PARTENZA DA GREENWICH | DEPARTURE FROM GREENWICH |
Bartolo Cattafi | trans. Brian Cole |
Si parte sempre da Greenwich dallo zero segnato in ogni carta e in questo grigio sereno colore d'Inghilterra. Armi e bagagli, belle speranze a prua, sprezzando le tavole dei numeri i calcoli che scattano scorrevoli come toppe addolcite da un olio armonioso, in un'esatta prigione. Troppe prede s'aggirano tra i fuochi delle Isole, e navi al largo, piene, panciute, buone per essere abbordate dalla ciurma sciamata ai Tropici votata alla cattura di sogni difficili, feroci. Ed alghe, spume, il fondo azzurro in cui pesca il gabbiano del ricordo posati accanto al grigio disteso colore degli occhi, del cuore, della mente, guano australe ai semi superstiti del mondo. |
You always depart from Greenwich from the zero marked on every map and on this calm grey, the colour of England. Bag and baggage, high hopes on the prow, scorning the tables of numbers the computations that spring up flowing like sweetened patches from a harmonious oil, in a correct prison. Too much prey roves across the fires of the Island, and ships on the high seas, full, big-bellied, fit to be boarded by the crew that swarmed to the Tropics devoted to the capture of dreams difficult and fierce. And seaweed, foam, the blue depths in which fishes the seagull of memory, set beside the expanse of grey, the colour of the eyes, of the heart, of the mind, southern guano for the surviving seeds of the world. |
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Copyright: Mrs. Ada Cattafi © 2000, trans. Brian Cole © 2000 - publ. Arc Publications
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