A Satana

To Satan  (English Translation)

Notes

 

A te, de l’essere Principio immenso, Materia e spirito, Ragione e senso;	To you, creation’s mighty principle, matter and spirit reason and sense	A toast! The poem was originally written as a dinner-party toast. It is easy to visualize the poet with glass raised as he recites the poem.
Mentre ne’ calici Il vin scintilla Si’come l’anima Ne la pupilla	Whilst the wine  sparkles in cups like the soul in the eye
Mentre sorridono La terra e il sole E si ricambiano D’amor parole	Whilst earth and sun exchange their smiles and words of love
E corre un fremito D’imene arcano Da’ monti e palpita Fecondo il piano;	And shudders from their secret embrace run down from the mountains, and the plain throbs with new life
A te disfrenasi Il verso ardito, Te invoco, o Satana Re del convito	To you my daring verses are unleashed, you I invoke, O Satan monarch of the feast.
Via l’aspersorio, Prete, e il tuo metro! No, prete, Satana Non toma in dietro!	Put aside your sprinkler, priest, and your litanies! No, priest, Satan does not retreat!	Against Satan, priests have no power.
Vedi: la ruginne Rode e Michele Il brando mistico Ed il fedele	Behold! Rust erodes the mystic sword of Michael and the faithful	Even the Archangel Michael, who led the army of faithful angels against Lucifer’s rebels, is deplumed and left with a rusted sword.
Spennato arcangelo Cade nel vano. Ghiacciato e’ fulmine A Geova in mano	Archangel, deplumed, drops into the void. The thunderbolt lies frozen in Jove’s hand	Even Jehovah himself is powerless.
Meteore pallide, Pianeti spenti, Piovono gli angeli Da I firmamenti	Like pale meteors, spent worlds, the angels drop from the firmament	The rebel angels descent to Earth from the heavens.
Ne la materia Che mai non dorme, Re de I fenomeni Re de le forme	In unsleeping matter, king of phenomena, monarch of form,	Satan is king of the physical, material realm.
Sol vive Satana. E tien ‘impero Nel lampo temulo D’un occhio nero,	Satan alone lives. He holds sway in the tremulous flash of some dark eye,	Satan’s realm or empire (“impero”) can be perceived wherever the life-force is in evidence:
O ver che languido Sfugga e resista, Od acre ed umido Pro’vochi, insista.	Or the eye which languidly turns and resists, or which, bright and moist, provokes, insists.	… in the flashing eye of a woman in a state of arousal,
Brilla de’ grappoli Nel lieto sangue, Per cui la rapida Gioia non langue,	He shines in the bright blood of grapes, by which transient joy persists,	… in the glimmer of a glass of wine, which makes us happy,
Che la fuggevole Vita ristora, Che il dolor proroga, Che amor ne incora	Which restores fleeting life, keeps grief at bay, and inspires us with love
Tu spiri, O Satana, Nel verso mio, Se dal sen rompeni Sfidando il dio	You breathe, O Satan in my verses, when from my heart explodes a challenge to the god	…and even in the blasphemous rebllious power of the poet’s own words.
De’ rei pontefici De’ re cruenti; E come fulmine Scuoti le menti.	Of wicked pontiffs, bloody kings; and like lightning you shock men’s minds.	Both popes and kings - the heads of authoritarian regimes - were loathed by the republican Carducci.
A te, Agramainiio, Adone, Astarte E marmi vissero E tele e carte,	Sculpture, painting and poetry first lived for you, Ahriman, Adonis and Astarte,
Quando le ioniche Aure serene Beo’ la Venere Anadiomene	When Venus Anadyomene blessed the clear Ionian skies	Venus Andadyomene (i.e. ‘emergent’) born from the foam of the seas around Cyprus represents Greek civilization.
A te del Libano Premean le piante, De l’alma Cipride Ristorto amante:	For you the trees of Lebannon shook, resurrected lover of the holy Cyprian:	Adonis, the lover of Venus (‘holy Cyprian’) was killed by a boar but resurrected by Jupiter at Venus’ request.
A te ferveano Le danze e i cori, A te ii virginei Candidi amori,	For you wild dances were done and choruses swelled for you virgins offered their spotless love,	Carducci understands the Greek festivals of Adonis as having originated along the Syria/Lebannon coast
Tra la odorifere Palme d’Idume Dove biancheggiano Le cipre spume.	Amongst the perfumed palms of Idumea where the Cyprian seas foam.	and its hinterland (‘Idumea”) - the region of ancient Phoenicia.
Che val se barbaro Il nazareno Furor de l’agapi Dal rito osceno	To what avail did the barbarous Christian fury of agape, in obscene ritual,	He points out that the Christian fanatic destruction of Satan’s pagan temples was of no avail because the Satanic religion of
Con sacra fiaccola I templi t’arse E ii segni argolici A terr sparse?	With holy torch burn down your temples, scattering their Greek statuary?	rationalism, fleshly pleasure, material good, and free inquiry survived ‘underground’.
Te accolse profugo Tra gli dei lari La plebe memore Ne I casolari	You, a refugee, the mindful people welcomed into their homes amongst their household gods
Quindi un femineo Sen palpitante Empiendo, fervido Nume ed amante,	Thereafter filling the throbbing female heart with your fervor as both god and lover
La strega pallida D’eterna cura Volgi a soccorrere L’egra naura.	You inspired the witch, pallid from endless enquiry, to succor suffering nature	Carducci sees the origin of modern medicine in the witch’s craft which healed the sick in olden times.
