Swans Commentary » swans.com June 17, 2013  

 


 

Luigi's geranium
 

 

by Guido Monte

 

Multilingual Poetry

 

Translated by Adele Ward

 

Inspired by the story Di sera, un geranio ("In the evening, a geranium") by Luigi Pirandello

Pic: "colori" - © 2011 by Guido Monte - Size: 11k
colori
© 2011 Guido Monte

 

 

(Swans - June 17, 2013)  

the spirit departs
from the extinguished body,
during sleep,
and floats around the room
without recognising itself.
it remembers, feels, sees lights,
sees its own body immobile;
remembers the last words,
spoken or heard, of fear
or hope in an operation.
it remains solitary
a light needlessly switched on.

now he is really himself,
buildings, roads, horizons: the universe.
the clock, the light
of past life
are no longer anything to him.
below
there is the wall of the house, the garden,
the rustic trough, green with climbing plants,
clear water that collects in the trough,
and small white and green leaves
that clog the mouth
of the drainpipe.
greenery, roots, black earth.
the breath of the earth!
he and the grass dissolve
in that eternal breath,
in the endless vapour.
he still consists
of little things
of a stone, a flower,
of that geranium...

others look at the red geranium
which suddenly ignites,
and they don't know why.

 

 

Adele Ward is a poet, novelist, and co-owner of Ward Wood Publishing in London.

picture: colori, by Guido Monte (2011).

 

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Swans -- ISSN: 1554-4915
URL for this work: http://www.swans.com/library/art19/gmonte164.html
Published June 17, 2013



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