Poems of Giosuè Carducci, Translated with two introductory essays: / I. Giosuè Carducci and the Hellenic reaction in Italy. II. Carducci and the classic realism

Chapter 39: XXX VOICE OF GOD

Open in WeRead

Explore more books like this:

About This Book

The volume opens with two essays that analyze the poet's Hellenic revival and his classic-realist aesthetic, situating his work amid tensions between ecclesiastical influence, chivalric import, and native national feeling. It then presents translations of numerous poems—hymns, sonnets, dedicatory pieces, patriotic and religious lyrics, and descriptive sketches—covering classical subjects, Dantean and Virgilian allusions, personal reflection, and social observation. Together the critical essays and translated poems emphasize classical forms, historical memory, and a restrained realism that seeks to renew Italian literary identity.

XXX VOICE OF GOD

Hark! In the temple the voice of God is sounding.

“O people of one speech and one endeavour

Yours is the land with my best gifts abounding

Whereon the smile of heaven is resting ever!

“Away the armed hosts your gates surrounding!

The barbarous hordes that come your speech to sever,

To raze the fortunes of your fathers' founding,

And call you slaves! That will I pardon never!

“Rather within your tombs the flame be stirred

As from an awful flash in heaven burning,

Such as gave forth the Maccabean's word.”

Hail Voice divine! be ours the quick discerning

Of what thy message means: in thee be heard

Savonarola's spirit to us returning!

Juvenilia.