The Infinite

I've decided to post a poem here, it's called The Infinite, written by Count Giacomo Leopardi. The original is in Italian, which I have here, and I've also added the English translation (both versions are from www.poemhunter.com).
(The original, in case you can't distinguish English from Italian--which, I'm not exactly sure is a good thing or not.)
L'infinito

Sempre caro mi fu quest'ermo colle
E questa siepe che da tanta parte
De'l ultimo orrizonte il guarde esclude.
Ma sedendo e mirando interminati
Spazi di la da quella, e sovrumani
Silenzi, e profondissima quiete,
Io nel pensier mi fingo, ove per poco
Il cor non si spaura. E come il vento
Odo stormir tra queste piante, io quello
Infinito silenzio a questa voce
Vo comparando; e mi sovvien l'eterno,
E le morte stagioni, e la presente
E viva, e'l suon di lei. Cosi tra questa
Immensita s'annega il pensier mio:
E'l naufragar m'e dolce in questo mare.

Count Giacomo Leopardi

(The translated version, in case you missed my little message above.)
L'infinito

This solitary hill has always been dear to me
And this hedge, which prevents me from seeing most of
The endless horizon.
But when I sit and gaze, I imagine, in my thoughts
Endless spaces beyond the hedge,
An all encompassing silence and a deeply profound quiet,
To the point that my heart is almost overwhelmed.
And when I hear the wind rustling through the trees
I compare its voice to the infinite silence.
And eternity occurs to me, and all the ages past,
And the present time, and its sound.
Amidst this immensity my thought drowns:
And to flounder in this sea is sweet to me.

Count Giacomo Leopardi

Giacomo Leopardi was a lyric poet (he's dead, by the way, thus the "was"), so he doesn't really translate very well but here you are anyway. When I first read the poem, it seemed rather weird but after a few readings the immensity of it's meaning came to me. It's got such a profound depth that even now I don't get it's full meaning but the images and sensations provoked are indescribable, the pathos evoked truly resound into infinity. In other words, I totally love it!

You can find Count Giacomo Leopardi's biography just about anywhere on the internet--he was one of the greatest lyric poets from Italy.