Look mum it’s Ai
the number that escaped
the last of your sums, the figure
that doesn’t add up. Look it’s Ai
that blank space that has you
slam the notebook against the wall
and scream. Or Ai is the pen,
the uncalled for anger against
the mute dumb
saintly objects, which speak no evil, evil
that these walls in tears
have displayed for years, without cease
without judgement. How can you forgive,
if there’s no-one to blame?
Guarda mamma è Io
il numero sfuggito all’ultima
delle tua somme, la cifra
che non torna. Guarda è Io
quel buco bianco che ti fa
sbattere il quaderno contro il muro
e urlare. O Io è la penna,
l’indebita rabbia contro
gli oggetti deficienti muti
santi, che non dicono il male
che questi muri accorati
segnano da anni, senza tregua
senza sdegno. Come perdonare,
se non c’è nessuno ad accusare?
How beautiful they are the starving
in the world, what hollow eyes
thrown open wide, even the flies
go live there, what hands
fit for flying hands free of
thought. Ai sees them parade,
if she can look like them
maybe someone
will come and save her.
Come sono belli i morti di fame
nel mondo, che occhi cavi
e spalancati, perfino le mosche
ci vanno ad abitare, che mani
adatte al volo mani senza
pensiero. Io li vede sfilare,
se gli potrà assomigliare
forse qualcuno
la verrà a salvare.
It’s foggy, mom,
you don’t see her but Ai walks with you
while you walk me to school,
it’s foggy a bell
of cotton candy that covers up
the shame of being still
among the living, not eaten up
by the night that spits us out
almost intact
onto the nothing-happened
of the tarmac.
C’è la nebbia mamma,
tu non la vedi ma Io ti accompagna
mentre mi accompagni a scuola,
c’è la nebbia una campana
di zucchero filato che copre
la vergogna di essere ancora
tra i vivi, non consumate
dalla notte che ci risputa fuori
quasi intatte
sul niente è accaduto
dell’asfalto.
CHANDRA LIVIA CANDIANI’s poetry has won the Montale Prize (2001), Camaiore Prize (2014) and International Regina Coppola Prize (2019). Her eight collections, including Ninnenanne per il mondo (Lullabies for the World, Vivarium), La bambina pugile (Boxer-girl, Einaudi) and Vista dalla luna (Viewed from the Moon, Salani) have touched thousands of Italian readers, but have yet to be translated internationally. Candiani runs poetry workshops in homeless shelters, AIDS hospices and elementary schools and curated and edited But Where Are the Words? Poems by the Children of Milan’s Ethnically Diverse Suburbs (Effigie 2015). Vista dalla luna is her first collection to deal entirely with the trauma of a difficult childhood, and addresses the themes of violence and alienation, both at home and at school.
ELISABETTA TABOGA has 10 years’ experience as a professional translator to Italian from French, Spanish and English and is currently an editor of art books. She has a masters in compared literature from Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3, and a bachelor’s in modern and contemporary literature from Ca’ Foscari University of Venice.
ROY DUFFIELD is a writer, translator, editor and winner of the 2021 Robert Allen Micropoem Contest. He performed at the 2019 Beat Literary Festival in Barcelona and has words in Into the Void, Marble Poetry, Quadrant and elsewhere. Roy believes in making poetry accessible to all.
HEATHER HUA, born in 1996, is a multidimensional artist in illustration, comics, and animation. Born in Zhejiang, China, and higher educated in the US, Hua is fluent in Chinese, English, and Japanese. She graduated from Fashion Institute of Technology in 2021 with an MFA in illustration and holds a BA in Economics from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Currently, she is based in Los Angeles and working as a freelance illustrator.
