Renzo Novatore
(fragments unpublished in Novatore’s lifetimes)
Here is the vast, tranquil sea, my calm and peaceful sea!
Small boats already flank the smiling cliffs.
How frail and elegant the small boats are!
Oh my pale and melancholy friends with titanic, heroic hearts, come, come! My hour has come and found me at peace. Already the fishermen with beautiful silver hair have arrived on the sun-drenched sands of the beach. Don’t you see the golden oars there as they shine in the sun? Don’t you see that up there in the distance, the bride is smiling down at us?
Here I sit, waiting for you!
*
So have you arrived?
I have never seen a sky as serene as your faces, my friends! How beautiful it is to understand each other and to depart together, unarmed, on such a long journey…
*
Everything is ready! Honey and sweet drinks for our children and fresh roses for the immaculate face of out bride. Let’s go then, oh friends, Eternity awaits our roses!
How could we die yet again after we have celebrated our wedding with Eternity and prepared the sweetest drinks for our immortal children?
*
We are alone, alone. I am on a small boat lost at sea. There is no more dawn, or dusk, or destination! In the depths, in the heights and where they meet, we have only sun. Light, heat, greatness, depth and distance! What do you think, friends? Aren’t you happy, then? Don’t you see all this magnificent, endless space?
And the roses, where are the roses?
Don’t you feel Eternity’s highest kiss brushing your forehead? Don’t you hear her demanding the bride’s crown?
*
Oh! What a poor, what a miserable thing was that arid land where we once lived! Do you still remember it, my friends?
Down there the sun rose and night fell! Down there men measured time. Oh! friends, friends! I am assailed by an infinite pity for that poor land!
No… let’s forget.
*
How many thousands of years will it be, my friends, that we float on the waves of these vast depths which rise up to the regions of the sun; up above the sun? And how many thousands of years will we yet live?
Oh! jolly Eternity, endless, happy now!
https://sites.google.com/site/anarchyinitaly/renzo-novatore/eternity-s-song