(Mariano, Italy, 15 July 1916)

Note: Translated by Patrick Creagh

Ungaretti, in the trenches during WW1, grasps the very core of humanity and communication. With this typically short, yet always diversely translatable poem, he transcends the horror of the trenches and reaches out, letting the spoken word carry his mixture of anxiety, isolation and hope, through darkness and hell, searching for signs of life, embodying to me at least, the very central theme, always present in human consciousness and fickle presence on this planet, we call earth. His symbolism seems to me so genial, I cannot dissect it or describe it closer. It just grips me and I wanted to share it with you….brothers and sisters…..:-}

Regards from tetriano, Denmark

Martin adds

The collection at http://www.worldwar1.com/sfip1.htm has an another translation of the poem, with the two lines near the end

  of the man present at his
  brittleness

I love the use of “present at”, but it has a ‘deliberately poetic’ ring that “face to face with” does not - I have to wonder which one carries the flavour of the original better. Also, Creagh has “man” where the other translation has “the man” - a possibly significant difference that reminds me once again how non-trivial the work of translating a poem is.

Biography

Giuseppe Ungaretti, 1888-1970

    A literary minimalist, Giuseepe Ungaretti is considered by some critics
 the greatest Italian poet of the 20th Century. He served an infantryman on
 the lower Isonzo front with the 3rd Army from 1915 until early 1918. In the
 spring, he was transferred to the Western Front where Italian forces fought
 with distinction. In his most famous war poem, RIVERS, he alludes to his
 birth in Egypt, his youth in Tuscany and his service on both fronts during
 the Great War. Ungaretti's pure style was achieved by condensation to
 essentials and is in the tradition of the French Symbolists. His works are
 collected in the 2 volumes of LIFE OF A MAN portions of which are available
 in English translation.

– http://www.worldwar1.com/sfip1.htm