Had I Not Been Awake

Written in English by Seamus Heaney

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Had I not been awake I would have missed it,
A wind that rose and whirled until the roof
Pattered with quick leaves off the sycamore

And got me up, the whole of me a-patter,
Alive and ticking like an electric fence:
Had I not been awake I would have missed it,

It came and went so unexpectedly
And almost it seemed dangerously,
Returning like an animal to the house,

A courier blast that there and then
Lapsed ordinary. But not ever
After. And not now.

Published April 1, 2020
Excerpted from Seamus Heaney, The Human Chain, Faber and Faber, London 2010
© Seamus Heaney 2010

Non fossi stato sveglio

Written in English by Seamus Heaney


Translated into Italian by Vanni Bianconi

Non fossi stato sveglio l’avrei perso
un vento che si alzò turbinando finché il tetto
crepitò di foglie svelte dall’acero

e mi tirò su dal letto, tutto un crepito,
vivo e ticchettante come un filo elettrico:
non fossi stato sveglio l’avrei perso,

venne e se ne andò così inatteso
e quasi mi parve pericoloso
tornato come un animale qui a casa,

una folata messaggera che lì, allora,
si smorzò ordinaria. Ma mai più
poi. E non ora.

Published April 1, 2020
© Vanni Bianconi 2018


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