No. 2 in our series of poems with astronomical themes is the sad and sweet “To the Moon,” by Giacomo Leopardi, the Italian poet of pessimism (1798-1837). This is from the collected Canti, translated by J. Galassi (2010, New York). I almost used part of this poem as an epigraph for The Night of the Comet.
To the Moon
O graceful moon, I can remember, now
the year has turned, how, filled with anguish,
I came here to this hill to gaze at you,
and you were hanging then above those woods
the way you do now, lighting everything.
But your face was cloudy,
swimming in my eyes, due to the tears
that filled them, for my life
was torment, and it is, it doesn’t change,
beloved moon of mine.
And yet it helps me, thinking back, reliving
the time of my unhappiness.
Oh in youth, when hope has a long road ahead
and the way of memory is short,
how sweet it is remembering what happened,
though it was sad, and though the pain endures!