The poetry of rest: a summer letter by midsummer-milano

Where design slows down, and poetry takes its place.

Dear friend,

In Italy, summer is not just a season — it’s a rhythm.

It’s the slow creak of shutters at noon, the still air under an olive tree, the warmth of linen on sun-kissed skin. We make beds for moments like this: when the body softens, time stretches, and even silence has texture.

This is why, today, we want to share with you a poem.

 

Meriggiare pallido e assorto

To rest pale and absorbed. Eugenio Montale, Nobel Prize winner and one of Italy’s most celebrated poets, wrote these verses in 1925. A meditation on summer, on stillness, and on that fleeting moment when the world quiets down — and you hear your own breath. It is, in essence, everything we believe rest can be.

Meriggiare pallido e assorto

presso un rovente muro d’orto,

ascoltare tra i pruni e gli sterpi

schiocchi di merli, frusci di serpi.

Nelle crepe del suolo o su la veccia

spiar le file di rosse formiche

che ora si rompono ed ora si intrecciano

a sommo di minuscole biche.

Osservare tra frondi il palpitare

lontano di scaglie di mare

mentre si levano tremolanti

scricchi di cicale dai calvi picchi.

E andando nel sole che abbaglia

sentire con triste meraviglia

com'è tutta la vita e il suo travaglio

in questo seguitare una muraglia

che ha in cima cocci aguzzi di bottiglia.

 

 

To Doze Pale and Absorbed

Translation by Jonathan Galassia

To doze pale and absorbed

beside a sun-scorched garden wall,

to hear in the thorns and dry brush

blackbird clatter, snake rustle.

To watch in cracks in the earth or on the vetch

the lines of red ants,

breaking and rejoining,

over the tops of tiny heaps.

To watch, among the leaves,

the flicker of distant sea-scales,

while up from the bald peaks

the whir of cicadas rises.

And walking in the blinding sun

to feel with sorrowful wonder

how all of life and its ordeal

is in this trudging beside a wall

that has sharp shards of glass on top.

Why we chose to share this poem

At Midsummer, we believe that true rest is not only physical — it's also poetic. Meriggiare pallido e assorto by Eugenio Montale captures the essence of Italian summer: slow, suspended, sensorial. It’s a quiet moment under the sun that becomes something deeper — just like lying on a bed that allows you to pause, feel, and observe.

This is our idea of beauty. Of time. Of riposo.

What’s next

In the coming weeks, we’ll continue our journey through “Download the Dream”, sharing images inspired by great painters — from Vermeer to Renoir to Rousseau — reimagined through our eyes, and through the softness of a Midsummer bed.

Until then, we wish you long afternoons, light linen, and a moment of meriggiare.