Al telefono* Giorgio Bassani Mi racconta che stanotte al telefono avevo parlandone una strana voce molto calma e pacata che dicevo cose affatto sensate e ragionevoli insomma ma con un tono un po’ da bambino Non ne so nulla non mi ricordo di niente però mi chiedo vive dunque ancora quel bambino medesimo che corrucciato abbraccia la mamma nel minuscolo quandretto fotografico che sta in salotto a Ferrara? Possibile? Vivo e sepolto in me così e da tanti anni? Ma allora cosa gli accadrà che ne sarà di lui misero tra poco? | On the telephone Giorgio Bassani She says that last night on the telephone I had when speaking to her a strange voice terribly calm and soft that I said things not at all absurd or unreasonable but in a voice that was somewhat childlike I have no idea I can’t remember a thing but I ask myself if therefore he is alive still the very child who frowning embraces his mother in the tiny picture frame in the sitting room in Ferrara? How is it possible? Living and buried in me that way and for so long? But then what will happen to him what will become of the poor thing before long? Translation ©Matilda Colarossi 2026 |
The poem Al telefono by Giorgio Bassani is from the collection Bassani Poesie complete, Feltrinelli Ed. Milano, 2021. p 163. The book can be found at Feltrinelli: here.
A lack of punctuation, games with syntax (restructured sentences, rearranged words, and manipulated grammar) made me doubt every line of my translation, but you know how I feel about “paraphrasing” poetry in translation. I read it often in Italian to make out the sense; my readers will most likely have to do the same in English.
Happy mother’s day to all, mothers and children alike, for one does not exist without the other.-M.C.
Image: Giorgio Bassani by Carlo Levi 1953
This work is licensed under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
parallel texts: words reflected 