Lo sconfinato pessimismo del Belli ( anche in una quanto mai improbabile traduzione inglese opera di un certo Allen Andrews, The people of Rome in 100 sonnetts, Barbi Editore,Roma 1984, ISBN 88-85699-00-6):

 La vita dell’Omo

Nove mesi a la puzza: poi in fassciola
tra sbasciucchi, lattime e llagrimoni:
poi p’er laccio, in ner crino, e in vesticciola,
cor torcolo e l’imbraghe pe ccarzoni.

Poi comincia er tormento de la scola,
l’abbeccè, le frustate, li ggeloni,
la rosalía, la cacca a la ssediola,
e un po’ de scarlattina e vvormijjoni.

Poi viè ll’arte, er diggiuno, la fatica,
la piggione, le carcere, er governo,
lo spedale, li debbiti, la fica,

er zol d’istate, la neve d’inverno...
E pper urtimo, Iddio sce bbenedica,
viè la Morte, e ffinissce co l’inferno. »


The life of Man

Nine months in stench, then helpless in the medley
Of overpowering kisses, suckling,crying:
The the spine-brace, the walking frame, the rompers,
The head-pd, and no trousers - only nappies.

Then there begins the agony of schooling,
The alphabet, the whippings and the chilblains,
With German measles, shitting in the high-chair,
A dash of scarlete fever and of smallpox

Then follows work, and hunger, and exhaustion,
And rent and prison, nd the Government,
And hospital, and creditors, and cunt...

The sun in summer and the snow in winter...
And at the last, God save bless us all,
There's Death, and all comes to an end with Hell.


Un altra traduzione, questa di Mike Stoks:



Nine months in a bog, then swaddling clothes
and sloppy kisses, rashes, big round tears,
a baby harness, baby walker, bows,
short trousers and a cap for several years,

and then begin the agonies of school,
the ABC, the pox, the six of the best,
the poo-poo in the pants, the ridicule,
the chilblains, measles, fevers on the chest;

then work arrives, the daily slog, the rent,
the fasts, the stretch inside, the government,
the hospitals, the debts to pay, the fucks…

The chaser to it all, on God’s say-so,
(after summer’s sun and winter’s snow)
is death, and after death comes hell – life sucks.