Per quella luce sospesa
tra le ciglia degli angeli
morirei infinite volte

e infinite volte tornerei
corona di spine.

For that light suspended
between angels’ eyelashes
I would die a thousand times

and a thousand times
come back crown of thorns.

*

Nel cavo della mano la verità
e le sofferenze colte appena
nell’indulgenza dei silenzi
di abiti dismessi:

Donatella D’Angelo

eppure

risorgeranno verticali i draghi.

In the hollow of the hand, the truth
and sufferings just picked
in the indulgence of silences
of clothing put off:

and yet

rise again vertically the dragons.

*

Spiegami il profumo del basilico
il passo invisibile della tigre.

Nell’antro salvifico della vita
separo la notte e i suoni scordati
il muto cadere dei corpi celesti.

Perché fa tanto freddo qui?

Explain to me the scent of basil
the unseen step of the tiger.

In the salvific den of life
I separate night and clashing sounds
the mute fall of celestial bodies.

Why is it so cold here?

Donatella D’Angelo (Milan, Italy 1966) has been working in the visual arts since the 1980’s. A curator of cultural events, she teaches photography in high school and university courses. She is one of the artists selected for the anthology about self-portrait in photography by Giorgio Bonomi Il corpo solitario, Rubbettino Editore (2017). Her photos have been exhibited in Europe and in the US and have appeared in various online and print publications. She received the first-place prize at the national contest LABirintiFOTOgrafia 2015. As a writer, some of her short stories and poems have been published in anthologies, magazines and various blogs. In 2016 she published her first poetry and photography book, Memento vivere, edizioni del Foglio Clandestino.

Poems © 2016 Donatella D’Angelo; English translations by Dennis Formento with the poet.

These poems also appear in the April issue of The BeZine, Celebrating interNational Poetry Month. The BeZine also publisher Three Poems (Italian and English) in 2015 and Michael Dickel’s poems accompany her photography in White Angel Feathers, also in The BeZine in 2015. You can see her photography on her website.