From L’Allegria/Cheerfulness (Poems 1914-1919) by Guiseppi Ungaretti
from Part 1, Ultime/Latest
Agonia
Morire come le allodole assetate
sul miraggio
O come la quaglia
passato il mare
nei primi cespugli
perche di volare
non ha piu voglia
a non vivere di lament
come un cardellino acccecato
Agony
We die like the thirsty larks
in a mirage
Or like the quail
beyond the sea
amid the first bushes
because we have
no more desire to fly
But do not live in lamentation
like a blinded goldfinch
Wally Swist’s books include Huang Po and the Dimensions of Love (Southern Illinois University Press, 2012), Awakening & Visitation, and Evanescence: Selected Poems (2020), both with Shanti Arts. His translations have been published in Chiron Review, Transference: A Literary Journal Featuring the Art & Process of Translation, and Woven Tale Press.
