From the Fortress of Upper Bergamo

Had a go at this today. You can find the original, Dalla rocca di Bergamo alta, here

From the Fortress of Upper Bergamo 

(Salvatore Quasimodo)

You heard the cock crowing

from the other side of the walls, beyond the towers

chilled with a light alien to you –

lightning bolt, primal cry, the murmuring

of voices from the cells and the call

of the bird patrolling the dawn.

In a circle of briefest sun

you uttered no words for yourself.

Talismans of a new born world,

lost in malignant smoke,

the antelope and the heron held their tongues.

The February moon passed over 

a remembered earth, lit

in its own silence.  And you too

move among the cypresses of the fortress

without a sound, where anger

founders on the green of the young dead

and pity once distant is almost joy.

(Giorno dopo giorno, 1947)