Dialect Poetry of Southern Italy (Italian Poetry in Translation Book 2)

And with all those horses

And with all those horses, grandfather,
we galloped, you and I!
Unsaddled horsed,
unshod horsed,
they neighed on moonlit nights,
pawed the ground under the window,
awoke us on the stroke of midnight,
for they couldn’t wait
to gallop away with us at full speed.
And galloping at full speed, grandfather,
we passed like a wind, you and I,
through Campidano, the Ogliastra,
Capo di Sopra and the lands of Barbagia,
and we were bandits and thieves.
(Men of honor
─ people said ─
thieves who robbed
only rich priests.)
All those Campidano women with ripe breasts
we carried off, grandfather,
just like the ancients on the croups of our swift horses!
With other bandits, we’d built