by Diego Valeritranslated by Laura Valeri3 min read
Down at the end of the valleythere’s the river and the road.And there’s also the little man, there he is,strolling along with the river,and then he stops and stays.He’s a dot, a nothing. But he does what he wants:within the realm of nothing, that is.
Giu’ al fondo della vallec’e’ il fiume e c’e’ la strada.E c’e’ pure l’omino, eccolo la’,che cammina col fiume,e poi si ferma e sta.E’ un punto, un nulla. Ma fa quel che vuole:sempre nel giro del nulla, si sa’.
Our dearly departedare always still there where they stoppedalong the road that always keeps on,under the sun, under the rain.We’ve moved on, so long, so long, but theydon’t know how to let go;they follow us with long eyes of pain,and never lose us from their sightregardless how far we’ve moved onalong the road that always keeps on.
I nostri poveri mortison sempre li’ dove si sono fermati,lungo la strada che sempre cammina,sotto il sole, sotto la pioggia.Noi ce ne siamo andati, addio, addio, ma loronon sanno staccarsi da noi,ci seguono con quei lunghi occhi dolenti,ne’ mai ci perdono di vistaper quanto lontano si vadasulla strada che sempre cammina.
Martin walked around with his old dogalong trails in the mountains.One next to the other, without sayinga word, just trading some glances.
Now, I don’t know about the dog. But Martinis gone from the world of the living.I wonder if out there, there are mountains, trailsin the woods, dogs: an old dogthat walks along by his sideIn silence, trading some glances.
Martin andava col suo vecchio caneper viottole di monte.L’uno al fianco dall’altro, senza diremotto, solo scambiando qualche sguardo.
Ora non so’ del cane. So che Martinse n’en andato dal mondo dei viventi.Chissa’ se c’e’ laggiu’ monti, sentieridi bosco, cani: un vecchio caneche gli cammini al fiancoin silenzio, scambiando qualche occhiata.
Like that, I stoppedat the foot of the bridge.Like that, you stopped also,one step above.I didn’t know it was goodbye.I understood moments laterfeeling your lips brush against mine.It was the first, it was the last time.Like that.
E cosi mi son fermatoai piedi del ponte.e cosi ti sei fermata anche tuun gradino piu su.Non sapevo ch’era un addio.L’ho saputo un’attimo doposentendo le tue labbra sfiorare le mie.Era la prima, era l’ultima volta.Cosi.
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About the author
Diego Valeri. Diego Valeri, 1887-1976, was an Italian poet, journalist, writer, scholar, critic, and translator of French and German literature. During his life, he authored 17 collections of poetry, 7 books of literary and art criticism, 5 books of creative and travel essays, including the best-selling A Sentimental Guide to Venice, and Venetian Fantasies, and literary translations from the German and French which include Flaubert’s Madame Bovary Stendhal’s The Red and The Black poems by Goethe and essays by LaFontaine. Diego Valeri is fondly remembered as “the poet of Venice” for his love and dedication to the city in which he lived for almost all his life and that featured dominantly in his writing. The Diego Valeri Prize in Poetry is to this day a prestigious award in Italy, dedicated to the poet's memory.
About the translator
Laura Valeri. Laura Valeri is the author of three story collections and a book of essays. Her most recent books are After Life as a Human (Rain Chain Press, 2020) and The Dead Still Here, (SFASU Press 2018). Laura’s stories, essays, and translations appear in numerous journals, including The Festival Review, Cagibi, PRISM, The Forge, Your Impossible Voice, Conjunctions, Waccamaw, South85, Assay, and others. Laura Valeri teaches creative writing at Georgia Southern University and she is the founding editor of Wraparound South, a literary journal.