‘Rain’ and Other Poems, translated by Todd Portnowitz

Translated from the Italian

Rain

Rain, and if it were to rain forever
it would be your long caress
come to a stop here at my chest, my temples;
right here, glimmering sister,
encircled in this good moment, in this hour guessed at
we exist, two gazes poured into a body,
an existence without residence, and so we are
untouchable, as thin as a path penciled
from me to you, no further, in no place, my love,
in this moment’s passing
when you ask me to look at you, and look hard:
the tree is upside down, its roots are in the air.



Go Tell It to the Emperor

nothing no one in no place never
                                 – Vittorio Sereni

As long ago, so too today
go tell it to the emperor
...