"In the Silence" by Eugenio Montale (Translation from the Italian by Maurizio Brancaleoni)

I’m immensely proud to see my English translation of Eugenio Montale’s poem “Nel silenzio” (“In the Silence”) published in Issue 27 of Alchemy. Head here for the Translator’s Note and the original text: https://alchemy.ucsd.edu/in-the-silence/

A Poem by Burchiello (Translation from the Florentine Vernacular by Maurizio Brancaleoni)

I’m not a little proud to have my English translation of the sonnet "Cacio stillato et olio pagonazzo" by (Il) Burchiello published on page 3 of the September issue of FreeXpresSion magazine. Thanks to editor Peter Pike for providing such an appealing and colourful visual presentation!

 

A Poem By Scipione (Translation from the Italian by Maurizio Brancaleoni)

Thrilled to see my translation from the Italian of the poem "Sento gli strilli degli angioli" / "I Hear the Screeches of the Engels" by Scipione (Gino Bonichi) in "Ballast" Issue 4.1.  

Many thanks to editors Jacob Schepers and Sara Judy for accepting and publishing my rendition.

 

** Read it here **

A Winter Haiku by Walter Penna (Japanese Translation by Maurizio Brancaleoni)

All rights of the text presented here remain with the author. All rights of the Japanese translation are reserved. haikua

 

canned red kidney beans

wait for Winter on a shelf

 

棚の上缶詰小豆冬を待つ

tana no ue kandzume azuki fuyu o matsu

 

***

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My Translation of Scipione's 'Summer' Read By Kelley Costigan

 

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Opening Lines of "Vita di Alberto Pisani" by Carlo Dossi (Translation from the Italian by Maurizio Brancaleoni)

*All rights reserved. No part of the following translation may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior authorization. For information, send an e-mail to mbmbrancaleoni@gmail.com.*

Worthy of Paracelsus! It is the study of the studies. It smells like tobacco, ink and Latin quotations. It's on the boreal side, ground floor; it has a vault, from whence damp came out. It has walls, all shelved, on which are appalling volumes in wire meshes  like the breath of cats. Here are the ten backplates with golden arabesques of the very rare work “de numero atomorum”; nearby is the complete voluminous series of the grammars (grammar, to wit, how you learn to ride a horse by walking); then, a collection of the most bulky disputations…that on the word culex, and the other concerning the letter  e considereth as copula, and the archfierce one “on the nature of the aureola of Mount Tabor”. And here, in a stretch of the last ledge, the famous treatise “de nuce beneventana”, forty octavo tomes  dressed in parchment, which, due to the lack of one, look like dentures bereft of an eyetooth; here – to cut it short – an endless horde of big bad books, and in the rack outside… specula, theatra, convivia, thesauri… of astrology, theology, etimology, and other sciences ending in  -gy – all witchery.

 

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Alessandro Lanucara, "World" (Translation from the Italian by Maurizio Brancaleoni)

Alessandro Lanucara was born in Reggio Calabria on 4th January 1971.

He still lives in his native city, where he pursued his education and received a high school diploma in Classical Studies.

Of late he has been consistently devoting himself to writing. He has published both collections of his own poetry and single poetic and prose texts in various anthologies.

His poem “Mondo” (“World”) has won first prize in the contest “Stanza Svelata” run by Leisure Spot.

* All rights reserved. No part of the following translations may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior authorization. For information, send an e-mail to mbmbrancaleoni@gmail.com. *

World

Alessandro Lanucara

(Translation by Maurizio Brancaleoni)

The world is an excess
for us creatures of the thirsty sea
were it an even and congealed alibi
a querulous soaked sunburnt green islet
a soft brim over saline vents
loose from our fathers on the rocks we alone
would inhabit it to fill ourselves only with writing
bearing throngings no more!
plus had each suckling a cave
we would crouch and fill its walls
one each for envy of the feathers of a neighbour
we’d spy on with binoculars a landing toy

the only leftovers of this reality
by then confessing each other the eternal

unendurable sideways reproduction

of the ravenous absence we pale-faced
dared imagine with wicked agony
of an unable brawling wide rounded

 imaginary world
this steep world of yours

 

***

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Scipione - Poems (Translation from the Italian by Maurizio Brancaleoni; Revision by Jennifer Panek) (Free eBook)

Gino Bonichi, better known as Scipione after the Roman general Scipio Africanus, was born in Macerata in 1904. He moved to Rome in 1909, where he studied for a short period at the Academy of Fine Arts. Together with Mario Mafai and Antonietta Raphaël he was one of the founders of the so-called ‘Roman School’ or ‘Via Cavour School’, a group of Rome-based expressionist artists who opposed Fascist-approved Novecento movement. His paintings were first exhibited in 1927, and then, two years later, at the Venice Biennale.  In 1931 he also exhibited at the first Rome Quadriennale. He probably wrote his poems between 1928 and 1930.

