In Quest' Albergo:

by Emanuel Carnevali, translated by Dennis Barone

Il capocameriere dice:
"Ma che bella giornata, oggi!"
Sorride con tenerezza.
Il capocameriere dice:
"Pioverá oggi!"
Aggrotta le sopracciglia con grazia.
Ecco i suoi saluti, ogni mattino.
A ogni signora anziana,
E ogni signore anziano,
E ogni canaglia incallita,
E ogni coppia giovane —
A ogni ospite.

Ed io, che non dormo, resto qui in attesa e scruto l'alba,
Un giorno scenderó giú al mondo
E allora avró una tromba potente come il vento,
E strombazzeró fuori dal mondo
Lo splendido luogo comune:
"Ma che bella giornata, oggi!"
E un altro giorno urleró disperato,

"Pioverá oggi!"
Per ogni signora anziana,
E ogni signore anziano,
E ogni canaglia incallita,
E ogni coppia giovane —
Non sono forse ospiti in quest'albergo,
Dove il cielo é il soffitto
E il pavimento é la terra,
E le stanze sono le case?

Ma io, io — povero disgraziato —
Potrei chiedere un lavoro
Come capocameriere
Di quest'albergo?



Lid

        He would entertain us in the evening with the recitation of his beloved poems.

Boom ca trot zir: veer a mi static bat.
Propensity devolve hab: murnot, ripod heme.
Cornlot, trot megantun, havel zeel oberstopant.
Crabor librumot boom ca triffel peet. Toreems
Vagabond scree, platus fat, evermore zir fulcrum stat.
Overland scree hab otto zir mi offenhat.

Boom ca allenzar nar axron nar catten rumb.
Havekir allentar mir trot nex, fumen catencomb:
Al-noxlay halen zir, may kottunen allenback.
Oberhandon drawtoon al-boom scree infeltant.
Platus-rec gamu-tec: offen al havel nar pullenbus.
Ovidloon bugton, landtrot, zir boom undertruss.

Have carem boom ca, have carem tundra heer;
Have careem zirzout, lindensteer trot mi offenteer.


I wrote "Lid" as a "sound sonnet" a couple of years ago. At one point I had the poem in a long short story as an example the writing of the protagonist, but then decided to remove it because it did not fit and I did not know if the protagonist wrote and therefore the insertion of the poem seemed decorative at best. When I removed it I added the italicized and indented English language line at the start. The poem then seemed complete to me. The language used is a made up one and yet the poem seems to have a narrative or thematic movement due to the repetition of words and sounds. It is fun to read and for brief moment of reprieve that may be sufficient.

Ekleksographia:
Wave Two

October, 2009

Poems

Dennis Barone

Dennis Barone's most recent book publications are North Arrow, a collection of seventeen stories from Quale Press (2008), and Visiting Wallace: Poems Inspired by the Life and Work of Wallace Stevens, a collection of seventy-six poems ranging from Carl Sandburg to Elaine Equi co-edited with James Finnegan and published by the University of Iowa Press (2009). Barone recently completed two scholarly essays on Italian and Italian American Protestants in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.