Franz Kafka

Saturday, November 15, 2014

A few words on "A Late Walk" by Robert Frost, with a version in Italian, translated by LiteraryJoint.


"A Late Walk" carries all of the signs of Robert Frost's symbolism, as the reminiscence of a life that is dwindling is brought to the dimming light of dusk.
    In the last days of Fall, the farmer-poet returns home crossing the "mowing fields." Harvest is done, life almost accomplished, and what is left to see resembles the aftermath of an ancient battle: the headless "aftermath", which also refers to the second, or last haying of the year.
    All around, the entire Nature is seemingly mourning, for the poet forebodes where its path is actually leading him to. Yet, love endures and lives on, and has the power to take a man through the secluded, lonely walls, to allow him into the inner garden - the house comforted by warmth -, and re-encounter each other again, in this life and in its aftermath.


Robert Frost's "A Boy's Will", cover of a 1915 edition, Publisher: Henry Holt

A Late Walk

When I go up through the mowing field,
The headless aftermath,
Smooth-laid like thatch with the heavy dew,
Half closes the garden path.

And when I come to the garden ground,
The whir of sober birds
Up from the tangle of withered weeds
Is sadder than any words.

A tree beside the wall stands bare,
But a leaf that lingered brown,
Disturbed, I doubt not, by my thought,
Comes softly rattling down.

I end not far from my going forth
By picking the faded blue
Of the last remaining aster flower
To carry again to you.

By Robert Frost, from the collection "A Boy's Will", 1913

An Italian version:

A Late Walk (Una camminata sul tardi)


Quando risalgo traverso il campo falciato,
Quel che resta, mozzato dall'ultima fienagione,
Giace liscio come un tetto di paglia carico di rugiada,
Quasi chiude il sentiero dell'orto.
E quando giungo al quadro di terra,
Il sobrio fremere d'ali dei passeri
Che sale dal groviglio di erbe rinsecchite
E' più triste di qualunque parola.

Un albero accanto al muro si erge nudo,
Ma una foglia imbrunita che vi era ancora sospesa,
Disturbata, non dubito, dai miei pensieri,
Con un crepitio cade leggera.

Dal mio procedere mi scosto poco lontano
Cogliendo il blu ormai tenue
Dell'ultimo fiore d'astro che resta
Per portarlo ancora a te.

Robert Frost, dalla raccolta "A Boy's Will", 1913. Traduzione in Italiano a cura di Literary Joint.

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