#100 / Fossoli

Oh humans, we are so great!
What worlds from within us we create!
Out of our dreams we build a paradise hotel.
Out of a nightmare, a death camp hell.

===============================================

Sunset At Fossoli 

I know what it means not to return.
Through barbed wire I have seen
The sun go down and die,
And have felt my flesh torn
By an old poet's words:
"The sun may set and rise,
But we, contrariwise,
Sleep after our short light
One everlasting night."


February 7, 1946

PRIMO LEVI
Translated by Marco Sonzogni and Harry Thomas

Lines 6-9 are Walter Raleigh's translation of Catullus, Catulli liber, 5,4.

Information about Fossoli can be found by clicking the link. The translation above is from the Times Literary Supplement, February 22, 2013. 

Image Credit:
https://sites.google.com/site/antoniobutt/fossoli