Cosmogony of Shame, and: Cosmogonia del pudore
- Cosmogony of Shame, and: Cosmogonia del pudore
poetry, Italian, translation
Cosmogony of Shame
After the third biteAdam found himself suspendedbetween two cities and understood them to be parchedby the contagion of time.
One was all flashes of memory,treacherous in absence, with a thousand secretsorry fantasies — as if an explodedidea of the sacred. The other was not
but perennially was becoming,like nectar or a chrysalis,imprisoned between night and frost.
Then, eyes turned to heavenand heart to silence,he knew himself to be naked. [End Page 442]
Cosmogonia del pudore
Dopo il terzo morsoAdamo si trovò sospesofra due città, e le seppe arsedal contagio del tempo.
Una era tutta sprazzi della memoria,assente e insidiosa di mille segretefantasie dolenti — quasi una scompostaidea del sacro. L'altra non era
ma perennemente diveniva,come un nettare o una crisalide,imprigionata tra la notte e la brina.
Poi, gli occhi volti al cieloe il cuore al silenzio,si scoprì nudo. [End Page 443]
filippo naitana grew up in Oristano, Italy. He lives in Hamden, CT, where he teaches Italian language and literature at Quinnipiac University.
ann lauinger's two books of poetry are Persuasions of Fall, winner of the Agha Shahid Ali Prize in Poetry, and Against Butterflies. Her poems have appeared in publications such as Cumberland River Review, Georgia Review, and Parnassus, and have been featured on Poetry Daily and Verse Daily. She is a member of the literature faculty at Sarah Lawrence College.
