Marie Bashkirtseff 1883 |
Non sarà conosciuto finché il pozzo del vento non dissecchi
E l’ovest non resti più immerso
Nei venti che recano il frutto e la corteccia
Di centinaia e centinaia di cadute;
Perché la seta è soffice e la pietra ferisce
Il fanciullo si chiederà ogni giorno,
Perché pioggia notturna e sangue di mammella
Tutti e due lo dissetano, avrà una nera risposta.
Quando verrà Mastro Gelo? domandano i bambini.
Stringeranno nei pugni una cometa?
Finché la loro polvere, dal cielo e da terra,
Non sparga in occhi infantili un lungo ultimo sonno
E l’ombra non sia folta di fantasmi di bimbi,
Nessuna bianca risposta farà eco dalle cime dei tetti.
Tutto è conosciuto: il consiglio degli astri
Esorta qualche contento a viaggiare coi venti,
Ma ciò che chiedono gli astri mentre aggirano
Tempo dopo tempo le torri dei cieli
Sarà poco ascoltato, prima che gli astri siano spenti.
Io ascolto contento e "Contèntati"
Squilla pei corridoi come una campanella,
E "Nessuna risposta" e io non ho
Nessuna risposta al pianto dei bambini
Né di risposta d’eco né dell’uomo di gelo
Né di comete spettrali sopra i pugni levati.
******
Why East Wind Chills
Why east wind chills and south wind cools
Shall not be known till windwell dries
And west's no longer drowned
In winds that bring the fruit and rind
Of many a hundred falls;
Why silk is soft and the stone wounds
The child shall question all his days,
Why night-time rain and the breast's blood
Both quench his thirst he'll have a black reply.
When cometh Jack Frost? the children ask.
Shall they clasp a comet in their fists?
Not till, from high and low, their dust
Sprinkles in children's eyes a long-last sleep
And dusk is crowded with the children's ghosts,
Shall a white answer echo from the rooftops.
All things are known: the stars' advice
Calls some content to travel with the winds,
Though what the stars ask as they round
Time upon time the towers of the skies
Is heard but little till the stars go out.
I hear content, and 'Be Content'
Ring like a handbell through the corridors,
And 'Know no answer,' and I know
No answer to the children's cry
Of echo's answer and the man of frost
And ghostly comets over the raised fists.
Why East Wind Chills
Why east wind chills and south wind cools
Shall not be known till windwell dries
And west's no longer drowned
In winds that bring the fruit and rind
Of many a hundred falls;
Why silk is soft and the stone wounds
The child shall question all his days,
Why night-time rain and the breast's blood
Both quench his thirst he'll have a black reply.
When cometh Jack Frost? the children ask.
Shall they clasp a comet in their fists?
Not till, from high and low, their dust
Sprinkles in children's eyes a long-last sleep
And dusk is crowded with the children's ghosts,
Shall a white answer echo from the rooftops.
All things are known: the stars' advice
Calls some content to travel with the winds,
Though what the stars ask as they round
Time upon time the towers of the skies
Is heard but little till the stars go out.
I hear content, and 'Be Content'
Ring like a handbell through the corridors,
And 'Know no answer,' and I know
No answer to the children's cry
Of echo's answer and the man of frost
And ghostly comets over the raised fists.
***
Nel centenario della nascita
DYLAN THOMAS
26 ottobre 1914*9 novembre 1953