In honor of Republic Day, we present this work by one of Italy’s greatest war poets.

 

We went out around midnight into the deserted Milan
streets, orso Italia, with Anna Maria Ortese
and Massimo Leli
and Guido Ballo and I don’t know who else,
and I held the tender hand
of a little girl whose black curls
and big eyes I remember but not her name,
and all of a sudden she said in a loud voice:
“It’s dark. When it’s dark, we must be quiet.”

Well then, I thought, we must be quiet all the time.

Translation by Margaret Spiegelman