'Canto XXXIV' translated by Beverley Bie Brahic

Translated by Beverley Bie Brahic

from Canto XXXIV: ‘Broom, or The Flower of the Desert’ (1836). Set on ‘Vesuvius the Destroyer’, Broom’s fifth section reimagines the eruption, its aftermath and the relationship of human beings and nature

[5]
As from a tree, a little apple,
moved by no other force than the ripeness
of late autumn, falls to earth,
crushing, evicting and hiding
the sweet hostels of a colony of ants
excavated with much effort
from the soft clods of earth;
and the works and wealth
the provident insects had
with much hard work stored
over the summer; so, dropping
from on high, hurled
from the thundering uterus
deep into the sky,
cinders, pumice and stones,
...