{"id":262,"date":"2007-02-14T09:29:07","date_gmt":"2007-02-14T09:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/nucleus-import\/?p=262"},"modified":"2007-02-14T09:29:07","modified_gmt":"2007-02-14T09:29:07","slug":"three-poems-by-mariella-de-santis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/archive-english\/three-poems-by-mariella-de-santis\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Poems by Mariella De Santis"},"content":{"rendered":"
Mariella De Santis<\/div>\n

\nPoems by Mariella De Santis <\/b>
\ntranslated from Italian to English by Anthony Robbins<\/i><\/p>\n

Awaiting the Barbarians<\/b><\/p>\n

We shall be no example
\nfor the timorous or faint-hearted
\nWe never mixed our blood
\nto create a new species
\nThe strong will stay with the strong
\nthe feeble with the feeble<\/p>\n

We dreamt we were the first
\nto be dragged from a keel
\nWe rid our lips of certain
\nvowels and consonants
\nwith which we burned
\nto prophesy new words<\/p>\n

Killing the dream
\nwon’t make us better
\nOur sacrifice will interest
\none person only<\/p>\n

But you undressing that night
\nwith such solemnity \u2013
\nAs much as me you believed
\nin honouring our rite<\/p>\n


\nFor my Bloom’s Day <\/b><\/p>\n

Laughing we part with death in our hearts.
\nNothing is more real than this, you whispered
\nIn the dark of the night, as your white body
\nMore than my own, blended with mine, sank into mine.
\nCort\u00e0zar’s poem – the unmade journey to Marrakesh,
\nDeep sea fishing unenjoyed, technical
\nReasons deployed – give us, for five minutes more,
\nStrength to go on. Two coffees, two biscuits,
\nA shirt ironed, are the graceful steps to farewell.
\nDon’t forget our future, you enjoin me,
\nBut from my window the past has yet to arrive.<\/p>\n

\nSpeaking with Tongues<\/b><\/p>\n

It’s all fallen to bits in my head what little
\nI knew of your proud tongue
\nNow everything is getting muddled
\nI don’t any longer know the noun for bread
\nOr the one for wine \u2013 if to say right is the same
\nAs indicating left or means go straight ahead.<\/p>\n

What little I knew of your proud tongue
\nExpels from my head my own known tongue.<\/p>\n

In the middle I’ll stay, as far from the shore
\nAs from the ship, and settle down to wait. <\/p>\n

In the meantime let’s love each other in silence
\nOr let’s fashion a beautiful child, who
\nA song will make of Your, Our, My proud tongue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Poems by Mariella De Santis translated from Italian to English by Anthony Robbins Awaiting the Barbarians We shall be no example for the timorous or faint-hearted We never mixed our blood to create a new species The strong will stay with the strong the feeble with the feeble<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":550,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/archive-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/archive-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/archive-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/archive-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/550"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/archive-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/archive-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/archive-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/archive-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/archive-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}