Poetry International Poetry International
Poem

Aldo Nove

Goodbye my twentieth century (III)

There were things that appealed to us.
In utterable numbers.
As inside a conversation we,
the clouds, the comma’s. The list
was our horizon of events.
At the margins there was the present. In between, the years,
we called them ours. And ours too was the time,
livable.
Its borders were clear-cut,
there was life,

and after it came death. In this we believed.                                                                                                               

Addio mio novecento (III)

Addio mio novecento (III)

Le cose ci piacevano.
Ce n’erano in un numero dicibile.
Come all’interno di un discorso noi,
le nuvole, le virgole. L’elenco
era il nostro orizzonte degli eventi.
Ai margini, il presente. In mezzo gli anni,
li chiamavamo i nostri.
Ed era nostro il tempo
vivible.
I confini erano netti,
c’era la vita,

e poi la morte. Credevamo in questo.
Close

Goodbye my twentieth century (III)

There were things that appealed to us.
In utterable numbers.
As inside a conversation we,
the clouds, the comma’s. The list
was our horizon of events.
At the margins there was the present. In between, the years,
we called them ours. And ours too was the time,
livable.
Its borders were clear-cut,
there was life,

and after it came death. In this we believed.                                                                                                               

Goodbye my twentieth century (III)

There were things that appealed to us.
In utterable numbers.
As inside a conversation we,
the clouds, the comma’s. The list
was our horizon of events.
At the margins there was the present. In between, the years,
we called them ours. And ours too was the time,
livable.
Its borders were clear-cut,
there was life,

and after it came death. In this we believed.                                                                                                               
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