Rhyme of Ancient Mariner Part 1 by Colerdige

Rhyme of Ancient Mariner Part 1 by Colerdige

Paraphrase:

An old sailor, stops one of three wedding guest. One says:" why do you stop me, with your long grey beard and glittering eyes?"

"The bridegroom's doors are opened wide, and I am a next of kin, everyone is ready and the party has begun, you can hear the merry sound."

He seizes him with his gaunt hand, and says: " there was a ship". "let me go, old rascal!" and the old sailor frees him.

He captures him again, with his glittering eyes, the wedding guest, that listens to him like a three year child: in fact the sailor has his will.

The guest sit on a stone, he has to listen: so the bright - eyed sailor speaks.

"The ship, was greeted, left merrily the harbour and sailed below the church, the hill and the lighthouse.

The sun rose out of the sea on the left; it shone bright and set down into the sea on the right.

Every day it shone higher in the sky, till when it was over the mast". The guest strikes his breast, because he hears the bassoon.

The bride appears in the hall, she is red as a rose, preceded by the musicians, who nodded their heads.

The guest hit his breast; he has to listen, so the bright-eyed sailor speaks.

"and came the storm. It was violent and strong: he hit the ship with his wings and drove us south along.

The mast was bent and the prow very low, as who chased by his enemy, screaming and hitting

The ship went fast, the storm roared loud, driving us southward.

After came mist and snow, and all became really cold: iceberg, high as the mast, floated by, like a green emerald.

Through the drifts the snowy stones sent a sad light. We didn't see any man or beast: only ice everywhere.

The ice was here, the ice was there, the ice was all around: it cracked, growled, roared and howled, like the noise when someone fainting!

At last came an albatross through the fog, as a christian soul. We acclaimed God' name.

It ate the food we gave him, food that he had never eaten, and he flew around the ship. The ice split and the helmsman drove the ship between it.

And also there was a good south wind behind us; the albatross followed us every day, looking for food or to play.

In mist or cloud, on mast or sails, it followed us for nine days. During the night, the moon shone through white fog."

"God save you, sailor, from hell! Why do you look at me so? With my cross-bow I shot the albatross.

Translation

PRIMA PARTE

È un vecchio marinaio, e ferma uno dei tre convitati: «Per la tua lunga barba grigia e il tuo occhio scintillante, e perchè ora mi fermi?

Le porte del Fidanzato son già tutte aperte, e io sono il più stretto parente; i convitati son già riuniti, il festino è servito, tu puoi udirne di qui l'allegro rumore.»

Ma egli lo trattiene con mano di scheletro. «C'era una volta un bastimento » comincia a dire. «Lasciami, non mi trattener più, vecchio vagabondo dalla barba brizzolata!» E quello immediatamente ritirò la sua mano.

Ma con l'occhio scintillante lo attrae e lo trattiene. -E il Convitato resta come paralizzato, e sta ad ascoltare come un bambino di tre anni: il vecchio Marinaro è padrone di lui.

Il Convitato si mise a sedere sopra una pietra: e non può fare a meno di ascoltare attentamente. E cosí parlò allora quel vecchio uomo, il Marinaro dal magnetico sguardo:

«La nave, salutata, avea già lasciato il porto, e lietamente filava sull'onde, sotto la chiesa, sotto la collina, sotto l'alto fanale.

Il Sole si levò da sinistra, si levò su dal mare. Brillò magnificamente, e a destra ridiscese nel mare

Ogni di piú alto, sempre più alto finchè diritto sull'albero maestro, a mezzogiorno » Il Convitato si batte il petto impaziente, perchè sente risuonare il grave trombone.

La Sposa si è avanzata nella sala: essa è vermiglia come una rosa; la precedono, movendo in cadenza la testa, i gai musicanti.

Il Convitato si percuote il petto, ma non può fare a meno di stare a udire il racconto. E così seguitò a dire quell'antico uomo, il Marinaro dall'occhio brillante.

«Ed ecco che sopraggiunse la burrasca, e fu tirannica e forte. Ci colpì con le sue irresistibili ali, e, insistente, ci cacciò verso sud.

Ad alberi piegati, a bassa prora, come chi ha inseguito con urli e colpi pur corre a capo chino sull'orma del suo nemico, la nave correva veloce, la tempesta ruggiva forte, e ci s'inoltrava sempre piú verso il sud.

Poi vennero insieme la nebbia e la neve; si fece un freddo terribile: blocchi di ghiaccio, alti come l'albero della nave, ci galleggiavano attorno, verdi come smeraldo.

E traverso il turbine delle valanghe, le rupi nevose mandavano sinistri bagliori: non si vedeva più forma o di bestia - ghiaccio solo da per tutto.

Il ghiaccio era qui, il ghiaccio era là, il ghiaccio era tutto all'intorno: scricchiolava e muggiva, ruggiva ed urlava. come i rumori che si odono in una sincope.

Alla fine un Albatro passò per aria, e venne a noi traverso la nebbia. Come se fosse stato un'anima cristiana, lo salutammo nel nome di Dio.

Mangiò del cibo che gli demmo, benchè nuovo per lui; e ci volava e rivolava d'intorno. Il ghiaccio a un tratto si ruppe, e il pilota potè passare fra mezzo.

E un buon vento di sud ci soffiò alle spalle, e l'Albatro ci teneva dietro; e ogni giorno veniva  a mangiare o scherzare sul bastimento, chiamato e salutato allegramente dai marinari.

Tra la nebbia o tra 'l nuvolo, su l'albero o su le vele, si appollaiò per nove sere di seguito; mentre tutta la notte attraverso un bianco vapore splendeva il bianco lume di luna.»

«Che Dio ti salvi, o Marinaro, dal demonio che ti tormenta! - Perchè mi guardi cosí, Che cos'hai?» - «Con la mia balestra, io ammazzai l' ALBATRO!

Rhyme Scheme and rhetorical devices

The poem is a ballad and in fact it has its main features: it talks about real and supernatural characters, there are personified animals and things. The narration is presented not as a continuous sequence of event but as a series of rapid flashes and contains a mixture of narration and dialogue. It is divided in four line stanzas, with some exception and is rich in repetitions and refrain. For example lines 19-20 are repeated in lines 39-40, and lines 31-32 in lines 37-38. The refrains begin always when the narration starts or ends.

In the poem there are a lot of personifications: the sun (line 25) has the pronoun "he" and the storm (line 43) has wings. The storm also produces sounds that are typical of animals as well as ice sounds (line 61). These characteristics liven up the images described. The albatross has a particular personification: it has the pronoun "it", but it is ed to a Christian soul.

Analysis

The poem begin by setting the place and the time, and introducing the characters. These are the mariner and the wedding guest: the first is characterised by "Grey beard and glittering eye" and "skinny hand". The wedding guest instead hasn't any characterisation, in fact he is under the will of the mariner. When the mariner has his attention, he begins the narration that he interrupted when the bride entered the hall; this "happy" pause prepares the reader for the dramatic facts of the next stanzas. The description of the storm is written with great imagination and vivid images: "He struck with his o'ertaking wings" or "As who pursued with yell and blow, still treads the shadow of his foe, and forward bends his head".

The nature that Coleridge describes is very different from that of Wordsworth: it is strong and has its own personality, it doesn't help men but tries to destroy them.

On reaching the South Pole, the crew of the ship, sight the ice-berg. There every animal, t has disappeared: there is only ice. Also it is fearful, in fact it utters the same sounds as the storm.

Finally comes the Albatross, ed to a Christian soul. With him also came the wind and the sailors were saved, but the Ancient mariner, crazily killed the bird and started all the trouble.