The Mind

The Infinite

by Giacomo Leopardi 1798–1837

Translated by Frederick Townsend (1887) · From The Poems of Giacomo Leopardi, trans. Frederick Townsend (1887)

The Mind

This lonely hill to me was ever dear,
This hedge, which shuts from view so large a part
Of the remote horizon. As I sit
And gaze, absorbed, I in my thought conceive
The boundless spaces that beyond it range,
The silence supernatural, and rest
Profound; and for a moment I am calm.
And as I listen to the wind, that through
These trees is murmuring, its plaintive voice
I with that infinite compare;
And things eternal I recall, and all
The seasons dead, and this, that round me lives,
And utters its complaint. Thus wandering
My thought in this immensity is drowned;
And sweet to me is shipwreck on this sea.

MLA

Leopardi, Giacomo. “The Infinite.” Translated by Frederick Townsend. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/leopardi/37/.

Chicago

Leopardi, Giacomo. “The Infinite.” Translated by Frederick Townsend. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/leopardi/37/.

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