Dawn’s faint breath
breathes with your mouth
at the ends of empty streets.
Gray light your eyes,
sweet drops of dawn
on dark hills.
Your steps and breath
like the wind of dawn
smother houses.
The city shudders,
Stones exhale—
you are life, an awakening.

Star lost
in the light of dawn,
trill of the breeze,
warmth, breath—
the night is done.

You are light and morning.

*original title by Pavese in English, written for his lover, the American actress Constance Dowling


Notes: As I looked out into the foggy vistas, here - somewhere in the Austrian Alps - my mind went back to this poem


Big Book Of Poetry