Massimo Maggiari
Terra Australis Incognita
Through Drake's sea
through its infinite waves
steering by the path of the stars
I have followed you, my soul,
for a thousand nights and a thousand winters,
and my voice has sailed with the silence.
As far as the eternal ices, as far as the ice banks
where the polar bear lives the long morning
I have followed you, my soul,
crying out to dreams
begging mercy
from the sky's rainbows.
Who are you? Whom do you sail with?
Where do you take us?
At every equinox
like an omen you appear in the sky
and the fresh air conjures deities
from the surface of the sea.
At every equinox
my dogs smell your passage.
They howl in the night, tearing the day apart
and their blood speaks forests and death.
I will follow my dogs as far as the Austral Pole
I will follow their destiny of bone and salt
I will melt your doors of ice
I will knock day and night
I will wait for dawn:
among the flames, among the flames
your face, your face.
Translated by Laura Stortoni-Hager
Page(s) 77
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