San Martino

Oggi, 11 novembre si celebra la festa di San Martino, il soldato dell’impero romano che, durante una ronda notturna nell’inverno del 335 divise il suo mantello con un povero seminudo, una ricorrenza spesso legata anche alla prima spillatura del vino novello.

San Martino

La nebbia a gl’irti colli
piovigginando sale,
e sotto il maestrale
urla e biancheggia il mar;

ma per le vie del borgo
dal ribollir de’ tini
va l’aspro odor dei vini
l’anime a rallegrar.

Gira su’ ceppi accesi
lo spiedo scoppiettando:
sta il cacciator fischiando
su l’uscio a rimirar

tra le rossastre nubi
stormi d’uccelli neri,
com’esuli pensieri,
nel vespero migrar.

Giosuè Carducci, da “Rime Nuove”, 1887
Questa poesia mette a confronto il paesaggio malinconico di una natura tempestosa e grigia, tipica della stagione autunnale, e la felicità che aleggia nel villaggio. È anche diventata il testo di una canzone cantata da Fiorello.

Saint Martin’s Day, by Giosué Carducci, from “Rime Nuove”, 1887

The mist to the steep hills
ascends amid the thin rain,
and under the northern winds
the sea howls and churns;

but through the village streets
from the fermenting barrels
the sour smell of wines goes
to cheer the souls

The spit spins crackling
on blazing logs
and the hunter stands whistling
on the threshold to gaze

among the reddish hazes
flocks of black birds
like thoughts in flight
migrating in the dusk.

Saint Martin’s Day, or Martinmas, is celebrated on 11 November each year. It is the Funeral day of Saint Martin of Tours, the soldier of the Roman Empire who, during a night patrol in the winter of 335, he cut his cloak in half to share with a beggar during a snowstorm, to save him from the cold harsh winter. This occasion is occasion often linked to the first tapping of young wine.
In Italy this period is called “Estate di San Martino” (Saint Martin’s Summer) and refers to a period of unseasonably warm weather in early November, which is termed “Indian Summer” in English-speaking countries.

This poem, “Saint Martin’s Day”, which compares the melancholy landscape of a stormy and gray nature, typical of the autumn season, and the happiness that hovers in the village, was written by Giosuè Carducci (1835 –1907). He was a very influential Italian poet and teacher who was the first Italian to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1906.