Canzoniere I

Song I
È buio come dentro un cratere mentre sali, ombra dalla trachea, e alla soglia del labbro prendi peso: cadi nel centro del foglio, ti apri.
-
C’è il cratere di una voce che risale il calcagno ma in questa oscurità non c’è distanza. L’attesa ha l’odore di un processo.
(Elisa Biagini, Corrente alternata (dal diario di Mary Shelley) [excerpts])

Song II
Les rayons à l’orée du jour
lacèrent le sous-bois de lumière
Ils acclament en silence
l’étirement du corps, la peau exhalant sa nuit

Usés par le guet, et l’affût, et la traque,
mes cils crissent au réveil

Je me coule dans le point d’eau
lave ma blessure à porter avec les armes, sur les chemins

La tête sous l’eau j’entends peu
les oiseaux qui décochent leur cri d’alarme
(Irène Gayraud, from “Point d’eau”, Le mince espace de la traque [excerpt])

Song III
Dear Mother, Dear M., other, Dear other, my dear other.
(Shara McCallum, from “This Strange Land”, From the Book of Mothers [excerpt])

 

Song IV
Sem’ časóv… V sem’ časóv mne peredáli, čto
on v bol’níce.

"Propustí menjá!" – "Ne mogú! S nim plóxo. S
ními so vsémi plóxo". Deržu eё: "Tól’ko
posmotrét’".

Jа uvídela egó… Otёkšij ves’, opúxšij… Gláz
počtí net…

Mnógie vračí, medsёstry, osóbenno sanitárki
ètoj bol’nícy čérez kakóe-to vrémja zaboléjut.
Umrút. No niktó togdá ètogo ne znal…

No my eščë ne ználi, čto oní vse búdut
pérvymi…

Niktó ne govoríl o radiácii.

… Doróga opját’ výpala iz pámjati…

...centrál’naja nérvnaja sistéma poražená
pólnost’ju, kóstnyj mozg poražёn pólnost’ju…

– Eščë slúšaj: […] Obnimát’sja i celovát’sja
nel’zjá. Blízko ne podxodít’. Dajú polčasá.

No ja znála, čto užé otsjúda ne ujdú. Ésli ujdú, to s nim.
Pokljalás’ sebé!

On stal menját’sja – káždyj den’ ja užé
vstrečála drugógo čelovéka… Ožógi vyxodíli
navérx… Vo rtu, na jazyké i ščekáx, snačála
pojavílis’ málen’kie jázvočki, potóm oní
razroslís’. Plastámi otxodíla slízistaja,
plёnočkami bélymi. Cvet licá… Cvet téla…

A ja? Jа gotóva sdélat’ vsё, čtóby on tól’ko ne
dúmal o smérti…

A ja kak umališёnnaja: "Jа egó ljubljú! Jа ego
ljubljú!" On spal, ja šeptála: "Jа tebjá ljubljú!"
Šla po bol’níčnomu dvóru: "Jа tebjá ljubljú!"
Neslá súdno: "Jа tebjá ljubljú!"

...natjanút’ ne moglí, né bylo užé célogo téla.
Vsë – krovávaja rána. V bol’níce poslédnie
dva dnja…

Èto nel’zjá rasskazát’! Èto nel’zjá napisát’!

Na moíx glazáx… V parádnoj fórme egó
zasúnuli v cellofánovyj mešók i zavjazáli. I
ètot mešók užé položíli v derevjánnyj grob…
A grob eščё odním meškóm obvjazáli…
Cellofán prozráčnyj, no tólstyj, kak kleёnka. I
užé vsë èto pomestíli v cínkovyj grob, éle
vtísnuli.

O tom, čto my perežíli… Čto vídeli… O
smérti ljúdi ne xotját slúšat’. O strášnom…

No ja vam rasskazála o ljubví… Kak ja
ljubíla…»

-----

I don't know what to tell you about. Death
or love? Or is it one and the same? What shall I tell
you?

I told him: "I love you." But I didn't even know
how much. I had no idea.

I did not see the explosion itself. Only the flames.
Everything seemed to glow. The whole sky. The
flames were high. And smoke. Horrible heat. And
he was still out.

Seven o'clock. At seven they informed me that he
was in the hospital.

"Get me inside!" "I can't. He's in a bad way. They
all are." I held on to her. "Just to see him!"
I saw him. He was all swollen and puffed up. You
could barely see his eyes.

Many of the doctor and nurses, especially the
orderlies, in that hospital got sick themselves and
died. But we didn't know that then.

And we didn't know then that they were just the
first of many.

No one said anything about radiation.

I don't remember the trip. It's as if it dropped out
of my memory.

...the central nervous system is completely
damaged, the bone marrow is completely
destroyed ...

And listen to this: [...] You may not hug or kiss.
Don't come close.

But I knew that I would never leave. If I left, it
would be with him. I swore that to myself.

He began changing -- every day I found a new
man. The burns
were surfacing. In his mouth, his tongue, his
cheeks - first they were small ulcers and then they
spread. The mucous membranes came off in
layers. In white sheets. The color of his face. The
color of his body.

