Umberto Saba, with his poem “L’ora nostra”, captures an everyday moment transfigured into a universal symbol of reflection and introspection. The poem begins with a rhetorical question that immediately establishes a contemplative tone, inviting the reader to consider the time of day before the evening, a time of intense activity and transition.
Saba describes this hour with a wealth of visual and human details that animate the urban picture: the people “surfing” in the streets, the “shaded” moon emerging over the houses, the child jumping on the cart. These details not only enrich the scene, but also symbolize the continuous movement of life. It is interesting to note how the author plays with the idea of movement and immobility, where every fervent action seems suspended in an atmosphere of apparent calm, as if to underline an existential duality between the flow of time and the eternal moments that pass through it.
The poem expands into a personal and collective meditation. Saba connects this moment of the day to the return to the “dear city”, a metaphor for returning to one’s roots and emotional security, after excursions in nature or in life. The image of the river flowing towards the sea is powerful and revealing, symbolizing the life of Sheba herself which proceeds inexorably towards her natural destiny, serenely accepting the course of events.
“Our time” thus becomes a hymn to life lived fully, to the richness of moments which, despite their incessant evolution, offer a vision of stability and inner peace. It is a moment of reflection on one’s existence, an awareness of the beauty of the daily routine which, despite its frenzy, hides moments of profound calm.
The poem ends with the affirmation that this hour is “great”, capable of accompanying “our harvest age” with its wealth of experiences and its load of wisdom. Saba, with delicacy and mastery, elevates a simple moment of the day into a metaphor for human life, making “Our Hour” a poem to read and reread, to discover and rediscover the nuances of time that passes and the emotions that remain.
“Our Hour” by Umberto Saba
You know the most beautiful time of day
is it in the evening? much
more beautiful and less loved? She’s the one
who shortly precedes his sacred leisure;
the hour that the work is intense, and it shows
people milling in the streets;
on the square masses of the houses
a hazy moon, one that just
discern in the serene air.
It’s about time you left the countryside
to enjoy your dear city,
from the luminous gulf to the mountain
it varies in its beautiful unity;
the hour that my life is in full swing
like a river to its sea;
and my thoughts, the quick walk
of the crowd, the artificers at the top of the high
climbs, the boy who runs jumps
on the thundering chariot, everything appears
still in the act, all this going
it has a semblance of immobility.
It is the great hour, the hour that accompanies
our harvesting age is better.
Poem from: bibliotecamo.it/
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