Constantine P. Cavafy – Sulle scale / On The Stairs

Richard Lindner, Rear Window, c. 1975

As I was going down those ill-famed stairs
you were coming through the door, and for a second
I saw your unfamiliar face and you saw mine.
Then I hid so you wouldn’t see me again,
and you hurried past me, hiding your face,
and slipped inside the ill-famed house
where you couldn’t have found pleasure any more than I did.
And yet the love you were looking for, I had to give you;
the love I was looking for -so your tired, knowing eyes
implied-
you had to give me.
Our bodies sensed and sought each other:
our blood and skin understood.
But we both hid ourselves, flustered.

Mentre scendevo l’ignobile scala,
tu entrasti dalla porta e per un istante
vidi il tuo volto sconosciuto e tu vedesti me.
Subito mi nascosi per non farmi vedere
di nuovo e tu
passasti rapido nascondendo il volto
e ti infilasti nell’ignobile casa
dove non avresti trovato il piacere,
cosi’ come non l’avevo trovato io.
Eppure l’amore che volevi io l’avevo da darti,
l’amore che volevo – me l’hanno detto i tuoi occhi
stanchi e ambigui – tu l’avevi da darmi.
I nostri corpi si avvertirono e si cercarono,
il sangue e la pelle intuirono.
Ma noi, turbati, ci eclissammo.