Alla luna
Idyll in hendecasyllables composed at Recanati very probably in 1819, it was first published in “Nuovo Ricoglitore” in Milan in January 1826 and in the collection Versi (Bologna 1826) with the title La ricordanza/Remembrance; the final title is the one used in the Florence 1831 edition.
The conceptual fulcrum to the Canto is the perception that youthful memories are pleasant even when they concern unpleasant events:
O graziosa luna, io mi rammento
che, or volge l’anno, sovra questo colle
io venia pien d’angoscia a rimirarti:
... che travagliosa
era mia vita: ed è, né cangia stile,
o mia diletta luna. E pur mi giova
la ricordanza ... (vv. 1-3, 8-11)
On this theme Leopardi also reflected in the Zibaldone; for example:
Siccome le impressioni, così le ricordanze della fanciullezza in qualunque età, sono più vive che quelle di qualunque altra età. E son piacevoli per la loro vivezza anche le ricordanze d’immagini e di cose che nella fanciullezza ci erano dolorose, o spaventose ec. E per la stessa ragione ci è piacevole nella vita anche la ricordanza dolorosa ... (Zib., 187-8, 25 ottobre 1821)
Because impressions, as the memories of childhood at whatever age, are so much stronger than those of any other age. And are pleasant for their vividness also the memories of images and things that pained us in our youth, or were fearsome etc. And for the same reason is it that it is pleasant also to recall unhappy memories ... (Zib., 187-8, 25 October 1821)
As to this and other reflections contained in the Zibaldone, and also as concerns this first part of the Canto, it must be underlined that with verses 13-4 (“nel tempo giovanil, quando ancor lungo / la speme e breve ha la memoria il corso”) Leopardi wishes to confine to youth the possibility of gaining comfort from past memories, so limiting the value of this human experience. It should thus be noted that these two verses were added by Leopardi only towards the end of his life, after the publication of the Canti in 1835: they indeed appear only in the posthumous edition overseen by Antonio Ranieri in 1845.
