LiteraryJoint: "Il bove" (The Ox) by Giovanni Pascoli, from the collection "Myricae" (1891)

Monday, October 7, 2019

Cart with Black Ox, or The Ox-Cart (1884) by Vincent van Gogh

The Ox

Through vague haze, at the thin river

looks the ox, with big eyes: in the pasture

that recedes, to an ever-farther sea

run the waters of a cerulean river;

they magnify in his eyes, in the dust of

the light, the willow and the alder;

on the grass a herd of sheep passes by little by little

and it seems the herd of the ancient God:

wide wings conjure up rapacious sketches

in the air; silent chimeras float,

similar to clouds, in the deep heavens;

the immense sun behind the mountains

sets, tremendously high: they already grow, black,

the greater shadows of greater worlds.

Il Bove

Al rio sottile, di tra vaghe brume,

guarda il bove, coi grandi occhi: nel piano

che fugge, a un mare sempre più lontano

migrano l’acque d’un ceruleo fiume;

ingigantisce agli occhi suoi, nel lume

pulverulento, il salice e l’ontano;

svaria su l’erbe un gregge a mano a mano,

e par la mandra dell’antico nume:

ampie ali aprono imagini grifagne

nell’aria; vanno tacite chimere,

simili a nubi, per il ciel profondo;

il sole immenso, dietro le montagne

cala, altissime: crescono già, nere,

l’ombre più grandi d’un più grande mondo.

From the collection “Myricae” (1891-1900)