Pietro Zimmitti – The Infinity

Pietro Zimmitti – Master in Management student. IE Business School.

Reading:
The Infinity (L´Infinito) by Giacomo Leopardi (1798 – 1837).

This lonely hill has always been dear to me
And this hedge, which bars the horizon’s view,
I think of them often, both the longings they renew
While seated here, and when, the end in view,

I watch the distant sea, and in my mind
I measure unending space beyond.
The silences I hear are like a sound,
And depth seems but a moment in my mind.

Eternity, which yet seems so remote,
Is in my thoughts, and time’s inexorable stream,
Its life, its sound, its constant rhyme
Are like the reef that underlies my dream.

Thus, while the spirit plunges into this abyss
And in the midst of the infinite my thoughts drown,
I feel an overwhelming happiness around,
To be here like a shipwrecked sailor on the sea.

—

Sempre caro mi fu quest’ermo colle,
e questa siepe, che da tanta parte
dell’ultimo orizzonte il guardo esclude.

Ma sedendo e mirando, interminati
spazi di là da quella, e sovrumani
silenzi, e profondissima quiete
io nel pensier mi fingo, ove per poco il cor non si spaura.

E come il vento odo stormir tra queste piante,
io quello infinito silenzio a questa voce vo comparando:
e mi sovvien l’eterno, e le morte stagioni, e la presente e viva, e il suon di lei.

Così tra questa immensità s’annega il pensier mio:
e il naufragar m’è dolce in questo mare.