"Literature is a cohesive force for us readers around the world.  It is the voice of our common humanity, expressing at the same time the different cultures in which we live.  As such it is surely one of the more benign forms of globalization, and it may become a bridge toward world peace and understanding.  Alas, there is a limit to the languages we can learn over a lifetime, and thus a need for translation.  Translation is the hearing aid that allows us to listen to the voice that speaks in another language.  The Enchanting Verses Literary Review has decided to make available the original texts, wishing to encourage readers to take a look at them."
 ~~~Ute Margaret Saine , Editor of Translations

The International Translation project of The Enchanting Verses Literary Review encompasses poetry across the globe in several languages translated into English by translators. Every month we feature 2-4 new selections of translations as a part of this project. 

Volume 1 No. 1 November 2013

GUARDA CHE LUNA!


ci hanno consigliato
di ammirar la luna
la sera delle bombe
ho girato il naso in su
ma lei
non c’era

la colpa non è stata
di qualche scialba nuvola

ma certo!
mi sono immedesimata
nelle sue vertigini:
s’è vergognata
di girarci intorno
e ha slacciato l’orbita

s’è persa
per lo spazio
in cerca di una Terra
appena un po’
più umana



POLVERE CHE VA
                                     
Partirò con il vento
povera impalpabile polvere
e in ogni granello
vivrà
un pensiero che lascio
un’illusione spenta
un mistero non sciolto
…schegge di un passaggio.

Senza ministri e calici
nessun corteo di lacrime
orazioni o nenie.
Come altare il dirupo che sporge
su mare e valle:
sarà il fato oppure il caso
a scegliere
se ad acqua terra o cielo
mi unirò.

Saluteranno in pochi

i miei cinerei spagli
ma tanti porterei con me
tra gli aliti di zefiro.

E come testamento
in sigillo di cera
nulla varrà…
avrò già dato tutto.

JUST LOOK AT THE MOON

They told us
to admire the moon
on the night of the bombs
I turned my nose upward
but it
was not there

it wasn’t the fault 
of some pale cloud

but of course!
I sought to understand
the vertigo it felt:
it was ashamed
of turning around us
and changed its orbit

it got lost
in space
looking for an Earth
just a little
more human



DUST BLOWING
                       
I will be gone with the wind
some poor impalpable dust
and in every grain
is alive
a thought I’m leaving behind
a wasted illusion
an unresolved mystery
...splinters of a passage.

Without pastors or calyxes
no tearful funeral procession
not prayers or dirges.
A precipice over sea and valley
leans out in place of an altar:
it will be up to fate or chance
to choose
whether to unite me
with water, air or sky.


Few will greet
my ashen castings
but some I will carry with me
into the breath of zephyrs.

And as my testament
sealed in wax
nothing will do:
I will have already given it all.

Original poems in Italian by Rita Stanzione
Rita Stanzione is an eminent Italian poet and teacher who lives near Salerno.  She has won many prizes both nationally and internationally.  Some of her recent poetry volumes published are "Spazio di sognare liquido" [A Space of Liquid Dreams], "Versi ri-versi" [Verses reversed], and "Per non sentire freddo" [How not to Feel Cold], all of 2012, and she continues to be published in many journals, both on paper and on the Internet. 

Translations by Ute Margaret Saine

FOLLIA


Sì follia
d’una notte
dimmi da
dove Tu vieni
e dove andrai
mortale nemico
Vieni forse
da pensieri oscuri
ebbri d’effimere sensazioni?
Vuoi forse condurmi
nel paradiso
frammentato del peggio?
Chiunque Tu sia
conosci l’eleganza
viva dei cospiratori
Meraviglioso avventuriero
saggio d’idee
Che tu sia
padrone del cuore
sorto in piena libertà
follie governerai
in storie fatte di venti
nati dentro l’anima.
Arte degli uomini.



RIORDINO


Mente
Cammina
Scivola
Trema
Oscilla
In letture
Che abbraccia
Ordine
Contempla
Consapevolezza mia
Ostinata
Guarda Chi vuol sfuggire
All’effimero paesaggio
Senza negare Vita
Che misteriosa
Attraversa
Corpi, Vanità
Fabbricando Identità

MADNESS

 
Here you are madness
of a night
tell me from
where You come
and where you are going
mortal enemy
Do you perhaps
come from dark thoughts
drunk with ephemeral sensations?
Do you perhaps want to
lead me to a paradise
riddled with the worst?
Whoever You may be
you know the live
elegance of conspirators
Marvelous adventurer
wise with ideas
You may be
the master of hearts
risen in full liberty
madnesses you will fashion
into stories made of wind
born within the soul.
The art of human beings.



REORDERING

 
A mind
Moves
Slides
Trembles
Oscillates
In readings
And embraces
Order
Contemplates
My obstinate
Wisdom
Looks at Who wants to flee
From the ephemeral landscape
Without negating Life
That crosses
Mysteriously
Bodies, Vanities
Fabricating Identity

Original poems in Italian by Irene Firenze

Irene Firenze is an art historian who was born in Castelvetrano and has been living in Erice, Sicily, since 1999. She has dedicated herself to restoring frescoes, stuccoes, and wood sculptures and reliefs in both stone and wood, in a dialogue with objects who only seem mute.  She is one of three poets in the anthology "Metrica del cuore" [Metrics of the Heart] ed. Sonia Demurtas, S. D. Collezioni Editoriali, Rome, October 2013.

Translations by Ute Margaret Saine