Bologna in Lettere 10th
BĂBÉL
stati di alterazione
International Poetry Review
a cura di Alessandro Brusa
Shane Manieri
PELICAN FATHER
Born in New Orleans to Sicilian immigrants, Shane Manieri received an MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University and is now a PhD candidate in Comparative Literature with an Italian Specialization at the CUNY Graduate Center. His honors include an Italian translation fellowship at Scuola Holden in Turin, full-immersion language scholarship at University for Foreigners in Perugia. He currently lives in New York City.
You can follow Shane on Instagram @redshelley
PELICAN FATHER
You, father, with your shady beard and woolen-head,
pale as white-hot heat.
Roosting in battled-out bushes and relic dunes,
wresting power from your demons:
The heaviest wind and wrackest wood.
You are a Clock in a Ghosthead. Left over war
paint smudged on your cheek.
Marching around with your righteous gun. Now I must undo
your work: gripping the branches with webbed feet,
constantly adapting to the form of
the branch to which I cling.
I pluck one quill at a time
and dab in ink, and the ink bleeds
onto the page.
*
Tu, padre, una barba ombrosa, la testa arruffata,
pallido come torrida calura.
Appollaiato in cespugli ed in dune fantasma
strappando potere dai tuoi demoni:
Il vento più forte, il legno più marcio.
Sei un orologio in una testa assente. Tracce di colori di
guerra a sporcarti le guance.
Te ne vai in giro con quella giusta arma. Ora devo disfare
il tuo lavoro: afferrando i rami con i piedi palmati,
adattandomi continuamente alla forma del
ramno cui mi aggrappo.
Strappo una penna per volta
e la intingo nell’inchiostro e l’inchiostro
sanguina sulla pagina.
(Traduzione Alessandro Brusa)