Cesare Pavese / Pino Daeni | In the morning you always come back, 1950

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.

Cesare Pavese (1908-1950) was one of Italy's most influential 20th-century novelists, poets, translators and literary critics.

Bridging the gap between pre-war intellectual culture and postwar neorealism, his work explored profound contemporary themes of existential isolation, the clash between urban and rural life, the weight of history and a deeply personal theology of myth.

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.