O Valentine in your new clothes
As the branches of the hawthorns in blossom!
Only your little feet tried by the blackberry bush
Wear the skin of your little feet;
You wear the shoes mum did for you,
That didn't cost one penny; instead
She sewed an expensive suit for you.
It was expensive: mum already spent
That jingling moneybox;
Now it's empty; all the poultry pen
Sang for more than one month
To fill it.
Think about January, when the fire of the log
Wasn't enough for you, you were trembling, alas!
And the hens sang: One egg!
Here here one egg, one egg for you!
Then the hens sat on eggs, and March came,
And you thin little countryman
Stayed half way, with your feathers,
But as a barefoot bird:
As a bird come from the sea,
Which jumps on the cherry tree, and doesn't know
That besides pecking, singing, loving
Another happiness could be.
(Translated from Italian by Paolo G. Mazzarello)
Paolo Giuseppe Mazzarello
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/valentine-by-giovanni-pascoli/
