A poem by Roberto Carifi
by Stefania Bufano
by Stefania Bufano
A short poem. I know that poetry is the hardest to translate and understand in another language, but this one, that I have found a few months ago on YouTube, I loved very much.
There’s an actor, Domenico Pelini, who reads very clear and well, so I think you can hear a very good pronunciation and love the Italian language here.
The name of this important poet is Roberto Carifi; he isn’t very popular among the Italians, but popular to Italians that usually read a lot of poetry. He was born in 1948 in Pistoia, a little and beautiful town near Florence. Carifi is particularly interested in philosophy and psychoanalysis.
This poem is a little sad… It talks about a love story which ended, perhaps too soon, in November…
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Lo sai, amore, che mi congedo in fretta,
che tocco terra con troppa leggerezza,
che ho un destino nelle tasche vuote
e un angelo spoglio che di sera
mi piange livido sul petto.
E passo sotto le mura di novembre
con un messaggio da portare
non so né a chi né dove,
scritto a singhiozzi come una preghiera,
e vo quasi fratello nella notte
guardando ombre sorvegliate,
certi lumini accesi
e l’occhio spento di anime perdute.
(note: “vo” means “vado”, I go)
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Make Italy Yours 