Mont3







Eugenio Montale






MOTTETTI / MOTETS


translated by Alan Tucker



3

Brina sui vetri; uniti

sempre e sempre in disparte

gl’infermi; e sopra i tavoli

i lunghi soliloqui sulle carte.

Fu il tuo esilio. Ripenso

anche al mio, alla mattina

quando udii tra gli scogli crepitare

la bomba ballerina.

E durarono a lungo i notturni giuochi

di Bengala: come in una festa.

È scorsa un’ala rude, t’ha sfiorato le mani,

ma invano: la tua carta non è questa.



III

Rime on the windows. United

always and always set apart

the invalids, and at the tables

long soliloquies over cards.

That was your exile. I think back

to my own, the matutinal occasion

the bomb went off on the rocks –

the ‘Ballerina’ explosion.

Fireworks banging all night, Bengal

lights, as if for a festival.

A crude wingtip brushed your palm,

but in vain: not your card at all.

 



 

 

 




NOTE:

the first word Brina may be brine or hoarfrost. In an early less inhibited version I was more chilled out by the poem. I have no idea what a ballerina bomb was.

Mottetti III first version

Hoarfrost on the window. Together

always and always apart. Cold

systole and diastole of solitude

played like a game of weather

the cards laid down on the heart.

       
And I am old

You choose to be exiled. The thought

occurs. Now I read in a magazine

the ‘Ballerina’ explosion, with pictures.

I recall your orders not to think of it at all,

your strictures; your card was not about to fall.

14 September 2006

Swindon





Introduction

I     
II     
III     
IV     
V     
VI     
VII     
VIII     
IX     
X     
XI

XII     
XIII     
XIV     
XV     
XVI     
XVII     
XVIII     
XIX     
XX