And when the right light falls,
As tis all purple
On the lowest crest, The
distance of the mass unfolds,
Every my rhythm, like the heart,
That now I hear,
Urges, O time, to drop me on the edge
May your kisses end. - Giuseppe Ungaretti
"The Sense of Time" (Sentimento del tempo), the second volume of poetry by Giuseppe Ungaretti, first published in 1933 and then enriched and republished in 1936 and 1942, is one of the highest achievements of him, where intellectual and poetic maturity will lead him to differ radically from Allegria, not only in the topics addressed, but also in the metrics used. In this volume, Ungaretti returns to neoclassicism and baroque, which he discovered in the streets and landscapes of Rome through the amazing work of Michelangelo.
Brought to you in Albanian by the publishing house Pegi, translated by Aida Baros, the summary mentions the perceived distance between the present and the past, a distance that turns into an abyss almost impossible to overcome, either as an act of will or as an act ash from above. Ungaretti is determined to experience the edges of his consciousness, a "terrible consciousness" in order to perceive emptiness.
Paradoxically, this is exactly what gives him the opportunity to recover from the fear of these boundaries. With the strength and accuracy of his meditative intuition, he manages to overcome what in a more ordinary poet would turn into an inventory of personal pains and fears: his poems seem to us objects beyond himself for the reason that he never treats himself his as an example to all individuals.
Ungaretti rises above personal perceptions and feelings and thus gives us all the "sense of time".