Tu a l’occhio immobile De l’alchimista tu de l’indocile Mago a la vista,	You, to the intent gaze of the alchemist, and to the skeptical eye of the sorcerer,	He also sees the beginnings of modern science in the essentially rationalist and secular fields of sorcery and alchemy.
Del chiostro torpido Oltre I cancelli, riveli I fulgidi Ciele novelli.	You revealed bright new heavens beyond the confines of the drowsy cloister.
A la Tebaide Te ne le cose Fuggendo, Il monaco Triste s’ascose	Fleeing from material things, where you reside, the dreary monk took refuge in the Theban desert.	The Theban desert of middle Egypt was a favored ascetic suffering ground for early Coptic Christian hermits.
O dal tuo tramite Alma divisa, Benigno e’ Satana; Ecco Eloisa.	To you O soul with your sprig severed, Satan is benign: he gives you your Heloise.	The poet here speaks to Abelard, a 13th c. Franciscan monk whose rational philosophy angered the church. His affair with Heloise got him castrated and exiled, but his Satan-given love of her persisted.
In van ti maceri Ne l’aspro sacco: Il verso ei mormora Di Maro e Flacco	You mortify yourself to no purpose,  in your rough sackcloth:  Satan still murmurs to you  lines from Maro and Flaccus	Maro and Flaccus are the poets Virgil and Horace. Licoris and Glycera are beautiful women of which they wrote..
Tra la davidica Nenia ed il pianto; E, forme delfiche, A te da canto	Amidst the dirge and wailing of the Psalms; and he brings to your side the divine shapes,
Rosee ne l’orrida Compagnia nera, Mena Licoride, Mena Glicera	Roseate amidst that horrid black crowd, of Lycoris and Glycera
Ma d’altre imagini D’eta’ piu’ bella Talor si popola L’insonne cella	But other shapes from a more glorious age fitfully fill the sleepless cell.
Ei, da le pagine Di Livio, ardenti Tribuni, consoli, Turbe frementi	Satan, from pages in Livy, conjures fervent tribunes, consuls, restless throngs;	In his cell, the monk’s sleep is interrupted by Satan- inspired nightmarish visions of crowds and leaders from Livy’s history of Rome.
Sveglia; e fantastico D’italo orgoglio Te spinge, o monaco, Su ‘l Campidoglio	And he thrusts you, O monk, with your memories of Italy’s proud past upon the Capitol.	For his treason against Rome’s true roots, the monk dreams, he is impaled.
E voi, che il rabido Rogo non strusse, Voci fatidiche, Wicleff ed Husse,	And you whom the raging pyre could not destroy, voices of destiny, Wycliffe and Huss,	John Wycliffe and Jan Huss, early reformers and martyrs of the late 13th and early 14th centuries.
A l’aura il vigile Grido mandate: S’innova il secolo Piena e’ l’etate	You lift to the winds your waning cry: ‘The new age is dawning, the time has come’.
E gia’ gia’ tremano Mitre e corone: Dal chiostro brontola La ribellione,	And already mitres and crowns tremble: from the cloister rebellion rumbles	The poet alludes to the existence of secret rebels inside the church.
E pugna e pre’dica Sotto la stola Di fra’ Girolamo Savonarola	Preaching defiance in the voice of the cassocked Girolamo Savonarola	Savonarola was a defiant reformist monk who was burned at the stake in 1499.
Gitto’ la tonaca Martin Lutero Gitta ii tuoi vincoli Uman pensiero,	As Martin Luther threw off his monkish robes, so throw off your shackles, O mind of man,	The poet chooses Martin Luther as an example here explicitly because using him as an example would infuriate the church more than any other name.
E splendi e folgora Di fiame cinto; Materia, inalzati: Satana ha vinto.	And crowned with flame, shoot lightning and thunder; Matter, arise; Satan has won.
Un bello e orrible Mostro si sferra, Corre gli oceani Corre la terra:	Both beautiful and awful a monster is unleashed it scours the oceans is scours the land
Corusco e fumido Come ii vlucani, I monti supera, Divora I piani;	Glittering and belching smoke like a volcano, it conquers the hills it devours the plains.
Sovola ii baratri; Poi si nasconde Per antri incogniti, Per vie profonde;	It flies over chasms, then burrows into unknown caverns along deepest paths;
Ed esce; e indomito Di lido in lido Come di turbine Manda il suo grido,	To re-emerge, unconquerable from shore to shore it bellows out like a whirlwind,	The Church had proclaimed the steam-engine train to be a tool of the Devil and the poet here embraces the symbolism.
Come di turbine L’alito spande: Ei passa, o popli, Satani il grande	Like a whirlwind it spews its breath: ‘It is Satan, you peoples, Great Satan passes by’.	He sees it as a man-made, science-derived invention that would deliver prosperity to the secular people of Italy.
Passa benefico Di loco in loco Su l’infrenabile Carro del foco	He passes by, bringing blessing from place to place, upon his unstoppable chariot of fire	In the new age of industry Satan (humanity’s ingenuity unfettered by the chains of church) destroys Jehova and thereby the oppressive and restricting tyranny of the Pope.
Salute, o Satana O ribellione, O forza vindice De la ragione!	Hail, O Satan O rebellion, O you avenging force of human reason!
Sacri a te salgano Gl’incensi e ii voti! Hai vinto il Geova De ii sacerdoti.	Let holy incense and prayers rise to you! You have utterly vanquished the Jehova of the Priests.