“(…)E che pensieri immensi,
Che dolci sogni mi spirò la vista
Di quel lontano mar, quei monti azzurri,
Che di qua scopro, e che varcare un giorno
Io mi pensava, arcani mondi, arcana
Felicità fingendo al viver mio!
(…)”
“(…)And what immense thoughts,
What sweet dreams my eyes inspired
From that distant sea, those azure mountains,
Which I discover from here, and which one day
I thought I would cross, mysterious worlds, mysterious
Happiness feigning in my life!
(…)”
Le Ricordanze – G. Leopardi
The “azure mountains.”
The poet from Recanati, during his long years in his native village, was accustomed to observing the Umbrian-Marchigian Apennines from his window: intangible, ethereal mountains, almost drawn, yet so distant that they seemed to dissolve into the sky above the horizon.
Leopardi celebrates the spectacle and allure of the magical Sibillini Mountains, which, blurred in the distance, concealed “mysterious worlds” from his sight and filled his mind with “immense thoughts” and “sweet dreams.”
The concept of spatial and temporal infinity — an obsession inspired in his youth, perhaps by the colorful panorama framed by his window and by those vague peaks on the horizon, which hid the immensity of that landscape from view.
