una brezza impetuosa possiede tutto il bosco
I Rami, i Ramoscelli sono rimasti fissi
Immoti, come resta in piedi il vecchio Tronco
Ondeggiano le foglie per tutta la foresta
E mormora sommessa la sorgente della Grotta