Wednesday, May 06, 2009

"ESISTENZIALE ITINERARIO" by ANTONIO LONARDO

Here is Antonio Lonardo's prize-winning poem, published here with his kind permission, along with my own translation:

ESISTENZIALE ITINERARIO

Celestino, possedevi, in nuce,
le metafisiche risposte
alle grandi questioni della vita
ed i tuoi lunghi discorsi
erano chiari input di soluzione.

La tua overdose di esperienze
di apocalittici lavori,
nelle sotterranee gallerie
del progresso, con rischio di vita
ti conduceva a difficili tramonti.

Cercavi il calendario della luce
nello tsunami di laboriose
avventure tra spaccate rocce
di binari, spesso ricoperte
dal sudore freddo della lontananza.

Nella corsa verso ovest,
nel lungo salto dei meridiani,
costruivi il tuo futuro
nella rincorsa del ricco tempo
utopico sogno di una vita.

Con il sincero sorriso
dei tuoi occhi azzurri
smontavi le difficili distanze
di umanità fuori dal vicolo,
con crescenti esperienze di dialogo.

La pesante pagina del passato,
chiusa da circolare storia,
si apriva alla speranza
di allungare i binari della ricchezza
nel rivolgimento di iniziali principi.

Il terminal di deluse lusinghe,
vissute oltre i confini del vero,
per una coraggiosa umanità,
è sciolto da superati vincoli
di storia, fatta solo di parole.

EXISTENTIAL ITINERARY

Celestino, you had, in a nutshell,
metaphysical answers
for the great questions of life
and your long discussions
were clear input of solutions.

Your overdose of experience
of apocalyptic work,
in the underground tunnels
of progress, with lives at risk
brought you to difficult sunsets.

You sought the calendar of light
in the tsunami of laborious
adventures among the cleft rocks
of station platforms, oft - enveloped
in the cold sweat of absence.

In the race to the west,
the long leap towards the sun,
you built your future
in pursuit of gilded time
a Utopian dream of a life.

With the sincere smile
in your blue eyes
you dismantled the difficult distances
between humanity outside the little street,
with broadening experiences of dialogue.

The heavy page of the past,
closed by circular history,
opens in the hope
of lengthening the platforms of affluence
by the gyration of original concepts.

The terminal of lost illusions,
lived through beyond the confines of truth,
for a brave humanity,
is melted by the crossing bonds
of history, made only by words.
- From Il Profumo del Pensiero - The Essence of Thought [Edizioni Nuovi Poeti, 2009].

5 comments:

jmb said...

You seem to have a great gift for this translation of poetry and I am sure it is not easy. Ben fatto

James Higham said...

Are you an existentialist, Welshcakes?

Whispering Walls said...

Sorry, WL, who is Celestino?

jams o donnell said...

Beautiful poem Welshcakes. My last poetic offering was from teh otehr end of the quality spectrum!

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

You are kind to say that, jmb. It isn't easy and once it took me 6 hours to think of the "mot juste" but I do enjoy it. Hi, James. Yes. Hi, WW. The poet's brother, who first emigrated to Northern Europe and worked in the coal mines of Belgium, and then to Toronto. The imagery about station platforms refers to the long journey he made by rail. Hi, jams. Antonio will be pleased that you like it. You are too modest!

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