Domani torneremo nella città dei sogni
coi fiori tra i nomi che ci siamo dati
passeggeremo sul Viale delle Madeleine
per ascoltarci ancora nel silenzio amato.
Quando verrai avrò un vestito rosso e il mare
cadrà sui nudi piedi di un inverno in bilico
sull’apparenza immota e una tenace stretta
morderemo piano le nostre labbra: Pciù.
THE ELEVENTH WINTER, TRANSLATION BY DONNA MANCUSI-UNGARO
AND STEPHEN ERIC BERRY
Tomorrow we will return to the city of dreams
with flowers among the names we gave ourselves
we will walk on the Avenue of the Madeleines
to listen to ourselves, again, in loving silence.
When you come I’ll be wearing a red dress and the sea
will fall on bare feet of a winter on the brink
of motionless appearance and a stubborn embrace
we will slowly bite our lips: Mwah.
Donna Mancusi-Ungaro Hart received her Ph.D. in Romance Languages and Literatures from Harvard University. She was awarded the “Dante Prize” of the Dante Society of America and subsequently published Dante and the Empire (American University Studies, 1987). She taught Italian at Rutgers University and is a tutor and translator through the University of Michigan.
Stephen Eric Berry is a writer, filmmaker, composer, and a recipient of a Jule and Avery Hopwood Award at the University of Michigan. His poems and translations have appeared or are forthcoming in: Hayden’s Ferry Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Midwest Review, The Los Angeles Review, Puerto del Sol, Tampa Review, among others.
