fatela voi
quella polvere lieve
a svanire
che chiamate pensieri
ogni volta era scendere
per concordare
una luce giusta su ogni cosa,
ma l’àncora è sempre del buio
e piomba giù di schianto,
trasversale
questo è il nostro ultimo
vaneggiamento dall’alto
presto diventeremo
tuonare greve e basso
straniato d’amore
in forma musicale
*
it's all yours
this fine powder
you call thought
a breath could blow it away
each time such a stooping
to diffuse an agreed light
over every last thing
and always that anchor
rattling back into the dark
at an obtuse angle
this will be our last
pronouncement from on high
soon we'll be only
a solemn thunder
exiled by love
into distant music
(English translation by Philip Morre)
Monica Pavani
angelica rinuncia al raziocinio / the angels abjure logick
About Monica Pavani
Monica Pavani lives in Ferrara (Italy). Besides writing poetry (in one of her published collections, Luce ritirata/Light Withdrawn, which won the Senigallia first prize in 2005, the French sculptor Camille Claudel speaks in the first person), she has been working for many years as a translator from English and French into Italian. Among her translations: The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett (La sovrana lettrice, Adelphi 2007), Mouvement par la fin by Philippe Rahmy (Movimento dalla fine, Mobydick 2008) and The Windsor Knot by SJ Bennett (Il nodo Windsor, Mondadori 2021).
Her book about Jewish writer Giorgio Bassani, L’eco di Micòl. Itinerario bassaniano (The Echo of Micòl. A Walk through the Writings of Giorgio Bassani) was published in a bilingual version by 2G Editrice in Ferrara in 2011. She also translated the poem Parisina by Lord Byron, which was published by 2G Editrice in 2015.
