Cutting and pasting this from an earlier thread
on favourite poems. Sorry for the rubbish translation.
*
This is beautiful too, on the subject of daughters, though I know I won't be able to do it justice in my translation...
RITRATTO DELLA MIA BAMBINA
(Umberto Saba)
La mia bambina con la palla in mano,
con gli occhi grandi colore del cielo
e dell?estiva vesticciola: «Babbo
? mi disse ? voglio uscire oggi con te».
Ed io pensavo: Di tante parvenze
che s?ammirano al mondo, io ben so a quali
posso la mia bambina assomigliare.
Certo alla schiuma, alla marina schiuma
che sull?onde biancheggia, a quella scia
ch?esce azzurra dai tetti e il vento sperde;
anche alle nubi, insensibili nubi
che si fanno e si disfanno in chiaro cielo;
e ad altre cose leggere e vaganti.
PORTRAIT OF MY DAUGHTER
My daughter with a ball in her hand,
with her big eyes the colour of the sky,
and in her little summer dress: "Daddy"
she said, "I want to come out with your today".
And I thought: Of all the things
in the world which people admire, I know well
to which I would compare my daughter.
To the foam, certainly, the foam on the sea,
which whitens the waves, and to that blue trail
which emerges from the rooftops and is lost in
the wind;
to the clouds too, the unfeeling clouds,
which form and disperse in the clear sky;
and to other light and wandering things.