Antologia di Spoon River

Edgar Lee Masters

• Editore: BUR
• Anno: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9788817165815
• eBook ISBN: 9788858666456

Da quando Cesare Pavese la presentò nel 1941 nella bella traduzione di Fernanda Pivano, Spoon River Anthology non ha conosciuto soste nella fortuna presso il pubblico dei lettori italiani. E il segreto sta probabilmente nella poetica, universale verità dei personaggi di quella che è stata definita la commedia umana degli Stati Uniti. Spoon River è qualcosa infatti tra la lirica e la narrativa. La storia di una piccola città americana con le sue mille vite, ognuna chiusa nel suo dramma e raccontata attraverso le lapidi del suo cimitero. Con testo a fronte.

SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY

Il testo inglese qui riprodotto è tratto da: Spoon River Anthology, a cura di M. Swenson, New York, Collier-Macmillan, 1969.

(Vai alla traduzione in italiano)

The Hill

(Traduzione in italiano)

Where are Elmer, Herman, Bert, Tom and Charley,

The weak of will, the strong of arm, the clown, the boozer, the fighter?

All, all, are sleeping on the hill.

One passed in a fever,

One was burned in a mine, 5 It

One was killed in a brawl,

One died in a jail,

One fell from a bridge toiling for children and wife –

All, all are sleeping, sleeping, sleeping on the hill.

Where are Ella, Kate, Mag, Lizzie and Edith, 10 It

The tender heart, the simple soul, the loud, the proud, the happy one? –

All, all, are sleeping on the hill.

One died in shameful child-birth,

One of a thwarted love,

One at the hands of a brute in a brothel, 15 It

One of a broken pride, in the search for heart’s desire,

One after life in far-away London and Paris

Was brought to her little space by Ella and Kate and Mag –

All, all are sleeping, sleeping, sleeping on the hill

Where are Uncle Isaac and Aunt Emily, 20 It

And old Towny Kincaid and Sevigne Houghton,

And Major Walker who had talked

With venerable men of the revolution? –

All, all, are sleeping on the hill.

They brought them dead sons from the war, 25 It

And daughters whom life had crushed,

And their children fatherless, crying –

All, all are sleeping, sleeping, sleeping on the hill.

Where is Old Fiddler Jones

Who played with life all his ninety years, 30 It

Braving the sleet with bared breast,

Drinking, rioting, thinking neither of wife nor kin,

Nor gold, nor love, nor heaven?

Lol he babbles of the fish-frys of long ago,

Of the horse-races of long ago at Clary’s Grove, 35 It

Of “what Abe Lincoln said

One time at Springfield.

Hod Putt

(Traduzione in italiano)

Here I lie close to the grave

Of Old Bill Piersol,

Who grew rich trading with the Indians, and who

Afterwards took the bankrupt law

And emerged from it richer than ever. 5 It

Myself grown tired of toil and poverty

And beholding how Old Bill and others grew in wealth,

Robbed a traveler one night near Proctor’s Grove,

Killing him unwittingly while doing so,

For the which I was tried and hanged. 10 It

That was my way of going into bankruptcy.

Now we who took the bankrupt law in our respective ways

Sleep peacefully side by side.

Ollie McGee

(Traduzione in italiano)

Have you seen walking through the village

A man with downcast eyes and haggard face?

That is my husband who, by secret cruelty

Never to be told, robbed me of my youth and my beauty;

Till at last, wrinkled and with yellow teeth, 5 It

And with broken pride and shameful humility,

I sank into the grave.

But what think you gnaws at my husband’s heart?

The face of what I was, the face of what he made me!

These are driving him to the place where I lie. 10 It

In death, therefore, I am avenged.

Fletcher McGee

(Traduzione in italiano)

She took my strength by minutes,

She took my life by hours,

She drained me like a fevered moon

That saps the spinning world.

The days went by like shadows, 5 It

The minutes wheeled like stars.

She took the pity from my heart,

And made it into smiles.

She was a hunk of sculptor’s clay,

My secret thoughts were fingers: 10 It

They flew behind her pensive brow

And lined it deep with pain.

They set the lips, and sagged the cheeks,

And drooped the eyes with...

Indice dei contenuti

• Copertina
• Frontespizio
• Cronologia della vita e delle opere di Edgar Lee Masters
• Introduzione
• Giudizi critici
• Bibliografia essenziale
• ANTOLOGIA DI SPOON RIVER
• SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY