Fratelli
Before reading the poem “Fratelli” I did some research on Giuseppe Ungaretti to understand when the poem was written and to hopefully get context clues. Discovering that he served in World War I influenced my perception of the poem. I perceived “Fratelli” to be a poem about how during war, everyone is a brother to one another, no matter what unit they are on or who they are. The poem also speaks about how fragile men are during the war. Ungaretti’s poems are short and the reader has to read deeply to understand the point he is making. In this particular poem, it was clear that it was about soldiers at war, but it took much analyzing for me to have a deeper understanding of the poem.
Literal translation:
Brothers
What regiment are you
brothers?
Word trembling
in the night.
Leaf now born.
In the spasmic air
involuntary revolts
of man present at his
fragility.
Brothers.
Communicative translation:
Brothers
What regiment are you
brothers?
Trembling word
in the night.
New leaf is born.
In the uneasy air
Involuntary rebellion
of a fragile man.
Brothers.
My communicative translation was a close version to my literal translation of the poem. I thought that it was important for me to keep the poem short and to the point, and not as important to keep any rhythmic scheme because it did not have as large of a role in the poem.
Soldati
The Poem “Soldiers” is very short and contains a minimal amount of words, which follows his style of writing. In my opinion the minimal amount of words makes this piece even more moving. Ungaretti compares the soldiers to leaves in autumn. He doesn’t specifically say in the poem that it is the soldiers are what he is comparing to the leaves in autumn, but because the title translates to “soldiers”, I assume that is what he means. I think that he means the soldiers will end up dying in war, just as leaves fall off of the branches and die during and at the end of autumn.
Literal translation:
Soldiers
It is like
autumn
on the branches
the leaves
Communicative translation:
Soldiers
We are like
the leaves
on branches
in autumn
I changed the lines of the poem so that it sounded more poetic. I thought that keeping the poem at a minimal amount of words but making the words flow more would be a good choice.