Lettre-poème

          by Guillaume Apollinaire
English and Italian translations by Justin Vitiello

 

Letter-Poem

My poor eyes are full of you
As a swamp is with moonlight

and I adore you on bended knee
you blonde seeming so dark

 

 

Lettra Poesia

 

Pieni di te ho i poveri miei occhi

come un pantano è di lume di luna

E ti adoro piegato sui ginocchi

o bionda che sei bionda e sembri bruna

 

Lettre-poème

 

Mes pauvres yeux sont pleins de vous

Comme un étang de clair de lune

Et je vous prie à deux genoux

Ô blonde qui paraissez brune.

Translator: J ustin Vitiello, Professor Emeritus of Italian, taught for many years at Temple in both
Philadelphia and Rome.  A poet and translator working primarily in English, Italian and Spanish, he has
translated texts between all of these languages in addition to Latin, Italian dialects, and French.  His
published collections include Il carro del pesce di Vanzetti (1989), subsequently translated as Vanzetti’s
Fish Cart (1993);  Subway Home (1994), translated into Italian in 1998; Suicidio di un poeta etnico /
Suicide of an Ethnic Poet (2004); and Amapolas y cardos / Poppies and Thistles (2006).