Homage to Pavese and different translations of “Verrà la morte e avrà i tuoi occhi” (1950)

Verrà la morte e avrà i miei occhi
ma dentro
ci troverà i tuoi
– Michele Mari

(“Death will come and have my eyes / but within them / he’ll find yours”)

This poem is a clear homage to Cesare Pavese.

Cesare Pavese’s line reads, “Death will come and have your eyes”. Or rather, that’s my translation. Here’s the original next to different translations I found online:

What do you think of works which explicitly reference other famous authors and their works?

After some reflection, I’ve come to think that I love literary homages like this. They will not be immediately clear to the reader who is unfamiliar with the original text, but the same might come again to the text when they’ve read more, and find the reference clear as day. Or if not, it will still be a beautiful piece of literature they added to their personal culture.

I always feel like I haven’t read much in my life. I must be constantly missing intertextual references everywhere. But when I do recognise them, I always love them. They feel like a small token of love for the greater text that is all of literature. An homage to other works which enriches the world of the text itself.