Remembrance

The theme of remembrance is central in Leopardi: in his thoughts, in his life (he wrote to his sister on 25 February 1828: “I have here in Pisa a certain lovely street, that I love Via delle rimembranze: I go and walk there when I want to daydream. I assure that, on the subject of imagination, I have the feeling that I am back to my good old times”), and naturally in his work: to the “remembrance” of his own past Leopardi for example dedicated some Canti, among the most touching: Alla luna (“Oh gracious moon, I remember...”), A Silvia (“Silvia, do you still remember ...”) and Le ricordanze or Recollections.

In the Zibaldone the theme is linked to youth and to poetry:

Remembrance of his youth at the sound of the clock on the tower [36] – for the ancient, the dead continued to have a remembrance of life [116] – the pleasure that derives from Greek and Roman stories and legends derive from the familiarity we had with them as children, and the remembrance of our childhood that they provoke [191-2, 2645-8, 3771, 4449-50, 4483] – the undefined images and sensations that we feel after infancy are a remembrance of those felt then [515, 1735, 4513, 4515] – it is provoked by a current sensation that recalls one known [1455]; also in poetry [1804-5] – “remembrance, the more distant it is, and less habitual, the more it elevates, grasps, sweetly pains, pleases the soul” [1860-2] – the images linked to childhood, even if painful, are pleasant, because they recall that period [1987-8] – all the places he lived in became dear to Leopardi, because with time he created remembrances [4286-7] – “almost all the pleasures of imagination and sentiment consist in remembrance” [4415, 4495] – a subject is poetic only if it generates remembrance [4426] – when we travel we like some places and they appear to us sentimental because they evoke in us remembrances of other places we know already [4471] – to travel is beautiful because it allows to have remembrances of things far off not only in time but also in space [4485].