Maurizio Brancaleoni received his MA in Language and Translation Studies from Sapienza University of Rome in January 2018, but he has been translating since 2012. His MA thesis aimed at providing an extended commentary and a translation into his native language of Thomas Wolfe’s posthumous work Passage to England. He has also published several pieces of poetry and fiction in various collections and journals and won a couple of literary prizes.

Jennifer Panek is an Associate Professor of English literature at the University of Ottawa. When not writing the academic publications on early modern English drama that her job demands, she translates Italian fiction for sheer enjoyment. She is currently working on her first translation for publication: Danilo Balestra's Tirati a Sorte, for Atene Edizioni.

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Two poems by Massimo Stirneri (Translation from the Italian by Maurizio Brancaleoni)

 
Massimo Stirneri, 32, lives in Perugia. He writes mainly poetry and prose and also creates visual poems. 
He posts all his works both in English and Italian on his blog: http://restlessmuseum.tumblr.com/
His poems have also appeared in some American online journals.

The following two poems come from his collection “Varie”, which won first prize in the prestigious poetry contest “Opera Prima 2017” organized by the website Poesia 2.0 (you can read the book in Italian here).

* All rights reserved. No part of the following translations may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior authorization. Copyright infringement is a criminal offense under international law. *

like the cavity or the slit of a gutter

you wish you could go out get in uncertain blindfold on the wait

to fit out with lost objects, democratic goals

threshold deities able to bite backwards

in the intact house, under the lips other ailments rotate

from the adhering immanence denied at the finale

three times no, as everything is permitted, like hope

***

of courage every title to speak

because I am like a mother woman

more academic unfortunately. genitive

name inspired by the antidote, fear

is not natural, something induced that they create

the guard that he places, they erode the vice at the end

to protect man from cruelty to a minimum extent

for the punishment of transgression, the profound

significance of the allegations, may they unexpected he prevent

the farsightedness of return a unique dedication

hence may they have the ambit of distribution according

- ça va sans dire – to what comes right and in consecutive order, we shall conclude

not even facing extreme situations, pain be feared

on a par «they will burn them, it continues, and we will

match the gravity of the problem «keep anxiety out of Europe

it seems reality, this - I find - version I'll make myself again

vulnerabilities so deep-seated that they become the signature

of collaboration, levers resting on a low fulcrum

of course. it happens though. either-or at the root

doubly to see some of it again

causing sensation to each other resignedly:

simple contract

of adulthood

This blog and its contents are free, but every translation takes a lot of time and work. If you have enjoyed this post and would like more translations, reviews and interviews, consider making a small donation to support this blog:

 

Marina Pizzi (Translation from the Italian by Maurizio Brancaleoni)

Marina Pizzi was born on 5th May 1955 and is based in Rome. In her literary career she has published over fifty books of poetry both on paper and in electronic format.
The two following poems come from her digital collection "Soqquadri del pane vieto" (2010-2011), which can be found on a number of websites both as a PDF file and as a single post.

* All rights reserved. No part of the following translations may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior authorization.* Tutti i diritti sono riservati. La riproduzione, totale o parziale, delle seguenti traduzioni, è vietata. *

22.

I wish I could lose the detritus

of my pain but instead a relentless 

computer nibbles at the friction

in the flesh. I alternate jocular eagles

with tender mosses and soft lichens.

the array of the male dolls

does not help me to laugh, fear

stations me the abraded dark queen

room of agony. the veil tearing me

life is a boys' prank

without remedy. I descend from the hoi polloi to the ground

only to live without god or the saint's permission.

rancid beer swirls in my throat

where the pupil learns that his mother is mortal

even more than like father's doubt. I converge with

the cream of the populace to feign youth

or the Vanessa butterfly that I find by the roadside

miracolous nexus of love for innumerable

prohibitions. funereal flowers with noble

corollae wait to be thrown away. billions 
of spores cannot make a life.

55.

do not be late in loving me

I am crying tears of levy

since the urgency to surrender

imposes little bundles of pinwheels

fixed in the pain.

the graves going around the world

smear the crystal of origin

the naked merry-go-round of crying again

denied alms. now comes the agony

of the yes for the betrayed newlywed bride. in the throat

of the tempest of betraying

may the majesty's doubt appear

this lopsided she-saint's halo

mother gone over the border.

heirloom ruefulness to be gazing at you

dead at the altar with the coffin in your face. 
crude winners don't like talent.

Like what you've read so far? For more poems by Marina Pizzi in English check out my free eBook "Selected Poems of Marina Pizzi":

 https://leisurespotblog.blogspot.com/2018/11/marina-pizzi-english.html

This blog and its contents are free, but every translation takes a lot of time and work. If you have enjoyed this post and would like more translations, reviews and interviews, consider making a small donation to support this blog: