John Keats

LIFE (1795 - 1821)
Keats belongs to the second generation of Romantic poets, but unlike Shelley and Byron he was only slightly touched by the political events of the period in which he lived, and stood apart from the other two Romantic poets for his lack of social commitment.
He was born in London. His father died when he was eight and his mother died when he was fourteen. In 1817 Keats published his first collection of poetry and started work on a long narrative poem, Endymion. In 1818 his younger brother died and in the same year he fell in love with Fanny Brawne, but he was aware that his meager finances and failing health made marriage impossible. Nevertheless 1819 proved to be  his annus mirabilis and he produced the poems for which he will always be remembered. After nine months of intense creative activity, Keats’s health worsened. He died of tuberculosis in Rome in 1821.

ACHIVEMENT
Keats has left a varied body of work dealing with central Romantic themes. His first long work, Endymion, describes the love of the moon goddess Cynthia for Endymion.
The long poem The Eve of St. Agnes is and adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Keat’s Ode on a Grecian Urn and Ode to Autumn are among the best-known and loved poems in English. All these works deal with the central Romantic themes of the power of imagination and the search for beauty, the brevity and pain of human life contrasted with the beauty of nature and the permanence of art.

La Belle Dame sans Merci was written at a painful moment’s in Keat’s life: his brother had died of tuberculosis the year before, he himself had had the first symptoms of the same disease. In addition Keats was torn between his love for a young woman, Fanny Brawne, and his devotion to poetry. The conflict between love and poetry, the sense of death are present in this poem. However Keats avoids the danger of egocentricity and achieves impersonality, especially by using the ballad form.
The title of the poem means “the beautiful lady without pity”. The ballad begins in medias res, carries the narrative forward with questions and answers in direct speech. A questing knight encounters a fairy lady in a greenwood. Critics have interpreted the relationship between the human and the supernatural lovers in a variety of ways. The lady emerges as a femme fatale, leading men to destruction after the brief joy of loving her. She is also regarded as an embodiment of the poetic inspiration.
However there is always an implicit contrast between the “real world” and the world of the imagination, and the confusion between waking and sleeping, illusion and reality.

… AND SURE IN LANGUAGE STRANGE SHE SAID - “I LOVE THEE TRUE”

Traduzione

Oh cosa ti affligge, cavaliere armato,
Solo e pallido vagando?
Il giunco è avvizzito (in riva) al lago,
E nessun uccello canta.

Oh cosa ti affligge, cavaliere armato,  
Così sparuto e così desolato?
Il granaio dello scoiattolo è pieno,
Ed il raccolto è fatto. (è stato fatto)

Vedo un giglio sulla tua fronte
Umido di angoscia e rugiada di febbre; 
E sulle tue guance una rosa (che sta) appassendo
Velocemente avvizzisce pure.

Incontrai una dama nei prati,
Molto bella – la figlia di una fata,
I suoi capelli erano lunghi, il suo passo (piede) era leggero, 
Ed i suoi occhi erano selvaggi.

Feci un ghirlanda (di fiori) per la sua testa,
E braccialetti pure, ed una cintura fragrante;
Lei mi guardò come se mi amasse,
E fece un dolce lamento. 

La posi sul mio destriero al passo (che andava al passo)
E non vidi altro durante tutto il giorno,
Perché si piegava sul fianco, e cantava
Una canzone di fata.

Mi trovò radici di dolce sapore
E miele silvestre e rugiada di manna,
E sicura in una strana lingua mi disse,
“Ti amo veramente!”

Lei mi portò alla sua magica grotta,
E lì pianse e sospirò molto addolorata; 
E lì io chiusi i suoi selvaggi, selvaggi occhi
Con quattro baci.

E lì lei mi cullò fino al sonno,
E lì io sognai – Ah! mal me ne incolse!
L’ultimo sogno che ho mai sognato 
Sul fianco della fredda collina.

Vidi pallidi re e principi pure,
Pallidi guerrieri, con pallore mortale erano tutti loro;
Loro gridavano – “La Belle Dame Sans Merci”
Ti ha reso schiavo!” 

Vidi le loro labbra affamate nel crepuscolo
Con orribile avvertimento spalancate, (lett. aperte ampie)
E mi svegliai e mi trovai qui,
Sul fianco della fredda collina.

E questo è il perché soggiorno qu 
Solo e pallido vagando,
Sebbene il giunco sia avvizzito (in riva) al lago,
E nessun uccello canta.