My words
are as profound
as roots
in the ground,
sometimes serene
as the firmament
as hot as the hot vein
of the adolescent
    (from 'The Roots of Song')

Gabriele d'Annunzio (1863-1938), the most influential and controversial Italian poet of the last hundred years, published his masterpiece Halcyon in 1903. It is a carefully organized sequence of eighty-eight lyrics which, to gain their full effect, must be read as a whole. Halcyon is a 'solar diary' of a summer spent in Tuscany, part of the time with the legendary Eleanora Duse. The poems evoke specific times and places; more importantly, they conjure up emotions, memories and myths associated with each place. Beginning in early summer, they move through the seasons, changing in verse-form and mood, always delighting in the sensuous qualities of language.

J.G. Nicholls's translation makes the richness and subtlety of d'Annunzio's poetry accessible to the English-speaking reader, and his introduction illuminates the complex themes and structure of the work. He provides a full glossary of places and references.

Table of Contents

Introduction







HALCYON



The truce

The youngster

By the side of the Affrico on an evening in June after rain

Evening at Fiesole

The olive

The ear of corn

Works and days

The bard without a lyre

Beatitude

Fvrit aestvs

First dithyramb

Peace

The tenzon

Mouth of the Arno

Between two Arnos

The rain in the pine wood

The roots of song

The name

Before dawn

The two eyes of a Pleiad

The tributaries

The camels

Noon

The mothers

Calm

The highest Alps

Gombo

Orphic anniversary

Terra, vale!

Second dithyramb

The oleander

Mouth of the Serchio

The stag

The hippocampus

The wave

The coronal of Glauco

Mélitta-Sour grapes-Nico-Nicarete-To Nicarete-

Gorgo-To Gorgo-The flautist-Baccha

Stabat nvda Aestas

Third dithyramb

Versilia

The death of the stag

The asphodel

Summer madrigals

Supplication-The sands of Time-The footprint-At dawn-

At midday-Towards evening-Circean charm-The wind writes-

Sea-lanterns-In the slime-The Grecian grape

August festival

The many-headed song

Triton

Roman sarcophagus

Ocean laurel

The prisoner

The Victory of Samothrace

The rupestrian peplos

The vulture of the Sun

The wing on the sea

Altivs egit iter

Fourth dithyramb

Sadness

The Sea-Hours

A goddess of the shore

Undulna

The Thessalian

The goatskin

The signs

Dreams of distant places

The shepherds-The baths-The flock and the herd-

Lacus luturnae-The loggia-The pack-The carobs

New moon

Envoi

Glossary