La Lettura, ovviamente, mio pane per l'anima e la mente, rifugio di nostalgia e tramite presente tra passato e futuro.
La Lettura, of course, nourishment for my soul and my mind, paper of my nostalgia, past and future within cellulose.
Poetry fascinates me so much that when I approach a poem I get so anxious that it turns into an exam and my vision gets blurred, my mind doesn't respond and my soul gets frustrated.
Luckily each La Lettura comes with a page spent for one poet and one of his poems.
Turning the page and finding the Poem Section gives me the same pleasure of seeing an old friend. In the middle of the page, within the columns of the article, the poem is written within a brownish rectangle with cardinal red arabesques going around the text, and a black and white photo of the poet at the bottom of the rectangle. This very classic visual has the power to take me into the slow pace of poetry.
With dedication and time I have been able to control my fears and, moreover when I find a poet that resonates in me, I am able to relax and enjoy the read.
I try here to translate this poem by Fernando Bandini, it's something I have never done before but I think that I will be able to come out with something with this poem. Well, I guess I won't be able to avoid the Italian literal translation...
Amnesia
Day by day names fade away
off my speech and off my memory
usual words like
chair bottle.
Oh, the panting runs to possess them
back! Fumbling castaway
in a word that loses more and more
its aeons, I stutter
like Moses at the burning bush.
And with tense tremble I speak
house butterfly apple
to dispel the dark night
that one strides into;
but then
house plummets,
butterfly
vaporizes into
burgundy,
apple is taken from me devoured by the worm
inhabiting my brain.
How will I move, poet without
the beloved names juice of things,
within a looted universe holes?
from: La Mantide e la città , A. Mondadori, 1979
Wow, that was intense!
