Montale and the Farewell from the Shadow”. Review by Alessandria today

Eugenio Montalein his composition “At this point”, is confronted with the inexorable truth of detachment from one’s illusory self, outlining a path of liberation from the shadow, a metaphor for an existence built on distorted perceptions and foreign attributes.

The shadow, faithful companion through the events of life, turns out to be the artificial double that imposes inauthentic limits and weights on what exists. Montale explores the sense of liberation that emerges from the rejection of this shadow, underlining a lightness of being that is found only in the abandonment of the superfluous, in the acceptance of one’s intrinsic essence.

Poetry is an invitation to detachment, to remove the mask of thought to reveal reality in all its rawness and possibility. The poet incites an upward momentum, to rise like a rocket towards the luminous horizon of an understanding and a life purified from illusory mental constraints.

Through Montale’s vision, the worst and the best that we believe define us are nothing more than parts foreign to us, elements of an existence that does not need fictitious protections to be lived. Authentic exploration of the self and the world requires a free gaze, “with your eyes and also without eyes,” a perception that transcends dependence on limited senses and ventures into intuitive knowing.

“At this point” thus becomes a declaration of courage and independence, a manifesto that invites us to seek our own individual truth beyond the shadows projected by society and our fears. Montale gives the reader a reflection on the value of one’s own inner voice, a voice which, once heard, can guide us through the path of life with a more confident and lighter step.

At this point, by Eugenio Montale

At this point you stop
says the shadow.
I accompanied you in war and in peace and also
in the middle,
I have been for you the exaltation and the tedium,
I have breathed into you virtues that you do not possess,
vices you didn’t have. If I detach myself now
you will not feel sorry for yourself, you will be light
more than leaves, mobile like the wind.

I have to lift the mask, I am your thought,
I am your in-necessity, your useless peel.
At this point stop, tear yourself away from my breath
and walks in the sky like a rocket.
There is still some light on the horizon
and whoever sees it is not a madman, he is alone
a man and you meant not to be
for the sake of a shadow. I deceived you
but now I tell you at this point stop.

Your worst and your best do not belong to you
and for what you have you can do without
of a shadow. At this point
see with your eyes and even without eyes.

Poem taken from: bibliotecamo.it