Journal of Italian Translation - Brooklyn College - Academic Home ...

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Poems in the Old Dialect of Gioiosa Jonica Province of
Reggio Calabria)
Is it you who knocks
with the point of a leaf
and break the door down?
Oh my, my dear!
I have longed for you and you have come.
Stay. Keep on talking
so I won’t be afraid coming down.
These stairs are long and dark!
Can you hear me? I hear you!
Enchanted August sky! Cast your light
on the railing ahead
on the old lantern
on the oak and on the chestnut tree
inside the stone pot and on the seeds
that I planted last night
inside the hips of my love that runs away
borne by the wind.
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The snow gave me back the world anew.
Still. Spellbound in a yawn
the hissing and the rustling died down
the echo didn’t take a step.
It was all backwards
So that the well drank itself down
the turtle cracked free and flew
the toads of the kingdom remembered who had kissed them
and far, far away to the East
behind the door of my love,
the sound of a young girl
unthreading snow flakes
and all around her waist
she tied the first ray of the sun.
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