Umberto Saba was an Italian poet and novelist, born Umberto Poli in the cosmopolitan Mediterranean port of Trieste when it was the fourth largest city of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Poli assumed the nom de plume "Saba" in 1910, and his name was officially changed to Umberto Saba in 1928.
I say goodbye when I approach you, Love, as this age and this gray would have me do. There was the shadow of the earth and sun and, oh, the heart of a heartless boy in you.