Archipelago (a collapse)

Abstract

* < s CL O CL '5 O u cr u§ $ O O x Q. Archipelago (a collapse) Antonella Anedda Redandgrey; a broken crown ofsaltandgranite. Abreeze seeping from theheart oftherocks. I fell under thefewclouds onedayinthefull springtime with a bushbent under mybody andthewholepromontory atmyneck. I hadsandinmyears,thedog'spaw uneasy atmytemples. A disturbance weknowfrom dreams themoment movement meets theenigma ofspace. Alltheislands flew apart recreating exactly thevoidbetween thestones, refueling themselves with windatevery stop. Theboulders sprang off whistling likeslings as far as myfrozen feet andbreathing wasa bristling trunk toswallow with eyestight shut as far as theroots. Atfirst there wasthehouse, grey andperfect in thesunlight, butoutofkilter - oldnails, a chair then that whistling interspersed with voices, twochildren anda dog'stongue likea touch oftheinfinite atmythroat. Perhaps itwasthis that showedfate howthelifeline still burned inme whentheskinned handmoved tobrush awaya fly aimedunflinchingly skywards. Translation from the Italian ByJamie McKendrick Antonella Aneddahaspublished several books ofpoems, including Residenze invemali (1992); Notti dipaceoccidental (1999), which won the Premio Eugenio Montale; IIcatalogo delta gioia (2003); andDalbalcone del corpo (2007), which won the Premio Napoli and the Dedalus Prize. Shehas translated Ovid, Philippe Jaccottet, andAnne Carson, among others, andhas written three books of essays onpoetry. Jamie McKendrick haspublished five books ofpoetry, most recently Crocodiles & Obelisks (2008). Heedited The Faber Book of20th-century Italian Poems, andhistranslation ofValerio Magrelli's poems, The Embrace (2009), won the Oxford-Weidenfeld Prize and the John Florio Prize. 52 1 World Literature Today ...