Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Italy: Vols. XI–XIII. 1876–79. | | | | Catania | | Catania | | Vincenzo da Filicaja (1642–1707) |
| | Anonymous translation
THOU buried city, o’er thy site I muse!— | |
| What! does no monumental stone remain | |
| To say, “Here yawned the earthquake-riven plain, | |
| Here stood Catania, and here Syracuse”? | |
| Along thy sad and solitary sand | 5 |
| I seek thee in thyself, yet find instead | |
| Naught but the dreadful stillness of the dead. | |
| Startled and horror-struck, I wondering stand, | |
| And cry: O, terrible, tremendous course | |
| Of God’s decrees! I see it, and I feel it here: | 10 |
| Shall I not comprehend and dread its force? | |
| Rise, ye lost cities! let your ruins rear | |
| Their massy forms on high, portentous corse, | |
| That trembling ages may behold and fear! | | | | |
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