Nothing / Niente
By Irene Moccia, translated by Rose Facchini
April 15, 2024
April 15, 2024
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And if by chance I knew how to give
a name to this fault of mine, as a plea for vague melancholy - until the fiber of tendons, the effort of oblivion of despair naked on the ground - at the brilliant plummet of meteors I would have no embankment of any levity. This water is nothing on cobblestone the measure of a step in the march of dew my forgotten song in the parking lot behind the post office. - Nothing - the silence of a leaf, fading, exhales in tears the sap’s dance. To hope is surely an act of chance, a game of fine balancing acts. |
E se per caso io sapessi imporre
un nome a questa mia mancanza, quale appello per vaga malinconia - fino alla fibra dei tendini lo sforzo d'oblio del disperare nuda in terra - al precipitare chiaro di meteore non avrei argine di leggerezza alcuna. È un nulla quest'acqua sul selciato la misura del passo nella marcia di rugiada il mio canto scordato nel parcheggio dietro l'ufficio postale. - Niente - il silenzio di foglia, sfumando, esala in lacrime la danza della linfa. Sperare è certo un gesto del caso, gioco di fini equilibrismi. |
Rose Facchini is a Lecturer in Italian at Tufts University and the Associate Editor and Italian Translator Editor for the International Poetry Review. Her translations have either appeared or are forthcoming in Asymptote’s Translation Tuesdays, West Branch, ergot., Exacting Clam, Wyldblood, 365tomorrows, Intrinsick, and International Poetry Review, and she has read her translation of Diego Lama’s flash fiction story “Freedom” [“Libertà”] on Translators Aloud.
Irene Moccia was the recipient of the Carlo Levi Poetry Prize in 2019. She has performed her poetry, which focuses on female identity, body consciousness, and the magic of the mundane, in various festivals throughout Italy. She holds a Law Degree and is currently working as Human Resources legal counsel in an insurance company. Her project Ritenzione lirica aims to disseminate poetry on social media.
Irene Moccia was the recipient of the Carlo Levi Poetry Prize in 2019. She has performed her poetry, which focuses on female identity, body consciousness, and the magic of the mundane, in various festivals throughout Italy. She holds a Law Degree and is currently working as Human Resources legal counsel in an insurance company. Her project Ritenzione lirica aims to disseminate poetry on social media.
Author's Note:
“Nothing” [“Niente”] exposes the raw human vulnerability that lives inside us from time to time. It captures a sense of existential uncertainty amidst the delicate balance of hope and despair and the search for significance amidst transient experiences.