What belongs together is pulled apart
A hyperbaton (iperbato) rearranges constituents or separates words that belong together grammatically. In poetry it serves rhythm, rhyme and emphasis. Italian word order is flexible enough that the sentence stays clear once you put it back into prose order.
Leopardi and the prose version
Verse
Sempre caro mi fu quest'ermo colle.
Ever dear to me was this lonely hill.
Giacomo Leopardi, L'infinito
Prose
Questo colle solitario mi è sempre stato caro.
This lonely hill has always been dear to me.
Subject first, verb and predicate in normal order
The most common displacements
A handful of patterns keep coming back in classic texts. Once you recognise them, you read more fluently.
Verse and prose side by side
| Displacement | Verse | Prose |
|---|---|---|
| Verb at the end | ove il mio corpo fanciulletto giacque | dove giacque il mio corpo di bambino |
| Object before the verb | il guardo esclude | esclude lo sguardo |
| di-phrase before the word it modifies | di doman non c'è certezza | non c'è certezza del domani |
| Verb before the subject | stette la spoglia immemore | la spoglia immemore rimase |
In the original
Né più mai toccherò le sacre sponde / ove il mio corpo fanciulletto giacque.
Never again shall I touch the sacred shores where my body lay as a child.
Ugo Foscolo, A Zacinto
e questa siepe, che da tanta parte / dell'ultimo orizzonte il guardo esclude.
and this hedge, which shuts out the gaze from so much of the farthest horizon.
Giacomo Leopardi, L'infinito
Chi vuol esser lieto, sia: / di doman non c'è certezza.
Let whoever would be happy, be so: of tomorrow there is no certainty.
Lorenzo de' Medici, Canzona di Bacco
Imitating it today
In elevated prose, speeches and journalism, one pattern lives on: the predicate adjective or noun moves to the front, followed by essere and then the subject. A di-phrase at the start of a sentence has a similar effect. Both give a paragraph weight and rhythm without correcting anything. English knows the device too, as in “Great was their surprise”, but it sounds far more old-fashioned there than in Italian.
The pattern
Plain and elevated
La sorpresa fu grande quando aprimmo la lettera.
Our surprise was great when we opened the letter.
Normal order
Grande fu la sorpresa quando aprimmo la lettera.
Great was our surprise when we opened the letter.
Elevated, narrative
I motivi di questa scelta sono numerosi.
The reasons for this choice are many.
Normal order
Numerosi sono i motivi di questa scelta.
Many are the reasons for this choice.
Elevated, essay or speech
Sappiamo poco della sua infanzia.
We know little about his childhood.
Normal order
Della sua infanzia poco sappiamo.
Of his childhood we know little.
Elevated, biographical
