Dario Bellezza
trans. by Peter Covino
Two POEMS
My House, the Entrance Way
I have written various poems about my house.
But none about its front door—
I repainted it white, a blinding
illusory sense of suspension. Someone
may comprehend its obscure notions, of death
invoked, hurriedly; I like it like that,
white and whorish if it offers a solemn
viaticum for a wronged life:
my perdition, cared about little—
the solitude of this handiwork resounds
on the accursed doorstep, the assassin
I sense always in ambush; the cats
faraway, forsaken to the vigilante
of futile nights. In this way I no longer
try to stir up the tumult, I tell myself
alone, I’m home, in the part most
threatened, the part most haunted
where everyone can find me. Whether
I arrive, or leave out of breath,
every home, every entrance is lost!
May the will to endure twisted
dreams or calamity disappear;
whoever enters, or if no one does;
may the door be closed forever
as after the earthly death,
of the senses; on the unsullied threshold
may only the sought-after fear remain
like a perfumed rose. Yes, may
the anguish, fury, and barbarity
of a moment already gone also endure
while staring at a regal, brutal
corridor—a feast for the eyes
Practical Activities
If the poet is reduced to carrying out
practical activities, to get by
using the phone, hustling, working
even against God, or the more
lowercase god of poetry, who
should we blame? Or if by going
in winter, into the tepid cold
in the heart of January toward Campo dei Fiori
you meet a young man who’s passed by
crime’s true domain
and craves you along the slack
river, in the muck, wind
encroaching, ripping you apart, leaving
awestruck by cum, who is
to blame?
But the days pass, a lifetime
without complaint, comforted by
the idea that there’s still life ahead,
and it’s long, even if tomorrow we could
die, just breathing
Dario Bellezza (1944–1996) was an openly gay prizewinning, Italian poet-novelist (Viareggio Prize, 1976; Montale Prize, 1994) who died a premature death of AIDS-related complications. His work was championed by such luminaries of twentieth-century Italian and American literature as Pier Paolo Pasolini, Alberto Moravia, Elsa Morante, Allen Ginsberg, and Gregory Corso.
Poet-editor-translator Peter Covino, associate professor of English at the University of Rhode Island, is the author of the poetry collections The Right Place to Jump and Cut Off the Ears of Winter, both from New Issues Press; and the co-edited Essays in Italian American Literature (Bordighera/CUNY). His awards include a 2019 National Endowment for the Arts Translation Fellowship and the PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award. He is a founding editor of Barrow Street Press.