Anita Hotchkiss
September 30, 2019
Veglia
Commentary:
In this free verse poem, with little punctuation, Ungaretti describes a WWI soldier (perhaps himself) who must spend the entire night in a trench close to the body of a dead (massacred) comrade whose mouth with gritted teeth, frozen by rigor mortis, is turned toward the full moon. This close proximity to violent death makes the narrator feel so incredibly alive that he spends the night writing letters full of love. Thus, the imminent presence of death makes us appreciate/feel life. Although the poem does not have a traditional rhyme scheme, Ungaretti’s words when read aloud – nottata, buttato, massacrato, disgrignata, penetrata, stato, attaccato – sound almost like the machine-gun fire that peppered the trenches incessantly – an effect that is almost impossible to replicate in translation. To do so would require an entirely new English vocabulary for the poem.
Literal Translation:
Vigil
An entire night
thrown close
to a companion
massacred
with his mouth
gritted
turned to the full moon,
with the congestion
of his hands
penetrated
in my silence
I wrote
letters full of love.
I have never been
so
attached to life.
Communicative Translation:
Vigil
For an entire night
thrown beside
a comrade
massacred
with his gritted mouth
turned toward the full moon,
his engorged hands
invading my silence
I wrote letters full of love.
I have never been
so
attached to life.
Translation Choices:
I chose to leave the word “massacred” in a line by itself, rather than simply say “a massacred comrade” because Ungaretti felt this word deserved an entire line, and perhaps a pause, so I respected his choice. I did not try to replicate the staccato cadence because I felt it was impossible. Rather, I felt the message of the contrast between the ghastliness of death and the intense feeling of life was the most important thing to convey. In fact, I could perhaps have used the words “ghastly mouth” rather than “gritted mouth” (by which I understood him to be saying “gritted teeth.”) I used the word “invading” rather than “penetrating” because it seemed to me to convey better what I felt Ungaretti was trying to say about the horror of death forcing itself into his very being.
Soldati
Commentary (subject, style, metaphors, rhetorical figures, most relevant features):
This entire poem, also in free verse, is a metaphor in which Ungaretti compares living soldiers to autumn leaves. There are millions of them, virtually indistinguishable, withering and dying on the trees. They will soon be blown off by successive winds, or they will just fall and be scattered along the ground, to be crumbled and become part of the earth. Some will hang on to the trees longer than others, perhaps even into the winter, but they too are dead. The poem is a polemic against war.
Literal Translation:
Soldiers
They are like
in autumn
on the trees
the leaves.
Communicative Translation:
Soldiers
They are like
autumn leaves
on the trees.
Translation Choices:
I changed very little in the poem but merely re-arranged the words to maintain the metaphor in a form more readable in English. I also considered “they are like the leaves on the trees in autumn” but I felt that the importance of the season in the metaphor was such that the idea of “autumn” needed to be primary, even if reduced to an adjective. I thought of the song “Autumn Leaves” as I chose this word order. I am not sure why Ungaretti chose the word order he did, instead of “si sta come le foglie d’autunno sugli alberi.” Perhaps this was to primatize the season, which by itself carries the implication of approaching death.