The Coffee-House Philosopher
Human beings in this world are the same
As coffee-beans before the espresso machine:
First one, and then another, a steady stream,
All of ‘em going alike to one sure fate.
Often they change places, and often the big bean
Presses against and crushes the little bean,
And they all crowd each other at the entrance gate
Of iron that grinds them down into a powder.
And so in this way men live, soft or hard,
Mixed together by the hand of God
That stirs them round and round and round in circles;
And, gently or roughly, everyone moves, draws breath
Without ever understanding why and falls
Down to the bottom through the throat of death.
—Giuseppe Gioachino Belli (translated by Harold Norse)
—found in The Roman Sonnets of G. G. Belli (1960; this poem composed ca. 1830-1839)
—view in original Italian (Romanesco, dialect of the core of the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital)