TOM CLARK: Giuseppe Ungaretti: from Last Choruses for the Promised Land

Refugees are seen in the unofficial camp for migrants and refugees situated at the Athens 2004 Hellenikon Olympic complex within the old Athens airport in Hellinikon, Greece: photo by Milos Bicanski via FT, 13 June 2016

from Last choruses for the Promised Land

Thrown together in the moment the gone days and the days to come, years, centuries, the continual surprise

In knowing you're still alive and that life is always flowing like always unanticipated gift unexpected pain

In the continuous swirling vortex of perpetual change in a flash the instant exhuming and rediscovering time

So it goes for everyone who was ever here the voyage goes on in the blink of an eye in a flash the instant

Exhuming and reanimating all lost time from the beginning to this moment picking through ruins like the others

Fellow refugees who have been here one and one and one, who are here now, who are yet to come

Food riots and violent looting have become a daily occurrence across Venezuela: image via Reuters Top News @Reuters, 13 June 2016

Giuseppe Ungaretti: from Ultimi cori per la terra promessa

Agglutinati all'oggi
I giorni del passato
E gli altri che verranno,
Per anni e lungo secoli
Ogni mattino sorpresa

Nel sapere che ancora siamo in vita,
Che scorre sempre come sempre il vivere,
Dono e pena inattesi
Nel turbinìo continuo
Dei vani mutamenti.

Tale per nostra sorte
Il viaggio che proseguo,
In un battibaleno
Esumando, inventando
Da capo a fondo il tempo,
Profugo come gli altri
Che furono, che sono, che saranno.

Rome

Giuseppe Ungaretti (1888-1970): "Agglutinati all'oggi..." from Ultimi cori per la terra promessa (Last choruses for the Promised Land), 1952-1960, in Il taccuino del vecchio (The old man's notebook), 1960

Maadi district in Aleppo after being bombed by government forces this morning: photo by Baraa Al-Halabi: image via baraa al halabi @baraaalhalabi, 13 June 2016

World in focus – best photos for June 13, 2016

A Filipino pupil cries on the first day of school at a public school in Las Pinas City, south of Manila, Philippines: photo by Francis R Malasig / EPA, 13 June 2016

A homeless man eats next to other homeless people covered in blankets and sleeping on the street, on a cold night in Sao Paulo, Brazil, June 13, 2016. REUTERS/Nacho Doce

A homeless man eats next to other homeless people covered in blankets and sleeping on the street, Sao Paulo, Brazil: photo by Nacho Doce/Reuters, 13 June 2016

In this Sunday, June 12, 2016, photo, Nizam, 11, looks towards camera as he works at a factory that makes metal utensils in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Sunday, June 12, 2016. He earns less than $5 per week. The World Day Against Child Labor, which was initiated in 2002 by the International Labor Organization to highlight the plight of child laborers, is observed across the world on June 12. (AP Photo/ A.M. Ahad)

Nizam, 11, looks towards camera as he works at a factory that makes metal utensils in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Nizam earns less than $5 per week: photo by A.M. Ahad/AP, 13 June 2016

A Malaysian Muslim woman attends an afternoon prayers at the Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin mosque in Putrajaya on June 13, 2016. Islam's holy month of Ramadan is celebrated by Muslims worldwide marked by fasting, abstaining from foods, sex and smoking from dawn to dusk for soul cleansing and strengthening the spiritual bond between them and the Almighty. / AFP PHOTO / MOHD RASFANMOHD RASFAN/AFP/Getty Images

A Malaysian Muslim woman attends afternoon prayers at the Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin mosque in Putrajaya: photo by Mohd Rasfan/AFP, 13 June 2016

epaselect epa05360870 An image rotated 180 degrees shows raindrops on a car window reflecting pedestrians walking past a stock market indicator board in Tokyo, Japan, 13 June 2016. Japan's stocks dropped sharply due to a stronger yen and worries on the 'Brexit' possibility. The benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average lost 582.18 points, or 3.51 percent, to close at 16,019.18. EPA/FRANCK ROBICHON

Raindrops on a car window reflect pedestrians walking past a stock market indicator board in Tokyo, Japan. Japan’s stocks dropped sharply due to a stronger yen and worries on the ‘Brexit’ possibility: photo by Franck Robichon/EPA, 13 June 2016

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Raindrops on a car window reflect pedestrians walking past a stock market indicator board in Tokyo, Japan. Japan’s stocks dropped sharply due to a stronger yen and worries on the ‘Brexit’ possibility: photo by Franck Robichon/EPA, 13 June 2016

An image rotated 180 degrees shows raindrops on a car window reflecting pedestrians walking past a stock market indicator board in Tokyo, Japan: photo by Frank Robichon / EPA, 13 June 2016

Paramilitary policemen take part in a training session in Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China, June 12, 2016. China Daily/via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. EDITORIAL USE ONLY. CHINA OUT.

