Ada Negri | Autumn rain's soothing melody, 1936

Tonight I heard, between waking and

slumber, a song

soft, hushed, and yet vast just as

the world is vast; and I seemed in sleep

to be sailing on a boat with no oars

on grey seas, inside a blanket of rain.

It was rain, yes; but on a sea

of canopies, murmuring with joyful

relief, in the darkness: the first

autumn rain, after a sweltering summer

of feverish sun; and it continues still

in the dismal dawn, and every tree weeps

upon receiving it. But those tears are laughter,

profound, inextinguishable: of woman

too long awaiting, who doesn’t know if of joy

or pain are the arms that envelop her.

Ada Negri, Milano, 1914

Ada Negri (3 February 1870 - 11 January 1945) was a prominent Italian poet, writer and schoolteacher.

Emerging from a working-class background in Lodi, she became one of Italy's most celebrated literary voices in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

She holds the distinction of being the first and only woman ever admitted to the Royal Academy of Italy (Accademia d'Italia) in 1940.

I would like, autumn rain, to be leaf

that is imbibed in you down to the fibres

that bind it to the branch, and the branch to the trunk,

and the trunk to the earth; and you inside veins

run, and you extend, and so great a thirst you quench.

I know you announce the winter: that soon

that leaf will fall, turned the colour

of rust, and with the soil it will mix;

but nourish it will the roots of the trunk

and sprout again from branches at spring.

I would like, autumn rain, to be leaf

abandon myself to your downpour, certain

I will not die, I will not die, but only

my face will change for as long as the earth

has seasons, and a tree has a canopy.