Alarico Rex Gothorum

The Tomb in the Busento

( Traduzione dal testo italiano " La tomba nel Busento " del Carducci
effettuata dal Prof. Michele Spadafora ).


Gloomy at night songs sound
from Cosenza upon the Busento,
gloomy the river re-murmers them
from its somnolent gurgling.

Up and down long the river pass
and repass slow shadows :
the Goths weep Alaricus,
the great dead of their people.

Ah so soon and from the country
so far will he have rest,
while still blond upon the shoulders
flows the hair of the mighty !

On the banks of the Busento
are sided the Goths tried,
and from the used course make the bend
opening a new way.

Where the waves used to bellow,
they dig,dig the land;
and deeply lower down the body
on horseback, armed for war.

They cover him too with earth
and the armour of shining gold:
on the humid grave of the hero
grows the grass of the torrents !

Then,reduced to known ways,
the Busento left the waves
valid for the ancient riverbed
foaming beetween the two banks.

Sang then a choir of men
" sleep, oh King, in your glory !
Roman hand may never violate
your tomb and memory ! "

It sang, and in the song was heard
in the wandering Gothic lines :
Carry him, rapid Busento,
Carry him from sea to sea .