Paramilitary policemen take part in a training session in Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China: photo by China Daily/Reuters, 13 June 2016

Rubel, 12, works at a factory that makes metal utensils in Dhaka, Bangladesh: photo by AM Ahad / AP, 13 June 2016

epa05360986 The double-amputee Olympian Oscar Pistorius sits in the dock during his sentencing hearing at the high court in Pretoria, South Africa 13 June 2016. The Supreme Court of South Africa overturned the High Court's verdict in December 2015, where Pistorius now faces sentencing for murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp on 13 February 2013. EPA/THEMBA HADEBA / POOL

The double-amputee Olympian Oscar Pistorius sits in the dock during his sentencing hearing at the high court in Pretoria, South Africa: photo by Hemba Hadeba/Pool/EPA, 13 June 2016

Football Soccer - Spain v Czech Republic - EURO 2016 - Group D - Stadium de Toulouse, Toulouse, France - 13/6/16 Spain's Sergio Ramos in action with Czech Republic's Tomas Necid REUTERS/Albert Gea Livepic

France Spain’s Sergio Ramos in action with Czech Republic’s Tomas Necid as Spain plays Czech Republic in the EURO 2016 at Stadium de Toulouse, France: photo by Albert Gea Livepic/Reuters, 13 June 2016

GREECE - A boy plays with a damaged football net in the makeshift camp at the old Athens airport. By @lgouliam #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 13 June 201

BANGLADESH- A man arrested during nationwide crackdown on militants looks out of a prison van in Dhaka. By @AFPphoto: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 13 June 2016

SYRIA - Five children are among 21 civilians killed in air strikes on a market in Idlib. By @omarnajdat #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 13 June 2016

Workers cook at a charity kitchen in the Eastern #Ghoita area. #Ramadan #Syria #Douma Ph: @SameerAlDoumy: image via Sameer Al-Doumy @SameerAlDoumy, 9 June 2016

SYRIA - Men offload aid from a lorry into a storage room after an aid convoy entered in Douma. By @SameerAlDoumy: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 11 June 2016

Workers cook at a charity kitchen in the Eastern #Ghoita area. #Ramadan #Syria #Douma Ph: @SameerAlDoumy / @AFPphoto: image via Sameer Al-Doumy @SameerAlDoumy, 13 June 2016

Civilians working to remove the rubble after air strikes on #Douma, June 13, 2016. Ph: @SameerAlDoumy: image via Sameer Al-Doumy @SameerAlDoumy, 13 June 2016

AFGHANISTAN - A Muslim distributed food as others break their fast during Ramadan in Kabul. By @kohsar #AFP: image via AFP Photo Department @AFPphoto, 13 June 2016

We shouldn't disconnect San Bernardino and Orlando from the gun violence epidemic in the US: image via Reuters Opinion @ReutersOpinion, 13 June 2016

Russian hooligans see themselves as Kremlin foot soldiers: image via Reuters Top News @Reuters, 13 June 2016

Water Mountain (Mantviliskis, Kaunas County, Lithuania): photo by Darius Batulevicius, 13 June 2016

1 comment:

TC14 June 2016 at 13:32
This section from Ungaretti's Choruses for the Promised Land, the first section in the sequence as the poet put it together for publication in 1960, was written in 1959 after a brief return trip to Egypt, land of his birth. In a note Ungaretti suggested this was one of three "choruses" inspired in particular by the desert necropolis of Sakkarah.

The long poem had occupied him since 1935; the original edition of The Promised Land had appeared in 1950.

The English version that appears here is the work of TC.

Tuesday, 14 June 2016

Giuseppe Ungaretti: from Last Choruses for the Promised Land

1 comment: