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Written by Italian poet Mario Luzi and published in 'After Many Years Selected poems of Mario Luzi' by Dedalus in 1990.




The republic dies shamefully


The republic dies shamefully.

It is spied on shamefully

by its many bastards in its final torments.

Shamefully the crows sharpen their beak in the nearby room.



Its orphans quarrel shamefully,

shamefully its jackals tear each other asunder.

Everything happens shamefully, everything

except death itself - I try to explain myself

before some type of court

of longed-for justice. And the hearing is abandoned.