Rainy fields and hills. It was summer

yesterday, a beautiful, great summer. And now:

the season has suddenly changed.

It cries of what was yesterday’s smile

of the world. In the sky, uninterrupted and slowly

the clouds’ parting tells of summer,

a finished joy.

Where has your life gone,

with all its suffering,

with its smiling allure,

with its serenity?

Ancient obscure

the steep-sloped city appears to you.

On the horizon, a sea

shimmering water? Or tears shimmering in your eyes?

That I be with you, near you

me, unanticipated, I be with you? Yesterday

was a beautiful summer, today different

images of everything. And thoughts

drift to the world’s lonely, to prisoners,

to nostalgic sailors,

to adverse fortune. And even, the heart feels it.

Florence, 1906

By publishing these verses written about 50 years ago, we return to the source of the unmistakable vein that animates the pages of Il Canzoniere by the Trieste-born poet, paying an unusual homage to our readers with his poetic voice which was a constant companion from the beginning of our century. After his work Uccelli-Quasi un racconto, edited by Mondadori in 1952, his voice has been silent. Of the many definitions of his own poetry that Saba has written in verse, the faithful reader can now choose that of the oak tree that “ancient resists decay” and takes this as an auspicious omen for Mankind.