This is one of the first poems ever posted on my blog (when I had no idea where this blog was headed, or where my love of Italian literature would lead me, or that I would meet so many wonderful authors and poets on this journey) and it is still one of my favourites.
#Ecopoetry #Nature
Remains of an industrial society
Margherita Guidacci
Shallow water near the bank
where floating
decayed wood is united at strange angles
by rusty nails
and where waste spills
from a hostile factory ditch;
water in which foam
gurgles in grey circles
or stretches between smooth scars
of lurid nameless colours;
where the oil quashes the salt;
where no wave breaks
that can find its way back to sea;
where nothing disappears and nothing is salvaged-
this water, in a moment, is in your soul
when evil grips you
and your contamination makes even
the sun’s rays seem impure
Translation ©Matilda Colarossi 2014
parallel texts: words reflected 