Full moon poem to Galileo Galilei
You whose eyes were made to see
what all other eyes would not see,
due glory you rendered saying, “I render
infinite thanks to God for being so kind as
to make me the first observer of marvels
kept hidden from all previous times”.
Given to you was, also, a first born child,
assigned to the Convent of San Matteo,
at so tender an age, with her younger sister!
And as you labored through every tempest,
from the empoverished distant walls
of her Cloister much comfort she sent,
with words of strength and happiness.
And we know that she was, for you, more
than the brightest full moon in your heaven,
and unlike the face of the sun,never
on her soul, a spot could you have detected!
Under the canopy of your bed,
the end of all sufferings you patiently awaited;
then in a small room, under a bell tower,
in a room darker that the darkness
that ravaged your kind blind eyes,
your bones were laid to rest.
But now, from the bell tower of Santa Croce,
resounds your glory,
and the bells of Santa Croce
praise and glorify for ever the brightness
and the beauty of another God-given man,
while your bones rest with Maria Celeste’s
in the tomb of Santa Croce.
