Journal of Italian Translation - Brooklyn College - Academic Home ...

Tusiani/Alfieri 223
By merely flapping his most deadly wings.
His fatal buffetings,
From earth to sky, from pole to pole at war,
Raise an unshaken door
Against all happy air
That from some western shore may blow at all.
Who are you, evil monster, whose one care
Is but to see our hope’s ultimate fall?
V
Darkness, your step; your breath is death and fear;
Embers, your thousand eyes;
Numberless mouths you show, armed horribly
With many a gory fang that never dries;
All ears, you only hear
Abominable words of infamy
Which envy makes run free.
Bloody, and hooked, and also numberless,
Your most rapacious claws are e’er so thick,
Man’s flesh they tear and pick.
Who are you—say—who with such fear distress
Hearts hardened by duress?
Are then those few men called
To your ferocious meal, who sit in fear,
And, sated with your blood, filled with your gold,
Are free to feast on every human tear?
VI
I recognize you well (mine is no error) :
Though with your twisted eye
You bid me not reveal your horrid name,
You are the monster who can profit by
Fat ignorance and terror
Thin terror that can freeze and ever tame
The most audacious flame.
Tyranny is your name. ’Tis you enslave
These shores of ours, so sad and full of dread,
Where, living still, we’re dead,
And where to fight for you is to be brave;
Where wicked actions, save
Virtue, are praised, and where
False honors are the worthiness of yore;
Where cowardice seems boldly yet to fare,
And where men suffer for the truth they swore.