IMMOBILITY
poems by Annalisa Cima
traslated by Allen Mandelbaum

1.

I would withdraw
         my body
when
         all is complete
before we part.
I can withdraw
because
         I did not think
to come this far.

11.

No words
         books
         sentences.
Give me a thread
to grasp
         a thought
not to be thought
         a nought
in which to live
and an end that is not the nought.

16.

Your eyes are in the boughs that bend
and where boughs end
are your deep roots.


23.

The path that passed
         did not graze the water.
That path is not to be denied
         it can trace roads and lines
but it did not graze the water.

24.

You've taken everything from me
even the void
even the fear.

26.

Only the farthest
         tangents touch
our deepest uselessness.

32.

The way
may be a place
but no place is
the way.

33.

When anguish 
meets 
us in sleep
the latch of life
draws thigt
and tights
the arms
the thighs.

34.

The useless
hounds me
the necessary
flees.

35.

To play 
         with our own death
that others may
not inflict it on us.

44.

Those who are near 
and those far off
shout.
They sell knowledge.
But knowledge they would sell
cannot be cried out.


58.

The need to die
         to verify
         one's self
the fracture of each event
is its true significance.

60.

Of the wind
         that strikes
of the thought
         we wrought
of the white
         that unites
remembering remains.

64.

It has no direction.
But it is direct.
It can strike.
It has already struck
you perhaps.

INDICE TRADUZIONI