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

Adeodato Piazza Nicolai / Saro Marretta / Leonardo Zanier
Women Bearers from Carnia
Today she would be at least 90
she also a “bearer from Carnia”
up to now it has never been understood
-and those who know won’t tellif
they ever returned to her
the formal request already mailed
or if they advised her
to not even make it
truthfully she felt it was her right:
“Knight of Vittorio Veneto”
like all others
I don’t know if for the four cents
they would have had to give her
together with the title
or only for the pride
and the scruple of having it
in short did she or didn’t she carry
loaded down like a mule
bombs and bread
in a wicker backpack to the front?
There was a photo
of her straddling horse-like
the barrel of a cannon
positioned among the rocks
beautiful naked smiling
arms opened to the world
a splendid young woman
with a crown of alpini around her
they also in the flower of youth
wearing suspenders and smiles
with no desire to kill
and even less to die
a kind of Scalarini
in flesh and bone
but not spoiled:
“I will stick your war
up that place”
once peace arrived
she was also my uncle’s companion
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