Chiudo le luci al sonno, e indarno spero Trovar quïete all’agitata mente Che mentre io dormo avvien ch’anzi più fiero Stuolo d’affanni contro me si avvente.
Parmi lunge veder sotto straniero Cielo, e su fragil prora errar dolente Il mio diletto amico, e l’aere nero Che il minaccia ravviso, e il mar fremente.
Odo i gemiti suoi, già di sua vita Vicin veggo il periglio, e grido o Dei Deh gli porgete, o Dei pietosi aìta!
Mi sveglio allor tremante, e la funesta Immago non mi lascia, e gli occhi miei D’amaro pianto innondo e pur son desta.
FOR THE FARAWAY FRIEND
I close my orbs to sleep, and vainly I hope To find rest for my agitated mind, But instead, while I sleep, my mind prefers to hurl The most ferocious throng of troubles against me.
I think I see, faraway, under an unfamiliar sky And above a fragile prow, my beloved friend Drifting woefully, and I also see the black winds That threaten him, and the trembling sea.
I hear his moans, I see the danger already Closing in on his life, and I shout, “O Gods, O, merciful Gods, offer him relief!”
And then I wake up trembling, and the foreboding Image does not leave me, and I drown my eyes With bitter tears even though I am awake.
O RONDINELLA
O rondinella che con rauco strido Sembri farti compagna al mio lamento Mentre ti aggiri intorno al caro nido L’antico ripetendo aspro tormento,
Quanto t’invidio! io teco e piango e grido, Ma non ho al par di te l’ali onde al vento Franca ti affidi, e d’uno in altro lido Puoi libera varcare a tuo talento.
Se i vanni avessi anch’io n’andrei felice Quel dolce a riveder beato suolo Dove partendo ho abbandonato il core;
E là vorrei… ma lassa a me non lice Per l’ampie vie del ciel seguirti, e solo Fatta simile a te son nel dolore.
O LITTLE SWALLOW
O little swallow, with a raucous cry You seem to wed yourself to my lament As you hover around the sweet nest Echoing the harsh, ancient torment.
How I envy you! I weep and mourn with you, But I don’t have the wings that let you easily Commit to the wind, you, who, passes freely From one land to another, according to your will.
If I also had feathers, I too would fly off, content To see that sweet blessed land once more From which, by leaving, I left behind my heart;
And once there, I would wish… but alas, I’d be forbidden From following you through the wide paths of the sky, For I am only similar to you in my grief.
Born and raised in Bergamo, Italy, Paolina Secco-Suardo Grismondi (1746-1801), was hugely successful in the literary world of her time. As a member of literary academies, she published under the name Lesbia Cidonia. Her poetry bears the stamp of her multi-lingual education and her appreciation of classical literature and classical literary forms, and she frequently enlivens pastoral and arcadian tropes with commentary revealing her personal experience and exploration of gendered embodiment.
Alani Rosa Hicks-Bartlett is a writer and translator who increasingly finds herself in a nudiustertian mode. Her recent work has appeared in The Stillwater Review, ANMLY, Cagibi, carte blanche, The Laurel Review, Broad River Review, La Piccioletta Barca, The Fourth River, and Mantis: A Journal of Poetry, Criticism, and Translation, among others. She is currently working a collection of villanelles as well as a series of translations from Medieval French, Portuguese, and Italian literature.
