Literature

Sepoltura

Non sotto terra ma in urna di marmo

seppellitemi, come sospesa al cielo,

col viso all’alto e i piedi alla montagna

tra implorazione e affetti.

E la cappella abbia intorno ampia cornice

ché alcuna rondine scacciata

vi fermi il nido,

e daccanto le sia alto un cipresso

che gli uccellini tremolando inviti

a far l’amore.

Burial

Not beneath the earth but in a marble urn

Bury me, as if suspended by heaven,

With my face looking upwards and my feet towards the mountain

Between invocation and affection.

Let the chapel have wide cornices about it

So that some banished swallow

Can affix its nest,

And at the side let there be a tall cypress-tree

Which quiveringly invites the birds

To make love.

English translation courtesy of
Marion Apley Porreca