Tonight I've watched
The moon and then
the Pleides
go down
The night is now
half-gone; youth
goes; I am
in bed alone.
(Sappho)1
If the Moon, Calvino writes in the chapter "Leggerezza" of his Lezioni americane, has always had the power in the writing of poets "di comunicare una sensazione di levità, di sospensione, di silenzioso e calmo incantesimo [...] il miracolo di Leopardi è stato di togliere al linguaggio ogni peso fino a farlo assomigliare alla luce lunare"2.
Calvino, who wanted to dedicate his lesson to the moon, must refrain from doing so, because, he claims, "la luna andava lasciata tutta a Leopardi". He is well aware that we cannot discuss Leopardi's moon without the risk of burdening it with a weight that is the opposite of its very nature. [...]