When you are Old, di William Butler Yeats: una lettura e la versione cantata di Angelo Branduardi

When you are old

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

Nel 1986 Angelo Branduardi, al suo nono album, compie un’operazione (non la prima e non l’ultima) a mio modo di vedere e sentire di grande pregio. In Branduardi canta Yeats, l’artista musica dieci poesie di William Butler Yeats, tradotte e, in qualche modo, adattate da Luisa Zappa. Alcune di queste canzoni sono vere gemme, come Un aviatore irlandese prevede la sua morte (An Irish Airman foresees his Death), I cigni di Coole (The Wild Swans at Coole) e questa sommessa e malinconica Quando tu sarai… (When you are Old)