Il silenzioso fiume – Eng

Il silenzioso fiume – The Silent River

The river, full with water,
runs its course into the sea,
or flows into a lake as an inlet,
then out again as an outlet,
moving on at last
toward the salty vastness
of the sea.

Even if it wished to remain silent,
that movement always carries
a certain roar.

I watch that stream of people
flow “downstream” into the Campo,
into the Piazza.
I can’t hear even a murmur—
their gazes speak
of a silence I cannot explain,
and would not know how to.

It is deafening
not to hear even
the faintest buzz
of flies in flight,
while in the Conca
more people keep arriving,
all of them
in an almost reverent silence.

Each wrapped in their own drappo,
yet they share one thing:
the same words in their eyes,
driven by the beating of their hearts—
hearts that throb
for the distinct colors
of every Contrada.

The waiting sharpens the air
like a honed blade.
And still I do not know,
I cannot, and never will, know
what moves within the heart and mind
of every Senese and Contradaiolo.

I can only stand and watch,
observing, respecting,
in quiet restraint,
their muffled silence—
until the horses emerge
from the Entrone
of the Palazzo Comunale,
the jockeys reaching for the nerbo,
and the burst of the mortaretto rings out.

The Palio belongs to the Senesi.
And in the roar of the Piazza
I begin, at last, to understand
the reason for all that reserve:
with the certainty
that the shiver
that pierced through my body
was, for me, a moment—
but for those born in Siena
it is a necessary foundation.

Florence, 1/7/2021 – 7:22 PM

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Image: Gabriele Forti
https://www.gabrieleforti.it/