Là dura un vento che ricordo acceso nelle criniere dei cavalli obliqui in córsa lungo le pianure, vento che macchia e rode l'arenaria e il cuore dei telamoni lùgubri, riversi sopra l'erba. Anima antica, grigia di rancori, torni a quel vento, annusi il delicato muschio che riveste i giganti sospinti giù dal cielo. Come sola nello spazio che ti resta! E più t'accori s'odi ancora il suono che s'allontana verso il mare dove Espero già striscia mattutino il marranzano tristemente vibra nella gola del carraio che risale il colle nitido di luna, lento tra il múrmure d' ulivi saraceni.
Agrigentum Road
There a wind remains that I recall afire within the manes of horses as they slanted their way across the planes, a chafing wind that eats at sandstone and erodes the hearts of derelict columnar giants cast down on the grass. Soul of antiquity gone gray with age and rage, turn back and lean into that wind, breathe of the delicate moss clothing those giants tumbled out of heaven. How lonely what is left to you must be! And worse: to break your heart to hear once more that sound resound and dwindle out to sea where Hesperus already streaks the dawn: a sad jew's-harp reverberating in the cartman's throat who once again goes up the moon-cleansed hill, slow through the murmuring of Moorish olive treees.
Salvatore Quasimodo (1901–1968) was a poet and a key figure in 20th-century European literature. Born in Modica, Sicily, he initially studied engineering but soon turned to literature and translation. A prominent member of the Hermetic movement (along with Alfonso Gatto, Leonardo Sinisgalli, Sandro Penna, Libero De Libero, Mario Luzi, Vittorio Sereni, Giorgio Caproni, and Luciano Erba), his early poetry emphasized symbolism and introspection. After World War II, his work became more socially engaged, reflecting on human suffering and political injustice. Quasimodo also translated classical works from Greek and Latin. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1959.
A. Z. Foreman is a linguist currently pursuing a doctorate at the Ohio State University. His work (including original poetry and short stories, as well as translations from Arabic, Spanish, French, Persian, Chinese, Latin, Hebrew, Dutch, Occitan, Ukrainian, Russian, Old English, Welsh, Irish, Yiddish, Ugaritic and Esperanto) has been featured in the Threepenny Review, ANMLY, Rattle, the Los Angeles Review and elsewhere including two people's tattoos but not yet the Starfleet Academy Quarterly or Tattooine Monthly. He wants to pet your dog.
