In the Morning You Always Come Back

Dawn’s faint breath

breathes with your mouth

at the ends of empty streets.

Gray light your eyes,

sweet drops of dawn

on dark hills.

Your steps and breath

like the wind of dawn

smother houses.

The city shudders,

Stones exhale—

you are life, an awakening.

Star lost

in the light of dawn,

trill of the breeze,

warmth, breath—

the night is done.

You are light and morning.

This poem was written by Pavese for his lover, Constance Dowling, an American actress.