Luciano Erba
Book of Hours
As the poet of the Andes says
if you don’t love clouds
don’t come don’t come to Equador.
And in March don’t enter the orchard
where an unleashed south-west wind
rips at the unripe greenery. Today
agitations of sailing ships riot
in the azure of France. And it’s
the year’s new weather
that comes to meet our hike
a bitter equinoctial folly
to dislocate ankles and craze
these wise quincunxes.
Tired we dream
of green lilliputian railways
inside and out of sugar-bread peaks.
In the city we separate
among building-works’ quartz and mica
the new moon freezes, we return home
pursued at the heels by life
as by a friendly dog that catches up with us.
The poet is Henri Michaux in his book Equador (1929). Erba’s translation of his ‘La Cordillera de los Andes’ was collected in
Dei cristalli naturali e altri versi tradotti (1950-1990) (1991).
Dei cristalli naturali e altri versi tradotti (1950-1990) (1991).
Translated by Peter Robinson
Page(s) 64
magazine list
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- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
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- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
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- Fabric
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- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
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- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
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- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
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- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
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- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
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- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The