On May 23rd, 1915 Italy declared war on
Austria-Hungary, joining the Allies in The Great War (Italy would not declare
war on Germany until 28 August, 1916). In August 1914 when the war began, despite Italy's alliances with
Germany and Austria-Hungary, it remained neutral. Both the Central Powers and the Allies worked
to persuade Italy to join their side, and in the secret Treaty of London of April
1915, the Allies promised Italy significant territorial gains held by the
Austria-Hungarian Empire, including parts of Tyrol and Dalmatia, as well as the
port of Trieste.
Italian Front |
Vigil
by
Giuseppe Ungaretti
crouched
close
to
one of our men
butchered
with
his clenched
mouth
grinning
at the full moon
with
the congestion
of
his hands
thrust
right
into
my silence
I've
written
letters
filled with love
I
have never been
so
coupled
to life.
Cima
Quattro, 23 December 1915
Translated by Jonathan Griffin -- here is the poem in Italian.
Numerous
poems from the First World War describe the experience of lying with a dead
comrade (Rickword's "Trench Poets" is just one example). Ungaretti's poem is unsettling when it portrays
the dead comrade as less than human:
like an animal, he has been "butchered," and his clenched
mouth "grinning at the full moon" seems more like that of a gargoyle than a
man.
But
the last lines of the poem are the most shocking, using metaphors of romance
to capture the experience, comparing it to the outpouring of emotion in
"letters filled with love." With tenderness and deep feeling, the
night has been seared into the surviving soldier's memory as one in which a corpse profoundly demonstrates what it means to be alive. In his vigil with the dead, more than ever before, he recognizes himself like a lover "coupled" to life.
Giuseppe Ungaretti |
I've only read one book about the Italian front and it did, indeed, sound brutal.
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading and responding -- this poem packs more complex emotion in its short lines than nearly any other I've read.
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