I Recall Your Smile - Eugenio Montale

I recall your smile, and for me it is limpid water

witnessed by chance among the stones of a riverbed.

slight mirror in which you see an ivy and its inflorescence,

and over all the embrace of a serene white sky.

This is my recollection; I cannot say, O distant one,

if an ingenuous spirit is freely expressed in your face,

truly you are a wanderer whom the world’s ills exhaust,

and who carry your suffering with you like a talisman.

But this I may say; that your thoughtful portrait

drowns anxious inspiration in a wave of calm;

and your aspect insinuates itself in grey memory

pure as the crown of a youthful palm-tree…

For K.

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Eugenio Montale (1896 - 1981) Italy

Translated by A.S. Kline

Source: Poets of Modernity