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From
the Italian of GIOVANNI PASCOLI
FINAL
DREAM
A
railway noise, trains shunting in one place,
an
infinite, jarring clangour and ado;
vibrations
uncontrolled distorting space . . .
from
this a sudden silence. I was through.
The
thick and sudden drench of illness died
in
one last breath. My eyes moved as I lazed
at
peace upon that sickbed; at my side
I
saw my mother and was not amazed.
Freedom!
... without an ounce of strength should I
wish
to unfold the hands beneath my chin:
but
I had no such wish. There was a sigh
as
though of cypresses, insistent, thin;
or
stream on a wide plain which sought to flow
out
to an ocean that was non-existent:
I
went where its bare whispering might go,
always
the same, always and ever distant.
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