And me? I’m ready to do everything to keep him
from thinking about death. …

I’m like a crazy person: „I love him! I love him!“
He slept and I whispered: „I love you!“ I walked
around the hospital courtyard: „I love you!“ I
carried the bedpan: „I love you!“

... they couldn’t pull it on, there was no complete
body left. It was a bloody wound. In the hospital
the last two days …

You can't tell it! You can't write it!

Before my eyes ... They stuffed him in his parade
uniform into a cellophane bag and tied it. Then
they put the bag into a wooden coffin... They
wrapped another bag around the coffin. ... The
cellophane was transparent but thick, like oilcloth.
And then they put it all into a zinc coffin, they
could barely fit it in.

What we suffered ... What we saw . ... People
don’t want to hear about death. About the horror...

But I told you about love.... How I loved...“
(Svetlana Alexievich, from "Voices from Chenobyl”, A solitary Human Voice [excerpts], Transliteration by Veronika A. Erogova, Translated from the Russian by Antonina W. Bouis)

 

Song V
adrift

stop time :: take time :: cut time :: make time ::
slippery fabric we grasp at, tongue, lick, try to trick
into, shape :: cocoon we fly refashioned from, past
promised landfall :: spit & soul image, unfitting
(—for marta)

 

Canzoniere II

Song I
15. INTROVERT

Deep in my own green element,
I met a friend.
My double, my dearest.

Others
pulled me out of the sea,
placed me

in this pan of water,
added salt
and taught me to eat bread.
(Kate Greenstreet, from "The End of Something”, Introvert)

Song II
13. ONE BLACK LEAF

What was your mother’s name?
(Kate Greenstreet, from "The End of Something”, One Black Leaf)

Song III
39. WHAT FALLS FROM THE SKY

I understood certain words.

The word for why.
The word for always.
The word for speak.

That the truth means
what is going to happen. Or
what I must do.

We drink it down: “To death!”
He put the blanket on my head.
He said, “Sometimes, I think

you just want to disappear.”
(Kate Greenstreet, from "The End of Something”, What falls from the sky)

 

Song IV
AMERICA

I had
to. I
learned it.
It was
if. If
was nice.
I said
sure. One
more thing.
One more
thing. Eat
it said.
It felt
good. I
was dead.
I learned
it. I
had to.
(Solmaz Sharif, America)

Song V
She

She could sing the blue out of water
She could sing the meat off a bone
She could sing the fire out of burning
She could sing a body out of home

She could sing the eye out of a hurricane
She could sing the fox right out its hole
She could sing the devil from the details
She could sing the lonely from a soul

She could sing a lesson in a yardstick
She could sign the duppy out of night
She could sing the shoeless out of homesick
She could sing a wrong out of a right

She could sing the prickle from the nettle
She could sing the sorrow out of stone
She could sing the tender from the bitter
She could sing the never out of gone
(Shara McCallum, from “Madwoman”, She)

Song VI
Social Skills Training

Studies suggest How may I help you officer? is the single most disarming thing to say and not What’s the problem? Studies suggest it’s best the help reply My pleasure and not No problem. Studies suggest it’s best not to mention problem in front of power even to say there is none. Gloria Steinem says women lose power as they age and yet the loudest voice in my head is my mother. Studies show the mother we have in mind isn’t the mother that exists. Mine says: What the fuck are you crying for? Studies show the baby monkey will pick the fake monkey with fake fur over the furless wire monkey with milk, without contest. Studies show to negate something is to think it anyway. I’m not sad. I’m not sad. Studies recommend regular expressions of gratitude and internal check-ins. Enough, the wire mother says. History is a kind of study. History says we forgave the executioner. Before we mopped the blood we asked: Lord Judge, have I executed well? Studies suggest yes. What the fuck are you crying for, officer? the wire mother teaches me to say, while studies suggest Solmaz, have you thanked your executioner today?
(Solmaz Sharif, Social Skills Training)

Song VII
beauties: #3 — dot

you stand, on the stand, evidence
pedestaled, representing damage
and delight, sun-struck, wind-

whipped, riddled with the comforts
and costs of home. you show me
what staying gets you. read flatly,

you’re the map of being pulled
in two directions at once. your
third dimension is living through.
(Evie Shockley, beauties #3 — dot)

Song VIII
1.

María santisima, maravillosa
She is a fissure, an excess
María, aming ina imakulada
She is an absence manifest

María divina, mahal na diwa
She is a myth, a missing thing
María, isang niña embarazada
She is blistering, she is stilled

2.
Mother most filled and giving
Kayo’y perla del mar oriental
Mother most civil and willing
Kayo’y siguradong umaandar

Mother most wise and graced
Kayo’y pinakamahal ng patria
Mother most fair and praised
Kayo’y imperyalistang obra maestra

4.
Pray for us, grinding hustler
Aming ina, migrante eterna
Pray for us, most shrewd mother
Aming balyenteng trabajadora

Pray for us, worker of the world
Aming guardia ng amor propio
Pray for us, industrious lamb of God
Aming garantía sa Paraiso

6.
Mater purissima, Mater castissima
Pray for us, our sharpest razor
Mater inviolata, Mater intemerata
Pray for us, brassy ball breaker

Mater cruci, Mater dolorosa
Pray for us, our lady most hewn
Mater lacrimosa, Mater afflicta
Pray for us, third world drug mule