Mario Luzi
trans. by Anne Greeott
The Judge
Do you believe your love is true? Take a deep
look into your past, he insists
with a squinting glance like a sneer or a riddle
piercing me to the core.
And he waits. Meanwhile, I look far away
and nothing comes to mind
except the quiet sea under wheeling gulls
fraying here and there around the rocky island
where one expanse of bare ground casts shadows
with its mounds, or another tilled for planting
casts shadows with its furrows and a blade or two of grass.
Of course, I might have made some terrible mistakes
I reply, finally hanging onto something
if only to my faults, in that heathery light.
Then you should grieve for a love that is lost
his voice sets out with the whistle
of a storm stirring above those barrens.
I listen and don’t even wonder
why he is there instead of me on the other side,
busy judging the evil in the world.
Maybe so, I reply, already thinking of other things,
as the streetlights come on one sliver at a time
and here in the bar the day still gleams
bright in the eyes of the girl slipping off her apron
for her break, and the man taking her place
puts on his white jacket and comes
toward us with two glasses, brimming
and cool, placing one here and one there on our table.
Mario Luzi published 21 volumes of poetry and also extensive theater, criticism, essays, and translation. During the 1930s and 40s he came to be known as the leading figure in Florentine hermeticism, and over his seventy-year publishing career his style evolved radically from formal lyricism to free verse. He was honored with Italy’s prestigious Premio Viareggio as well as seven Nobel Prize nominations.
Anne Greeott's translations have appeared in Poetry Northwest, Gradiva, Italian Poetry Review, World Literature Today, and elsewhere. She has received two Fulbright grants to Italy and Peru, as well as an ALTA Travel Fellowship.