Canzoni dimenticate* (for Alessandra)Do you remember, darling, the songs of our youth
when the lines that marked our notebooks
could not restrain our hearts that would
burst spontaneously with joy
every time we kissed and embraced,
When there was no need to record each word
for posterity and greatness was measured
by the sun dancing on the water?...Do you remember, darling, the songs of the past
when poets would stumble through the stars,
intoxicated by the moonlight,
When every flower petal would be a stanza of some
Great Poem written in pollen by the bees?...Do you still remember those days when
rhyme and meter were as natural as breathing
and every syllable was like a heartbeat
pushing the blood to our brains?...Do you remember, darling, the time when poetry
ran wild like horses or soared high in the sky
like an eagle,
When it raged like the ocean waves or flowed gently
like a brook?...Do you remember? Or was it but a dream fed to us
by grown-ups when you and I were children?...
only to awaken to the cold and indifferent
world where NO TRESPASSING means
“no trespassing”,
And whoever disobeys and trespasses upon that
shadowy dominion of imagination risks
being exiled by his fellows...Yet I still remember it all...the valiant knights,
the castles, the dragons, the enchanting maidens,
and the endless quest for the Holy Grail...Yes, these are canzoni dimenticate, canciones olvidadas, or
des chansons oubliées,
But they are much more than just
forgotten songs to me, darling,
They call on me in the depths of my soul to take that
perilous journey and regain what had been lost
but is still waiting in the darkness,
ready to reveal its secret to whoever
still has the courage.
June 28,1990
--Alexander Shaumyan_____
Italian: “forgotten songs”.