“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/
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