O Valentine in your new clothes <br />As the branches of the hawthorns in blossom! <br />Only your little feet tried by the blackberry bush <br />Wear the skin of your little feet; <br />You wear the shoes mum did for you, <br />That didn't cost one penny; instead <br />She sewed an expensive suit for you. <br />It was expensive: mum already spent <br />That jingling moneybox; <br />Now it's empty; all the poultry pen <br />Sang for more than one month <br />To fill it. <br />Think about January, when the fire of the log <br />Wasn't enough for you, you were trembling, alas! <br />And the hens sang: One egg! <br />Here here one egg, one egg for you! <br />Then the hens sat on eggs, and March came, <br />And you thin little countryman <br />Stayed half way, with your feathers, <br />But as a barefoot bird: <br />As a bird come from the sea, <br />Which jumps on the cherry tree, and doesn't know <br />That besides pecking, singing, loving <br />Another happiness could be. <br />(Translated from Italian by Paolo G. Mazzarello)<br /><br />Paolo Giuseppe Mazzarello<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/valentine-by-giovanni-pascoli/
