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Syndic Literary Journal

A Vast Confusion

Narrated by Lidia Chiarelli

Italy

A vast confusion by Lawrence Feinghetti

 

Long long I lay in the sands

Sounds of trains in the surf
in subways of the sea
And an even greater undersound
of a vast confusion in the universe
a rumbling and a roaring
as of some enormous creature turning
under sea and earth
a billion sotto voices murmuring
a vast muttering
a swelling stuttering
in ocean’s speakers
world’s voice-box heard with ear to sand
a shocked echoing
a shocking shouting
of all life’s voices lost in night
And the tape of it
somehow running backwards now
through the Moog Synthesizer of time
Chaos unscrambled
back to the first
harmonies
And the first light

 

Un’immensa confusione di Lawrence Ferlinghetti

 

 

Rimango disteso a lungo sulla sabbia

 

Suoni di treni nella spuma

nei sottopassaggi del mare

E un rumore di fondo ancora più forte

di un’immensa confusione nell’universo

un frastuono e un ruggito

come se un’enorme creatura si rivoltasse

sotto il mare e la terra

un miliardo di sotto-voci che mormorano

un bisbiglio immenso

un balbettio che cresce

nelle casse dell’oceano

la laringe del mondo sentita

con l’orecchio sulla sabbia

un eco sconvolto

 un grido sconvolgente

di tutte le voci della vita perse nella notte

E la registrazione

che adesso in qualche modo scorre all’indietro

attraverso il sintetizzatore Moog del tempo

Caos decodificato

indietro verso le prime

armonie

E la prima luce

 

(translated by Giada Diano- Ferlinghetti’s Italian biographer)

 

Light on the Walls of Life

 

to Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1919-2021)

 

[Hic et nunc]

 

 

Teach me to paint

the light on the walls of life.

 

Teach me

to look at the world

as you see it

to become a tear of the sun

a hill of poetry

a word in a tree.

 

Lead me

to see the sun

hitting the sheer cliffs

the  tides that restlessly ebb and flow

the water birds challenging the wind.

 

Let’s listen together

to the breath of rustling leaves

the perfect hush of a starry night

the sound of summer in the raindrops.

 

Here and now

help me reach the very shores of light

waiting for

the renaissance of wonder

 

with you

again and forever

 

Lidia Chiarelli, Italy

 

 

Compiled/Published by LeRoy Chatfield
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