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Salvatore Quasimodo: Agrigentum Road (Other) by Sasha

Translated from the Italian of Salvatore Quasimodo "Là dura un vento che ricordo acceso nelle criniere dei cavalli..." Here wind endures that I recall afire in manes of horses veering down the plain, a wind that stains the sandstone and erodes the hearts of statues downed onto the grass. Oh antique soul, grey with rage, back you lean into that wind, breathe of the delicate moss that clothes those giants banished down by heaven. How lonely what is left to you shall be! Oh how much more you’d grieve if you should hear that sound again, borne toward the distant sea where Heseperus’ dawn already touches the jew’s harp with its melancholic twang in that lone cartman's throat as slowly he ascends his moon-bathed hill, amid the dark murmurings of the moorish olive trees.

Sasha 21-Aug-05/10:27 AM
This poem has been translated, to my knowledge, three times in addition to mine. Each of the three contained what I considered to be faults. It was my love for the original and my disappointment with the translations that lead me to translate it myself.

In addition, translating poetry is an excellent way to improve one's own technique. By putting my another poet's voice through my mouth, I feel I improve and alter my own voice. It is a way to learn to keep my subject matter in focus without letting it waver. By translating I can learn to prevent the sudden transformation of my poem into something entirely different. (Take a look at my "Written while Kayaking" for a prime example of a wavering subject.)

So translation benefits not only the reader by introducing them to fresh material, but the translator as well, who learns to write his own work better as a result.




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