Paola Musa’s poetry
Barumini
(Nuragic fortress, Sardinia)
You could have loved me
among the silent fortresses
of our unknown ancestors.
Now bitter is the meantime in your eyes.
No verb, then, among the olive trees.
No scroll, save the wind.
This land loves to love signs,
let the words of the living stay secret,
and be intermixed with a sky so clear
it stamps its constellations in our hands.
With just such hands you caressed me
unspeaking. And lifting your gaze
to the lightcone of these towers,
you imagined the valleys, as far as the sea,
forgetting I was with you, or being
so immersed in me, wanted nothing else.
No, no promises here – this
you stuck glueless on my lips
to adhere to them, like stones.
Now this land has covered you
but with no votive gifts for your journey,
the architecture of your embrace
comes to me clear in dream:
so from these heights, again,
I see the unexplored citadel
of our unconsummated love.
***
In this light
Stay in this light
where the tree is transfigured
together with its branches
and my body intertwines with summer
naked as blue sky
emptied as the well
you drank from
before you knew my name.
(Translation from Italian: Richard Berengarten & Paola Musa)
Paola Musa is a novelist, poet and songwriter who was born in Sardinia. She studied modern languages (German and English) at La Sapienza University, Rome, where she now lives.
She has published the novels: Condominio occidentale (Eastern Condominium), 2008. Il terzo corpo dell’amore (The Third Body of Love), 2009, both from Salerno Editrice, Quelli che restano (Those who remain, 2014) and Go Max Go, 2016, from Arkadia editore. .Condominio occidentale won the prize for Italian first novels at the 2009 Festival du Premier Roman Chambery, France, and the Price Città di Cuneo Primo Romanzo, Italy, and became a tv movie in 2015.
As a librettist, she wrote lyrics for the musical Datemi tre Caravelle (Give me three sailing ships), based on the story of Christopher Columbus, with music by Stefano Di Battista. In 2005-2006, this play was performed, with lead actor Alessandro Preziosi, in the Taormina Amphitheatre, Sicily, at the Sistina Theatre, Rome, and at major theatres in Milan, Pescara and Naples. Paola Musa also writes song-lyrics in collaboration with musicians and composers.
A selection of her poems entitled Lo stato delle cose (The state of things) was includes in a prize-winning selection, edited by Elisabetta Sgarbi, for Arpanet Editrice, Milan, 2005. She won 2006 Renata Canepa Prize with her poem L’angelo sterminatore (The exterminating angel). In 2012 she published her first poetry book, Ore venti e trenta (Half past Eight p.m., Albeggi edizioni)
She has published her own poems and translations of Richard Berengarten’s work in several magazines, including Chorus (Genoa) and on the web. She is now working on a long poem entitled Anse di memoria (Loops of Memory) about her Sardinian Roots.
She has published her own poems and translations of Richard Berengarten’s work in several magazines, including Chorus (Genoa) and on the web. She is now working on a long poem entitled Anse di memoria (Loops of Memory) about her Sardinian Roots.
More information: https://www.facebook.com/paola.musa
(Photos: Bruna Bonino)