Isabella Vincentini, Italy

I would have desired that you’ll take my words in order to conjugate them and endowe them with meanung, but you let them fall,
architectures suspended in the void,
shadows that spread out out on forbidden fruits.

I thought up explanations, reasonable assumptions,
questions without answer, the meaning of things
I fearred like mirages in the soul’s desert
that’s the reason why I left the temple and chose
exile

That’s the reason for which I went to the East of Orontes
not looking for miraculous healing or prophecies,
but for advices from Simeon and from the stylites
on the knowledge of the secrets of the heart
and you—

that you, who among all, know my secrets
YOU
do you understand my heart?

*

IL CODICE DELL’ALLEANZA

Avrei voluto che tu prendessi le mie parole
per coniugarle e dargli un senso,
ma tu le lasciavi cadere,
architetture sospese nel vuoto
ombre, che si allungano su frutti proibiti.

Escogitai spiegazioni, feci ipotesi,
domande senza risposta, il senso delle cose.
Avevo paura dei miraggi nel deserto dell’anima
per questo uscii dal tuo tempio e scelsi
l’esilio.

Per questo, andai a Est dell’Oronte
non per guarigioni miracolose o profezie,
ma per chiedere consiglio a Simeone e agli stiliti
sulla conoscenza dei segreti del cuore,
e tu, …,
che più di ogni altro sei a conoscenza di tutti i miei segreti,

TU,
lo capisci il cuore?

* * *

BEFORE AND AFTER THE WORD

There is a forbidden apple at the beginning of every intimate concealment of love
mistrustful caution. Life hasn’t got shortcuts, but secret crossings moment
after moment

Intensity enters the heart’s deceptions, breaks thoughts, void’s projections,
unknown love

Life doesn’t occur twice
doesn’t occur twice in the same way,
delight

*

PRIMA E DOPO LE PAROLE

C’è una mela proibita all’inizio di ogni storia, intima dissimulazione d’amore, diffidente prudenza. Non ha scorciatoie la vita, ma passaggi segreti distanti
di istanti.
Entra nelle imposture del cuore l’intensità, lacera il pensiero, proiezione di nulla, sconosciuto amore,

non avviene due volte la vita,
non avviene due volte, uguale,
la gioia.

The Poet

Isabella Vincentini (Rieti Italy, 1954), is an Italian poet, essayist and literaty. She graduated in Humanities. The focus of her dissertation was Nietzsche’s philological writings and the classical world of Greek tragedy. Topics which are revisited both in her essays and in her poetry. Her essays focus on the debate on the theory of literature between hermeneutics, deconstruction and postmodernismn appears expecially in the book Varianti da un naufragio (Variants from a shipwreck) 1994. She has also published a book about Athens (Athens an ancient future) 2015 and four collections of poems: Il codice dell’alleanza (Alliance’s code) 2018, Geografia minima del Dodecaneso (Minimal geography of the Dodecanese) translated into Greek, 2015, Le ore e i giorni (The Hours and the Days) 2008, Diario di bordo (Logbook) 1998.