San Martino del Carso, By Giuseppe Ungaretti

Of these houses

nothing

but fragments of memory

Of all who

would talk with me not

one remains

But in my heart

no one’s cross is missing

My heart is

the most tormented country of all

VALLONCELLO DELL’ALBERGO ISOLATO, 27 AUGUST 1916

Translated from the Italian by David McDuff and Jon Silkin; from “The Penguin Book of First World War Poetry,” edited by Jon Silkin (Penguin:316 pp., $12.95 paper)