MAY 2013

FEATURED POET: Lucia Gazzino was born in Udine (Friuli, Italy) in 1959 and has been a poet since she was a teenager. A teacher of creative writing, she translates history and poetry, and writes both in Italian and in Friulian (her mother tongue). In 2005, Marimbo Press published The New Youth, her translation of a selection of Friulian poems by Pier Paolo Pasolini, and in 2010 she was one of the ten translators of In Danger: a Pasolini Anthology, published by City Lights Books. She also translated The Kid’s Way, an anthology of Tibetan poems. Her poems have appeared in various anthologies of Italian poetry and have been translated into German, English, Welsh, and Slovenian. Her books include Fiori di Papiro, La cjase des Cjartis, Alter Mundus, and Babel oms, feminis e cantonîrs. Her poetic DVD is called Viaggiatori senza Valigia. She lives in the Friulian countryside.  Check out her new book at Pleasure Boat Studio


In cerca di un addio

Per tutte le volte
che non riuscivi a dire
“ti amo”
l’ho detto io per te
più forte del silenzio della notte.
Per tutte le volte
che la tua mano
non riusciva a sfiorare il mio seno
ho sfiorato il tuo viso
con delicata brezza di settembre
Per tutte le volte
che non riesci ad andartene
allontano i miei passi
trattenendo il respiro
per non trattenerti in me
Per tutte le volte
che non riesci a tornare
avvicino il mio viso
al tuo riflesso
sul vetro del tempo.


(Translated by Michael Daley)
Looking for Goodbye 

For all those times
you couldn’t say
“ti amo,”
I’ve said it for you
stronger than midnight stillness.
For all those times
your hand couldn’t
graze my breast,
I’ve touched your face
with the delicate breeze of September.
For all those times
you don’t go away,
I scurry away
hold my breath
so as not to hold you within me.
For all those times
you can’t return,
I put my face
on your reflection
in the pane of time.

Niente più lacrime
Non piangere amore
mentre guardi la pioggia
che lava la paura
rifuggi pensieri
cancella un futuro incerto
Non piangere più
raccogli lacrime in mani
diafane
e fanne dono a questa vita

(Translated by Michael Daley)
No More Tears

No teary love.
While you watch rain
wash over fear
and refuse to think,
it shuts out a debatable future.
No more weeping—
catch handfuls
of diaphanous tears
and make of them
a gift to this life.

WRITE YOUR OWN POEM:

Pollen on the Breath of Whippoorwills

Near the inlet
where we fished,
ran the beach and found
the white gardenia
to float in the glazed
bowl from pottery class.

-Denise Calvetti Michaels

Florentine Italian became the network language for all, but regional dialects are still spoken.  Lucia translates.  Denise' mother speaks her regional dialect.  So what region are you from?  How do you distill that into a poem?  Take a shot.  Write it in a blog.  Write it in the vapor of your shower.  Look around and find the details.  Molto grazie, eh!