Eugenio Montale, 'Spesso il male di vivere', 'The ill of living', English Translation

From "Ossi di seppia" (1925)

Original cover

Spesso il male di vivere...

Spesso il male di vivere ho incontrato:

era il rivo strozzato che gorgoglia,

era l'incartocciarsi della foglia

riarsa, era il cavallo stramazzato.

Bene non seppi, fuori del prodigio

che schiude la divina Indifferenza:

era la statua nella sonnolenza

del meriggio, e la nuvola, e il falco alto levato. 

by Eugenio Montale (1896-1981)

From "Cuttlefish bones" (1925)

Often the ill of living...

Often have I met the ill of living:

it was the choked stream that gurgles,

it was the shriveling of a leaf,

parched, it was the horse, crashed.

Good I have not known, outside the miracle

which discloses divine's Indifference:

it was the statue in the somnolence

of noon, and the cloud, and the lofty hawk.

Translation by A. Baruffi, Literary Joint