1

You that flee through foreign roads

which always go elsewhere, listen

in the remote shell of my sky,

in the tear that falls from its fruit,

in the flight of a leaf that stops you

at the border of an adventurous wood,

listen to Ciociaria at its sources.

Ciociaria, my white heifer,

anywhere you follow me with your breath,

always searched for but always absent

as the dawn and the star

in nostalgic territories:

even the pleasure, and the sorrow

are like love

Oh Ciociaria, my winter tale,

they aren’t your eyes those of the dawn

that I see from my window and when I wake up

on the horizon your light I don’t find.

One of your landscapes is a slice of bread

to be eaten in the room of the city

and a woman with fine skin is waiting for me,

the beloved named Ciociaria.

Oh my desert voice, Ciociaria,

keep a stone of your hills for me

if I don’t come back and in the stingy water

of your ditches look for my image.

I won’t write your praise,

mine so brief will be told by the winter wind

in the caves of your mountains,

maybe a leaf will repeat it.

Libero De Libero, surrealist poet, was born in Fondi in 1906 and he spent the first period of his life in the native town; then he moved to Rome where he died in 1981. The poet, deeply attached to his native land, decided in 1951 to write a poem written in the form of a letter for his friend Guido Mosillo, where the protagonist is just his homeland, Ciociaria.

When De Libero composed "Listen to Ciociaria", it was a creative moment for him: the poet worked out his verse precisely, every single word was searched for with extreme accuracy. The result is a musical poem, in the style of the ancient ballad singers.

In the poem De Libero sets out on an adventurous journey, a journey that starts from the banks of Sacco river, touches one by one all the towns of Ciociaria and ends in Fondi, the loved and hated town, while the poet brings with himself all the other towns that he does not mention " tied to his handkerchief".

The poet describes each town according to its main features, painting a map that goes beyond a simply geographic connotation, because each single picture becomes alive thanks to the spirit of the place. The poet depicts Ciociaria with its vineyards, olive groves, with the wind blowing among the poplars, with the changing of the seasons, with the loving feeling of the family, inside which it is possible to find happy moments. So he looks at his land with a homesick glance and with a deep emotion that he will always feel inside himself ( stanzas 7,10,30): the poet lives far from his town, but the memory of his native land is always in his heart; his poem is a praise of all the aspects of Ciociaria, but at the same time it is a wail of despair for the lost contact with it.

The inhabitants of Ciociaria are described by De Libero in their everyday life, pointing out their uses and customs; we can see the women of Ciociaria, beautiful and proud, or the men who are together in the squares playing "morra"; the poet underlines the glad moments, the dances, the "saltarelli", the music of organs and accordions, but also the sad moments like the departure of the emigrant leaving his land and his family, obliged by the hunger to go abroad. People are poor, the only riches are the jewels in the churches and the wheat in the houses, but the towns are lively and the blooming nature gives serenity to the inhabitants.

It is a poem full of sentiment, which the poet writes according to his memories and his strong emotions that spring even from the sight of the simplest and most authentic aspects of his land, a land that, though it is destined to change as the years go by, will remain eternal thanks to De Libero’s stanzas because, as the poet says in the last stanza, his praise will be handed down by the wind, by the leaves which will repeat his song for those people that would like to "listen" to Ciociaria.