pisiccap

LA CAPANNA	THE HUT
Gabriella Sica	trans. Brian Cole
Sorridi ora e mi guardi da una foto con gli occhi nuovi d’un mattino antico, in un giorno africano del trentacinque, mi parli camminando altero e bello. Splendi in un’abbagliante luce tra dolci donne arabe e bei cavalli, c’è una povera capanna in paglia e intorno vesti bianche come vele. Venticinque anni avevi quel giorno, se per caso incontrato ti avessi, avrei potuto anche innamorarmi e poi abbracciarti, esserti devota come la bambina che sono stata. Così non ci sarebbe più lontananza.	Now you smile and look at me from a photo with the modern eyes of the long-past morning of an African day in thirty-five, you speak to me as you walk, proud and fine. You shine with a dazzling light among kind Arab ladies and fine horses; there is a poor straw hut and all around clothes white like sails. You were twenty-five on that day. If by chance I had met you I might also have fallen in love with you and then kissed you, been devoted to you like the child that I was. There would have been no distance between us.