(Leggi questo post in Italiano)
Fog, in addition to generating physical phenomena that affect the diffusion of light and visibility, can metaphorically evoke a condition of the human spirit where a lack of clarity can generate a sense of loneliness and bewilderment, transforming familiar landscapes into blurry images that make it more difficult to recognize an objective reality.
The poet Giovanni Pascoli in his poem “Fog” uses the meteorological phenomenon to express the sense of separation that humans sometimes experience.
In the fog each subject remains an individual who cannot clearly see his neighbor.
Text of the poem “Fog” by Giovanni Pascoli
Fog
Hide distant things,
you impalpable and pale fog,
you smoke that still springs,
at dawn,
from night flashes and from the collapses
of aerial landslides!
Hide distant things,
hide from me what is dead!
Let me see only the
garden hedge,
the wall whose cracks are filled
with valerian.
Hide the distant things:
things are drunk with tears!
Let me see the two peach trees, the two apple trees,
only,
that yield their sweet honey
for my black bread.
Hide the distant things
that want me to love and go!
May I see there only that white
road,
which one day I must travel amid the weary
ringing of bells…
Hide distant things,
hide them , steal them away in the flight
of the heart! May I see the cypress
there, alone,
here, only this garden, near which
my dog slumbers.
The fog obliterates our points of reference, transforming a familiar landscape into an unfamiliar place, forcing us to slow down.
The fog, by depriving our sight of external stimuli, alters our “reflexes”, stimulates our “reflections”.
See also: https://www.romio.family/2019/11/23/natale-2019-riflessi-e-riflessioni/