Page:Carducci - Poems of Italy.djvu/29

 Before the Old Castle of Verona

Green Adige, 'twas thus in rapid course And powerful, that thou didst murmur 'neath The Roman bridges sparkling from thy stream Thine ever-running song unto the sun, When Odoacer, giving way before The onrush of Theodoric, fell back, And midst the bloody wrack about them passed Into this fair Verona blond and straight Barbarian women in their chariots, singing Songs unto Odin; while the Italian folk Gathered about their Bishop and put forth To meet the Goths the supplicating Cross.

Thus from the mountains rigid with their snows, In all the placid winter's silver gladness To-day thou still, O tireless fugitive, Dost murmuring pass upon thy way, beneath The Scaligers' old battlemented bridge, Betwixt time-blackened piles and squalid trees, To far-off hills serene, and to the towers Whence weep the mourning banners for the day, Returning now, which saw the death of him Whom a free Italy first chose her king. Still, Adige, thou singest as of yore Thine ever-running song unto the sun.