December, a Poem (English and Italian edition)

Edvard Munch's "New Snow in the Avenue,"  1906, Munch Museum, Oslo, Norway.

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December

I climbed back up the steep path of the mountain

Much long after the last shepherd

Had descended it to lead

His flocks back to the homestead.

The woods in the mist of December

Were dark, bare ghosts

Which I was crossing through with the firm
And light feet of the vagrant.

In the wind, which was blowing all around

With a breath of ice,

It seemed as if the dead were beckoning us:

Their call descended the bare peaks.

I felt within a peace of other worlds,

As, undauntedly, I ascended, ascended, ascended.

Original Italian version below:

Dicembre

Ho risalito l’irto sentiero della montagna

Molto tempo dopo che l’ultimo pastore

Lo aveva disceso per ricondurre

Le sue greggi al casolare.

I boschi nella bruma di dicembre

Erano scuri spiriti denudati

Che attraversavo col piè fermo

E leggero del viandante.

Nel vento, che spirava tutt’intorno

E aveva il respiro del ghiaccio,

pareva che i morti ci chiamassero:

Il loro invito discendeva dalle spoglie vette.

Sentii nel cuore una pace d’altri mondi

Mentre imperterrito, salivo, salivo, salivo.