Lock of Hair Found

                       By Guillaume Apollinaire

              English and Italian Translation by Justin Vitiello

Lock of Hair Found

 

In memory he finds the lock

of brown hair – do you recall?

Amazing, our strange destinies

intertwine…

 

                            Yes, in

Auteuil, Montmartre,

on Chapel Boulevard

                                          yes,

I recall the day, she murmurs,

when I crossed your threshold…

 

As one more autumn falls,

the lock, my memory, wafts

and our fates are one,

amazing for one more day

that soon spills over…

 

 

La Boucle retrouvée

 

Il retrouve dans sa mémoire
La boucle de cheveux châtains
T'en souvient-il à n’y point croire
De nos deux étranges destins?

 

Du boulevard de la Chapelle
Du joli Montmartre et d'Auteuil
Je me souviens murmure-t-elle
Du jour où j'ai franchi ton seuil

 

Il y tomba comme un automne
La boucle de mon souvenir
Et notre destin qui t'étonne
Se joint au jour qui va finir

 

 

 

La ciocca ritrovata

 

Nella memoria egli la ciocca trova

di capelli castani

Ricordi ? da non crederci, i due nostri

destini cosí strani

 

Sí, di Auteuil, di Montmartre e del vïale

della Cappella,

oh mi recordo il giorno, mormora ella,

che la tua soglia varcai

 

Come un autunno vi cadde sú la ciocca

del moi ricordo, e si unisce

il destino di noi che ti stupisce

al giorno che fra un po’ trabocca


Translator: Justin 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).