Journal of Italian Translation

Adria Bernardi/Raffaello Baldini
which even if there isn’t, all of my masses, communions,
but it’s not just me, all those who go to church,
all those lit candles,
all the churches, how many of them are there in this world?
beautiful, enormous buildings, for nothing? I, at St. Peter’s,
I remember, I got goose bumps,
no, you need a faith,
what are we, animals? are we donkeys?
we each have a brain, we make use of it,
there’s got to be a reason, a basis,
which we don’t get right now,
but one day
everything will be understood,
there’s got to be a purpose, because if not,
if it doesn’t matter,
if this world is just an Instant Lottery,
where if your number comes up you don’t even know
if you’ve won or if you’ve lost
these are discussions, these are,
which the inside my head, afterwards, is roiling, I can’t stand it,
but I think about this every so often,
you have to do it, today
people just don’t want to think about anything,
just having fun,
and they make fun of you, a girl on the train,
last year, with her friends, I’d said: We are all smaller,
because everyone does whatever he feels like doing, that the world
isn’t right and from here it will only get worse,
and she said, “From where?” they all laughed, what did I say,
“We’re not going to wait our turns in line, there’s too many of us,”
and I wanted to answer her right back, but I kept quiet,
then I got off, these kids, I don’t understand,
they think in a certain way,
but sometimes in Rimini, on the street,
I’m standing there for a minute, there are a lot of them, I mean lots,
where are they all going? pfft! what are they all doing?
and in summer, at the beach, in the Piazza Tripoli,
talking all different languages, what are they saying?
then the thoughts, which sometimes
I stay there and watch them for a half-hour, another half-hour,
and at night I dream of ants,
the pavement, covered, even the stairs, they’re black,
some that fly, they’re walking over, they crunch,
they form little mounds around me,
and I say: standing here, for them,
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