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This poem is taken from PN Review 221, Volume 41 Number 3, January - February 2015.

‘Rain’ and Other Poems, translated by Todd Portnowitz

Translated from the Italian
Pierluigi Cappello

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
...


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