A
poem by Cesare Pavese (from Lavorare Stanca)
Lavorare
Stanca (Hard Labour)
Crossing
the street to run away from home
is
something only a boy does, but this man who roams
the
streets all day long is no longer a boy
and
is not running away from home.
Some
days in the summer
even
the squares are empty, lying
quiet
at sunset, and this man, coming
from
a street of useless trees, stops.
Is
it worth being alone, only to be even more alone?
The
squares and the streets are empty
when
you just roam around. You have to stop a woman
and
talk to her and persuade her to live together.
Otherwise,
you'll just talk to yourself. That's why sometimes,
at
night, you meet a drunk who starts talking to you
and
goes on about the plans of his entire life.
It
is not by waiting in an empty square
that
you meet someone, but those who roam the streets
stop
sometimes. If there were two of them,
even
roaming the streets, then there would be a home
where
that woman is and it would be worth it.
At
night the square is empty again
and
this man, who goes by, does not look ahead anymore:
all
he feels is the road that other men made
with
their rough hands, like his own.
It's
not right to stand in an empty square.
Surely
somewhere there is a woman
who,
after being implored, would take him home.
-
The end -
