"Winter Light" (Eugenio Montale)

April 6, 2008

[photo by Christmas w/a K]

When I came down from the sky above Palmyra
over palmettos and ruined gates
and a scratch at my throat warned me
you would take me;

When I came out of the sky above Acropolis
and, for miles, found
hampers of octopus and eel
(the sawmarks of those teeth
on the stunned heart!);

When I left those high inhuman
dawns for the chill museum
of mummies and scarabs (you were ill,
my only life) and I compared
pumice and jasper, sand and sun,
mine and the heavenly clay–
                              in the spark that flared
I was new, and ashes.

–Eugenio Montale (translated by Jonathan Galassi)
from Collected Poems: 1920-1954

Tags: eugenio montale, poetry, readings