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| Our Lady and the Souls in Purgatory with San Sebastiano and San Gregorio Magno |
All Souls' Day
On every branch of every yellow tree
the fog has left a single tear behind
the sky's so dark today it's hard to see,
it wants to weep for all those in the ground.
A band of melancholy little sparrows
flew inside a heavy thicket all together
and brought their singing hour to a close
as soon as they observed the morning weather.
Without being even jiggled by the wind
every thick cypress tree that felt the rain
trickles its bitter tears down in the ground
and the thick cypress tree, made of a sudden
a giant aspergillum for this land,
blesses it without needing to be shaken.
* Reprinted from Dialect Poetry of Southern Italy, edited by Luigi Bonaffini, Legas, 1997
