What follows are the first and last sections of Eugenio Montale’s last great “story-poem,” in the manner of his “Motets” and “Xenia.” It dates from the late 1960s and concerns the old poet’s infatuation with a beautiful, emotionally unstable younger woman. (The complete translation will be included in Eugenio Montale, Selected Poems, translated by Jonathan Galassi, Charles Wright, and David Young, edited by David Young, which will be published by Oberlin College Press in December 2004.)
