In Memoria¶
Si chiamava
Moammed Sceab
Discendente
di emiri di nomadi
suicida
perché non aveva più
Patria
Amò la Francia
e mutò nome
Fu Marcel
ma non era Francese
e non sapeva più
vivere
nella tenda dei suoi
dove si ascolta la cantilena
del Corano
gustando un caffè
E non sapeva
sciogliere
il canto
del suo abbandono
L’ho accompagnato
insieme alla padrona dell’albergo
dove abitavamo
a Parigi
dal numero 5 della rue des Carmes
appassito vicolo in discesa.
Riposa
nel camposanto d’Ivry
sobborgo che pare
sempre
in una giornata
di una
decomposta fiera
E forse io solo
so ancora
che visse
His name was
Moammed Sceab
Descendant
of emirs of nomads
committed suicide
because he no longer had
a Homeland
He loved France
and changed his name
He became Marcel
but wasn't French
and he could no longer
live
in the bell tent of his folk
where they listened to the chanting
of the Koran
enjoying a cup of coffee
And he couldn't
release
the song
of his loneliness
I walked with him
together with the owner of the hotel
in which we lived
in Paris
to number 5 of Rue de Carmes
a withered downhill alley.
He rests
in the cemetery of Ivry
a suburb which seems
always
in a day
of a
decomposed fair
And maybe I am the only one
who still knows
he lived
– Giuseppe Ungaretti (1888 - 1970)
Listen to the poem (mp3, read by Beauty Wanitta)
