Wallace Stevens - Tredici maniere di guardare un merlo

VI.
Riempivano i ghiaccioli il finestrone
Di barbarico vetro,
Dove l'ombra del merlo
Trascorse e ritrascorse.
Scovò lo stato d'animo
Cagione indecifrabile
Nell'ombra.

VII.
O esigui uomini d'Haddam,
Perché vi figurate uccelli d'oro?
Non vedete che il merlo
Cammina intorno ai piedi delle donne
Che vi circondano?

VIII.
Io so nobili accenti
E ritmi luminosi e inevitabili:
Però noto m'è pure
Che il merlo è coinvolto
Nelle cose ch'io so.

IX.
Quando scomparve a volo,
Il merlo segnò il margine
D'uno di vari circoli.

X.
Alla vista dei merli
Volanti in verde luce,
Fin l'orgie d'eufonia
Davano un grido acuto.

XI.
Viaggiò per il Connecticut
In un cocchio di vetro.
Una volta lo strinse lo sgomento,
Quando prese in isbaglio
L'ombra del suo equipaggio
Per un volo di merli.

XII.
II fiume trasalisce:
Deve volare il merlo in questo istante.

XIII.
Fu vespero l'intero pomeriggio.
Nevicava,
Per nevicare ancora.
Ed il merlo s'assise
Fra le membra del cedro.

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird

I.
Among twenty snowy mountains,
The only moving thing
Was the eye of the blackbird.

II.
I was of three minds,
Like a tree
In which there are three blackbirds.

III.
The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds.
It was a small part of the pantomime.

IV.
A man and a woman
Are one.
A man and a woman and a blackbird.
Are one.

V.
I do not know which to prefer,
The beauty of inflections
Or the beauty of innuendoes,
The blackbird whistling
Or just after.

VI.
Icicles filled the long window
With barbaric glass.
The shadow of the blackbird
Crossed it, to and fro.
The mood
Traced in the shadow
An indecipherable cause.

VII.
O thin men of Haddam,
Why do you imagine golden birds?
Do you not see how the blackbird
Walks around the feet
Of the women about you?

VIII.
I know noble accents
And lucid, inescapable rhythms;
But I know, too,
That the blackbird is involved
In what I know.

IX.
When the blackbird flew out of sight,
It marked the edge
Of one of many circles.

X.
At the sight of blackbirds .
Flying in a green light,
Even the bawds of euphony
Would cry out sharply.

XI.
He rode over Connecticut
In a glass coach.
Once, a fear pierced him,
In that he mistook
The shadow of his equipage
For blackbirds.

XII.
The river is moving.
The blackbird must be flying.

XIII.
It was evening all afternoon.
It was snowing
And it was going to snow.
The blackbird sat
In the cedar-limbs.