"Bouquet of Blue Thistles" di Sophie Grandval

«Lascia che l’anima rimanga fiera e composta di fronte ad un milione di universi.» Walt Whitman

 "When I heard the learned astronomer"

                                                                                                         When I heard the learned astronomer,

When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,

When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and

measure them,

When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much

Applause in the lecture-room,

How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,

Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself,

In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,

look’d up in perfect silent the stars.

***

                                                                                                          Quando udii il dotto astronomo,

Quando le prove e le cifre mi vennero incolonnate dinanzi,

Quando mi mostrarono le carte e i diagrammi, da addizionare,

dividere, calcolare,

Quando seduto nell’anfiteatro udii l’astronomo parlare e venir

a lungo applaudito,

Come improvvisamente, inesplicabilmente, mi sentii stanco,

disgustato,

Finché, alzatomi, fuori scivolando me ne uscii tutto solo,

Nella mistica umida aria notturna e, di tratto in tratto,

Alzavo gli occhi a contemplare in silenzio le stelle.

                                                                                                                                                        WALT WITHMAN