Acquainted with the night | Robert Frost

ACQUAINTED WITH THE NIGHT – Robert Frost

 

I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain — and back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light.

I have looked down the saddest city lane.
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.

I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet
When far away an interrupted cry
Came over houses from another street,

But not to call me back or say good-bye;
And further still at an unearthly height,
One luminary clock against the sky

Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.
I have been one acquainted with the night.

On Looking Up By Chance At The Constellations | Robert Frost

On Looking Up By Chance At The Constellations (Robert Frost)

You’ll wait a long, long time for anything much
To happen in heaven beyond the floats of cloud
And the Northern Lights that run like tingling nerves.
The sun and moon get crossed, but they never touch,
Nor strike out fire from each other nor crash out loud.
The planets seem to interfere in their curves
But nothing ever happens, no harm is done.
We may as well go patiently on with our life,
And look elsewhere than to stars and moon and sun
For the shocks and changes we need to keep us sane.
It is true the longest drouth will end in rain,
The longest peace in China will end in strife.
Still it wouldn’t reward the watcher to stay awake
In hopes of seeing the calm of heaven break
On his particular time and personal sight.
That calm seems certainly safe to last to-night.

 

 

da “Il canto di me stesso” di Walt Whitman

52
The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me, he complains of my gab
and my loitering.

I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable,
I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.

The last scud of day holds back for me,
It flings my likeness after the rest and true as any on the shadow’d wilds,
It coaxes me to the vapor and the dusk.

I depart as air, I shake my white locks at the runaway sun,
I effuse my flesh in eddies, and drift it in lacy jags.

I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love,
If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles.

You will hardly know who I am or what I mean,
But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,
And filter and fibre your blood.

Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,
Missing me one place search another,
I stop somewhere waiting for you.

52

Il falco maculato mi si precipita accanto e mi accusa, si lamenta delle mie chiacchiere e del mio ozio.
Neanche io sono domato, io pure sono intraducibile,
Emetto il mio grido barbarico sopra i tetti del mondo.
L’ultima folata del giorno si trattiene per me,
Lancia dietro le altre la mia effigie precisa quanto ogni altra per il deserto pieno di ombre,
E lusingando mi trascina verso il buio e il vapore.
Come l’aria svanisco, scuoto i miei bianchi capelli al sole che fugge,
Spargo la mia carne in vortici e la trascino in frange merlettate.
Lascio me stesso alla terra per nascere dall’erba che amo,
Se ancora mi vuoi cercami sotto le suole delle scarpe.
Difficilmente saprai chi io sia o che cosa significhi,
E tuttavia sarò per te salutare,
E filtrerò e darò forza al tuo sangue.
Se non mi trovi subito non scoraggiarti,
Se non mi trovi in un posto cerca in un altro,
Da qualche parte starò fermo ad aspettare te.

 

la traduzione è quella di Ariodante Marianni