Journal of Italian Translation

Adria Bernardi/Raffaello Baldini
a rubber hose on a nail, bottles, wine flasks, wood, spider webs,
it’s a wine cellar,
or am I delirious? no, there are wine barrels,
my legs are killing me,
stairs and more stairs, I’m going to collapse trying to get to the end,
because if the water gets down here,
I’ll drown like a rat, how did I get here?
what is happening to me?
Damn, could he have hypnotized me too?
no, forget it, first
I banged my head, can you feel that lump?
you can just forget about sleep, wait, no, here, there’s
nothing, I’m coming up from the plains,
even the houses, the villas, they’re steps,
a little boy is coming this way,
when you’re a nervous wreck,
and not thinking straight, stay calm now,
I just had a good scare, and coming up the stairs later
I was all alone laughing, I mean,
what an imbecile, but enough of that now,
enough, it’s passed, I’m way up here,
when you can see down below, or even if not,
even if there’s not much to see, at least you can take a deep breath,
but it doesn’t last, feel it, it’s humid,
my pants are sticking, every so often a piece of plaster falls,
there it is, look at that mark on the pavement,
down below there, it’s getting bigger, it’s here already,
you can’t get away from it, you can’t escape,
but you can get used to it, plus there’s not any choice,
on your haunches and climbing,
even when there’s nowhere else to go, when there’s nothing left to
say,
it seems like you’re trapped, then, if you look closely,
in the back, there’s a staircase,
how many times has this happened to me, and you run up them
in a frenzy,
after awhile you’re there all over again, here is the wall,
here too, it’s all wall, but this time,
you stay there, looking down, but no, it’s never going to end,
there could even be a hidden door,
like right now, you’ve got to pay attention to every little nook and
cranny,
the slightest creaking, matches would really be a help now,
but they’re not lighting, the tips are all soggy, wait a second,
let me see, this skinny hanging cord,
85