Bidspirit auction | Giuseppe Ungaretti

Giuseppe Ungaretti - Giuseppe Ungaretti - Letter to Marthe Roux, 1959. In Paris, returning from the war, the poet falls in love with Marthe Roux, the enfant frêle also beloved by his close friend, the avant-garde poet Guillaume Apollinaire. Apollinaire had once promised Ungaretti he would translate his first book, The Buried Port, into French. The book had been printed in the trenches by his friend Ettore Serra in Udine, at the height of the Great War. But he died before he could keep his promise. Ungaretti then translated some of his poems himself, to offer them as gifts for Marthe to read. A beautiful story of love and friendship, of war and death. But Marthe remained in Ungaretti's heart. In 1958, after Jeanne's death after a long ordeal (the poet wrote, on this occasion, one of the most beautiful poems of his later years, ”Forever, ” which would later appear in the Old Man's Notebook), Ungaretti wrote this long letter to his former love (two pages in 4°, in green ink, in French, Le 29/XI/1958). It is not very personal: it is clear that the long interruption in their relationship left the poet hesitant about the tone to adopt; yet when one touches on recent mourning, Ungaretti lets the mournful chord of Sorrow vibrate... (”See also me pardonner mon attitude, involontaire, envers vous. Je suis terrassé par le deuil, la partie la plus solid de ma vie est dans un tombeau, je n'arrive pas à dormir, je me lève la nuit et vais cherchant dans la maison comme un aliéné, a return impossible. (...) Those wonderful illusions were there for me.