“I’m more and more convinced that poetry and life are incompatible, like in Tonio Kröger. I am now like Tonio Kröger in the storm, I have just gone out to the shore, and am still living acts that I don’t know how to translate into words.
“Maybe, who knows, the time for words is gone forever.” From a letter written to Vittorio Sereni, poet and great friend, on August 13, 1935. Antonia Pozzi would take her life only three years later, on December 3, 1938.
| Desiderio di cose leggere Antonia Pozzi Giuncheto lieve biondo come un campo di spighe presso il lago celeste e le case di un’isola lontana color di vela pronte a salpare – Desiderio di cose leggere nel cuore che pesa come pietra dentro una barca – Ma giungerà una sera a queste rive l’anima liberata: senza piegare i giunchi senza muovere l’acqua o l’aria salperà – con le case dell’isola lontana, per un’alta scogliera di stelle – | The desire for light things Antonia Pozzi Light blond reed bed like a field of wheat near a light blue lake and the homes of a distant island the color of sails ready to set out to sea― The desire for light things in a heart as heavy as stone inside a boat― But a freed soul will come one night to these shores: without bending the reeds without moving the water or the air it will set sail―with the homes of the distant island, for a high cliff of stars― Translation ©Matilda Colarossi 2021 |
The poem, written on February 1, 1934, is from the collection Parole by Antonia Pozzi
https://www.liberliber.it/online/autori/autori-p/antonia-pozzi/
You can buy Antonia Pozzi’s work here: https://www.garzanti.it/libri/antonia-pozzi-tutte-le-opere-9788811679394/
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
parallel texts: words reflected 