The first time I read "Study on being still" poem it was I felt in love with it and later on with many other poems I read by Mariangela Gualtieri later on. She is a contemporary Italian poet, who has been little translated in English, so I decided to translate two of my favourite poems to share with friends. I am not a professional translator but I did my best, with so much appreciation for Mariangela's artwork.
'Study
on being still'
by
Mariangela Gualtieri
You
can, you know, being here
being
very still
support
a star. Yes you can
tell
the leaf to fall when it's time
and
then steer the fruit to ripening.
You
can, believe it, celebrate every wave
scan
the blades of grass and name
in
the air the good. Push the good to the districts
to
pacify spirits of war. Sustain
the
flame of every fireplace in the small
kitchens
of the world, to bring in the hovels
the
flame that turns into food
the
fruits of the earth. Keep the water
in
transparency. And still the mountain
without
wavering.
Being
very still
you
can worship. You can enter
in somebody's pain and lift,
dry
the laundry. Fly. You can
be
heart to heart with the earth. You can
break
infinitely the human particle
of
flesh. Unleash the atomic potential
which
is in each scale
of
our skin. Celebrate from there
the
present - our - eternity.
Being silent and still is like saying
here, impregnate me. To tell it to the forcesto say it to the seasons, to the sky, to the invisiblepeople of the worlds.
It's taking an act of faith, being still.
It's saying: I believe in what is not seen,
I know I'm not alone now
in this room without anyone,
I know that in the apparent void
there is a fecund current, a hand
guiding my hand, a mind
of creation. I know that I do not know
the mystery of the world and to preserve it
for the fecundation of every living thing.
Being very still creates a crack
for something to enter and create movement
in us, that works on us slowly, like a masterpiece
to be completed, to which the unknown artist retouches
with inspired hand, almost demented
so is strong and delicate the boost
the certainty of touch.
The great power is celebrated
which enhances the sun in its prowess
and lays it down to the west
in the tired hour - when everyone watching
tries a slight unspeakable pain.
Light enters then
even in the darkest of nights
and the closed eye can contemplate
from the immense darkness of the body
where the breath expands.
And the air comes in and out
with calm and slow sips. And the air
is sky. Sky that comes to us,
with particles of cosmos, ancient dusts,
breath of all that has been
and of the present and alive being here.
Being very still
thinking spreads
with its enchanted whorls
it rises it swells
in rivulets and flooded plains, in brambles
in broken mazes
in slums squared roots.
Here is the thinking, the devourer.
By being still you can smooth it out
and comb and make him stay down
lying and suspended and stored and composed
and a little backward
in the background - weakened -
All the present explodes.
being still.
The name settles on the bottom.
The surname is an old-fashioned gadget.
Nobody pushes or presses
nothing hurries nothing is far.
It's over. What is far away
it's over. Being still.
And then becomes concert
with the plantar body, with the celestial
spheres with the musical silence of things.
Things are more silent by being still.
A palpitating remains. Everything seems to answer
to a hidden director, non-human,
silent, brilliant. Same age-old orchestral
score.
Being very still, even a teaspoon
with its little shadow squashed underneath,
brings an abundant dose of mystery
with the world turned upside down in the niche.
Even a cup a towel a milk
a box of pins, a book, a jar
of hand cream. Being still is strange
even stranger the constellation of things on the table.
The fixity stretches and it's clear: the enigma
will not break down.
This we have done
steel and paper. Weaving of strings and substances
and this we are. Last sketch
before the human.
***
And this is from the recent collection of poems released in 2019, one of my favourites.
'Dark lover woods'
by Mariangela Gualtieri
Enter the woods.
Sometimes let go
and then enters the woods.
Enter alone in the woods. Enter
slowly.
The first bird cry
is your name.
If you meet water, enter the water.
If you meet mud, enter. Plant
your feet your hands where the earth
gives way
and your step triggers
the great alert the hanging breath
of the woods.
Then go down again where there is only
shadow. Feel the creatures without
light.
Stay still. Be silent.
And when the heart
beats louder, stop - listen -
give name to fear.
Study well its throne.
How the breath changes
how it holds you. Then get down
in the thickest of the woods. Tremble
stronger.
See how you tremble. Study - how it
lights up
the powerful fear. Learn its baits
in the sacred dough where death
comes out of the shell.
This is the place where all the sky
falls and comes. The earth lets it do
and everything binds everything kneads
and grows.
Everything goes as it should, sews up
and unstiches, sinks rises and spreads
dying feeds itself while it is born.
The second bird that slamming
its wings frighten you, commands this:
let the woods enter. Fear
has come down from its throne.
Now pray. Perfectly.
Prayer is listening and you are now
in the most perfect temple on earth.
So when it appears further
the roe, or incredible the deer
turning his head of phenomenon
looking at you from its great silence
of animal, feel blessed by the earth
and by the sky.
Through you our species goes to drink.
Then go home.
Come back - study - do your things
for good. Stay close
stay inside the shaky species. Ours.
But then go to the woods. For everyone
go,
pray for all, you. Take for us too
the powers of the woods. Keep alive
the restless crooked species of orcs.
Our arrogant. Hold it, you, in your
hands.