Dream Without Poison
Written by Dante Maffia
Translated from Italian by Mariko Sumikura
Narrated by Bill Wolak
Italy
Last night the sea came into my bed.
The moon ran away.
Wild cats ransacked the books.
We were invited by Lara to Boris’ dacha.
A succession of turns of events
or simply the disjointed diary of a love
fed with lightnings,
exposed to bad weather
like every sublime love.
And at a certain point that mad train
which ran in the snow.
The tram and the unheard shout.
But can you hear my voice?
I know I’m calling you from abyssal distances
and I have no words if not made with the sky.
This is my only wealth.
For the rest I’m penniless,
a scattered light which limps
in the mazes of metaphors,
trying to defend them, with difficulty,
from withering.
Dante Maffìa is one of the most renowned contemporary Italian poets. Recently, the University of Craiova, Romania, nominated him for the Nobel Prize.
Mariko Sumikura is one of Japan’s greatest poetesses and one of the finest translators of English and Italian texts into Japanese.