The Animal With and Within Me

The second exercise is similar to the first one, but we move to other sounds and images. We will read Mariangela Gualtieri’s poem Un messaggero chiama. You are asked to choose either an image or a particular set of words from the poem and from there either (1) translate to another language (other than English) or (2) create your own poem following the themes of body and the sacred.

Un messaggero chiama

Un messaggero chiama
dalle fronde. Nascosto aleggia
in piume. Becchetta. Canta
o si duole o percuote o ragiona d’amore
stagionale. La sua materia grigia
strofina la corrente d’un cielo
trasmittente. E lui veleggia
miracolato si spande
illeso dalla gravità che inchioda
noi, disertori di vuoti e altezze
ombre gettate
in trattorie modeste per un cibo.
Teste in capitali
di ruggine.
Un vitalizio d’oscurità.

Solo un pianto ci salva adesso.

A messenger calls

A messenger calls
from the branches. Hidden he hovers                                    
in feathers. Pecks. Sings or
laments or thrashes or thinks over
seasonal love. His gray matter                                              
brushes the current                                                     
of a transmitting sky. And he soars
saved, outstretched
untouched by the gravity that pins us            
down, we deserters of empty spaces and heights      
shadows cast
into modest taverns for a bite.          
Heads in capitals                                                                                        
of rust.
A lifetime annuity of darkness.                                                         

Only a cry can save us now.

Italian poem originally appeared in Bestia di gioia (2010 Giulio Einaudi editore s.p.a., Torino.) Translation by Olivia E. Sears published in 2020 on The Common.

Mariangela Gualtieri

Mariangela Gualtieri was born in Cesena, Italy, in 1951. Trained as an architect, she co-founded the Teatro Valdoca in 1983, for which she serves as playwright. One of Italy’s most compelling poetic voices, her work bridges poetry and theater through a deep commitment to the oral and communal dimensions of verse. Her books include Bestia di gioia(Einaudi, 2010) and Le giovani parole (Einaudi, 2015), among others. Her latest volume, Quando non morivo (2019), sold nearly eight thousand copies in its first months.

Olivia E. Sears is founder of the Center for the Art of Translation and serves on the editorial board of Two Lines Press. Her translations of women poets have appeared in Kenyon Review, A Public Space, Poetry International, and other journals.

Extension

I invite you to read a selection of poems by Mariangela Gualtieri, accompanied by English translations by Olivia E. Sears.