GIACOMO LEOPARDI

Giacomo Leopardi was born in the small town of Recanati, Italy, during a time of political unrest in Europe created by the French Revolution. Leopardi was tutored under private priests from an early age, showing a remarkable talent and thirst for knowledge. As a sickly adolescent, Leopardi spent most of his time in his father’s library, immersing himself in classical and philological knowledge. Within years of independent study, Leopardi became fluent in reading and writing Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, while he began translating various classical texts including Horace and Homer. 
For years Leopardi secluded himself in his father’s library, studying and writing constantly. At the age of fourteen he wrote Pompeo in Egitto (Pompey in Egypt) Leopardi wrote L'appressamento della morte (The Approach of Death), , as well as Inno a Nettuno (Hymn to Neptune), and Le rimembranze (Memories). After this, Leopardi concentrated on lyric poetry, including his book Canti (Songs) and Canzoniere (Songbook), as well as many more. Leopardi frequently focuses on the patriotic, idyllic scenes, unrequited love, childhood, and classical themes and references. For over five years he stopped writing lyric poetry so he could concentrate on Operette morali (Small Moral Works).

Unfortunately, Leopardi spent most of his life with ill health and growing blindness. As a result of his medical conditions, he was confined to Recanati for a long period of time but over his lifetime was able to travel to Rome, Florence, Milan, Bologna, and Pisa.  In 1837, he died, likely from edema and other complications, in Naples.

(Adapted from: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/giacomo-leopardi)

​

THE INFINITE (l’infinito) BY GIACOMO LEOPARDI

This Idyll comes from the sight of a hedge that does not show what is beyond and pushes Leopardi to imagine a distant, infinite world and the plants that move with the wind make him think about the past world. Leopardi can be considered romantic for the love of the infinite, the great spaces but all this expressed without sentimentality, in a clear and balanced way, so here we have neither philosophy nor sentimentalism.
The Infinite, in Giacomo Leopardi’s vision, is not a real infinite, but is the fruit of man’s imagination. It represents that vital momentum and that tension towards happiness inherent in
every man, thus becoming the very principle of pleasure.
According to the author the desire for pleasure is destined to renew itself; always searching for new sensations, colliding inevitably with the reality, to end at the moment of death.  A man cannot these pleasures, however, are not possible in human experience. This limit, however, does not persist in the field of imagination, which becomes a gateway to a feeling of pleasure in the fusion with the infinity.

​

THE INFINITE

​

I always have felt fondness for this lonely hill

 

Sempre caro mi fu quest’ermo colle,

 

and for this hedge which screens off

 

e questa siepe, che da tanta parte

 

such a large part of the furthermost horizon.

 

de l’ultimo orizzonte il guardo esclude.

 

But as I sit and gaze, boundless

 

Ma sedendo e mirando, interminati
 

 space beyond it, and utter

 

spazi di là da quella, e sovrumani
 

 silence and deepest still,

 

silenzi, e profondissima quiete

 

so that it almost makes my heart take fright.

 

io nel pensier mi fingo; ove per poco
il cor non si spaura.

 

 And as I hear
the rustling of the wind among these plants,
 

 

 E come il vento
odo stormir tra queste piante,

 

I start comparing that unending silence
with this noise and I am reminded of

 

 io quello infinito silenzio

 a questa voce vo comparando: e mi sovvien

 

eternity, and seasons gone and dead and
of the season now alive and of its sounds.

 

 

l’eterno, e le morte stagioni, e la presente
e viva, e il suon di lei.

 

 

And so in this

 

 

Così tra questa

 

 immensity my thoughts sink

 

immensità s’annega il pensier mio:

 

and drown and shipwreck feels sweet in this ocean.

 

e il naufragar m’è dolce in questo mare

​

​

​

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

​

 

 

AT THE MOON (alla luna)

We find all the elements of aesthetic type: images, structure, elements of nature, quiet and idyllic start [a night landscape] from which it derives, instead of serenity in man as in the classic idyll, by opposition is generated suffering.
The situation is of classical Idyll but nevertheless there is a strong content reversal.
In the first 5 verses: impressionist description of the landscape.
The place seems to be a hill similar to that of Infinity.
Graceful and Beloved: the moon seems not to have those negative and distant connotations that it will have.
However, there is an awareness of individual pain.
I remember: it is a memory. It starts from a previous situation of a year that is repeated in the next. Leopardi already suffered and in this situation of suffering he seeks comfort in the Moon, then in an element related to Nature.
although the situation is troubled, the memory helps him and comforts him.
Leopardi still seems to be very attached to the idea of Illusions, of regretting this era: but there is also the awareness of suffering.
Here we find, as in Infinity, a language of great elegance, even in the choice of flat and not
particularly complex: there is a balance in the reversals and a very wide rhythm as will Leopardi also because use plenty of enjambement.
Metonyms and many assonances and consonances prevail

(translated from https://www.didatticadigitale.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/leopardi.pdf)

​

​

RUDYARD KIPLING

​

Rudyard Kipling was a prolific poet, novelist and journalist and one of the most well-known Victorian writers of his time. In 1907, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for his great body of work which included 'The Jungle Book' and his enduring poetic masterpiece 'If'. In perhaps one of the most inspirational poems ever written, Kipling outlines for his son the behaviours and attitudes it takes to become a man, advising his son about how to perceive the world and life's challenges so that he can both learn from his experiences and resolutely overcome barriers.

​

​

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Traduzione in italiano 

​

Se sei capace di mantenere la testa quando tutti vicino a te
la perdono, e se la prendono con te.
Se sei capace di fidarti di te stesso quando tutti gli altri ne dubitano,
ma tenendo conto anche del loro dubbio.
Se sei capace di aspettare, senza stancarti di aspettare,
O essendo accusato di falsità, non rispondere con altre falsità,
O essendo odiato, non dare modo di odiare,
Senza nondimeno apparire troppo buono, né parlare troppo saggio;

Se sei capace di sognare – e non fare del sogno il tuo padrone;
Se sei capace di pensare – e non fare del pensiero il tuo fine,
Se sei capace di incontrarti – con il Trionfo e con il Disastro
E di trattare questi due impostori appunto allo stesso modo:
Se sei capace di tollerare il sentire della verità che hai detto
Attorcigliata dai furfanti per raggirare i babbei,
O di guardare le cose per cui hai dato la vita, distrutte,
E fermarti a ricostruirle con i tuoi arnesi sciupati.

Se sei capace di fare un solo cumulo di tutte le tue fortune
E rischiarlo in un unico lancio a testa o croce,
E perdere, e ricominciare ancora dall’inizio
senza mai emettere una parola sulla tua perdita.
Se sei capace di costringere il tuo cuore, nervo e tendine
nel servire il tuo intento quando da tempo sono sfiancati,
E di tenere duro quando in te non c’è più niente
Eccetto la Volontà che dice loro: “Tenete duro!”

Se sei capace di parlare alle masse e mantenere la tua virtù,
O passeggiare con i Re – senza perdere la tua empatia per la gente,
Se né i nemici né gli amici più amati possono ferirti,
Se ogni persona per te conterà, ma nessuno in eccesso.
Se sei capace di colmare ogni inesorabile minuto
con ognuno dei sessanta secondi che vale la lunga corsa,
Tua è la Terra e tutto ciò che contiene,
E — che è molto di più — sarai un Uomo, figlio mio!

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​