TESTO DEL LIED

"Jumbo's lullaby"
di Edith Sitwell (1887-1964)

Jumbo asleep!
Grey leaves thick-furred
As his ears keep
Conversations blurred.
Thicker than hide
Is the trumpeting water;
Don Pasquito's bride
And his youngest daughter
Watch the leaves
Elephantine grey:
What is it grieves
In the torrid day?
Is it the animal
World that snores
Harsh and inimical
In sleepy pores?-
And why should the spined flowers
red as a soldier
Make Don Pasquito
Seem still mouldier?