The Infinite - Giacomo Leopardi

Sempre caro mi fu quest’ermo colle,
e questa siepe, che da tanta parte
dell’ultimo orizzonte il guardo esclude.

Ever dear to me has been this empty knoll,
And this hedgerow, which walls away so much
Of that last horizon from my sight.

Ma sedendo e mirando, interminati
spazi di là da quella, e sovrumani
silenzi, e profondissima quïete
io nel pensier mi fingo; ove per poco
il cor non si spaura. E come il vento
odo stormir tra queste piante, io quello
infinito silenzio a questa voce
vo comparando: e mi sovvien l’eterno,
e le morte stagioni, e la presente
e viva, e ‘l suon di lei. Così tra questa
immensità s’annega il pensier mio:
e ‘l naufragar m’è dolce in questo mare.

But taking my seat and gazing to endless
Spaces that stretch beyond, and the overpowering
Silence, and the stillness most profound
My thoughts beguile me; and very near
Fear overcomes my heart. And as that wind
I hear rushing through the leaves,
I, that infinite silence and the sighing wind
Compare: and the eternal comes to me,
And seasons dead and past, yet this moment
Is alive, and it reverberates of thee. So in this
Immensity drowns my thought:
And sweet to me is drowning in this sea.

Giacomo Leopardi (1798-1837) wrote L’Infinito around 1819 when he was still young. The poem refers to a real place: Mount Tabor in the Marche of Italy. It was near Leopardi’s ancestral home, a home which he was to escape later in life.

This translation departs somewhat from the meaning of Leopardi’s Italian in the third last line. “Lei” in that line, refers to the season and its living sound. This “she” or “it” appears as “thee” in my translation. This interpretation perhaps conveys a resonance of Leopardi’s thought or perhaps a new direction the poem could take.