Today is an important day! Flavio Almerighi has chosen my poem «Collective Agreement» to publish in his Sunday selection translated into Italian. A million thanks!

Gioielli Rubati 404: Daniele Colleoni – Abel Abilheira – Luciana Calli – Carlo Becattini – Diacono Massimo Caccia – Alessandra Ponticelli – Mariangela Ruggiu – Elena Milani.

Galego: forma viva do latín nada na antiga Gallaecia. Máis de 1100 anos sendo a voz do pobo, máis de 800 habitando a literatura.

Cóntovos breve o meu pobo
unha das miles de culturas 
que van sendo absorbidas 
ano tras ano polas linguas masivas 

nós temos conciencia 
da irreversibilidade do proceso, 
e seguro habemos mudar 
noutra sociedade mellor, 

pero temos nostalxia 
desto que se nos vai 
morrendo entre as mans

e un día por ano, un día! 
adicámosllo á nosa moi nobre 
e moi enxebre e moi moribunda lingua

para non esquencer o que eramos 
cando nos despreciabamos 
por sermos distintos

felices agora de gozar 
da salvadora uniformidade 
que nos empobrece

Falo a lingua dos meus pais, 
dos meus avós, 
trescentos sesenta 
e cinco días ao ano 

ás veces, incluso
trescentos sesenta e seis

aínda que isto sexa
totalmente irrelevante 
para o proceso

Brief Galician people

Galician: a living form of the Latin once spoken in ancient Gallaecia. For over 1,100 years being the voice of the people; for over 800 years in literature

I will tell you briefly about my people
one of the thousands of cultures
that are being absorbed
year after year by mass languages

we are aware
of the irreversibility of the process,
and we will surely move
to another, better society,

but we are nostalgic
for this that is dying in our hands

and one day per year, one day!
we dedicate it to our very noble
and very old and very dying language

so as not to forget what we were
when we despised each other
for being different

happy now to enjoy
the saving uniformity
that impoverishes us

I speak the language of my parents,
of my grandparents,
three hundred and sixty-five days a year

sometimes, even
three hundred and sixty-six

even if this is
totally irrelevant
to the process

Vi muito pouco da Europa
passei por lá como que incógnito
ou em etapas em que eu era invisível
ou apaixonado
por exemplo, Bruxelas era curiosa
e intimamente avassaladora
como descer ao centro da Terra
viajando dentro dos carris
e nas espirais dos motores elétricos
uma experiência recomendável;
Paris manteve-me cativo na gaiola de luz
onde aprendi de cor com prazer
as viagens do sal na pele
mostrou-me uma pequena parte
que eu, mais humano do que nunca,
confundi com o universo;
Odiei a beleza da Holanda
que se transformara numa monotonia opressiva;
o mundo estava em plena expansão
enquanto me perdia nas montanhas da Córsega;
Comecei o trabalho nas profundezas
da pata de um pequeno cão
à espera do embarque em Livorno;
em Basileia, fui visitado em sonhos
pelo filho que nunca encontrou a saída
e algo ficou comigo para sempre
a escorrer pelas telhas da Baviera

Travel memories

I saw very little of Europe
I passed there as if incognito
or in stages in which I was invisible
or in love
for example, Brussels was curious
and intimately overwhelming
like descending to the center of the earth
traveling inside the rails
and in the windings of electric motors
a recommended experience;
Paris held me captive in the cage of light
where I happily learned by heart
the journeys of salt on the skin
it showed me a small part
that I, more human than ever,
had confused with the universe;
I hated the beauty in Holland
that had become oppressive monotony;
the world was in full expansion
while I got lost in the Corsican mountains;
I began the work in the depths
when I was led by a small dog
waiting for the boarding in Livorno;
in Basel, the son who never found the way out
visited me in my dreams
and something remained with me forever
sliding along the roof tiles of Bavaria

Todos, tantos, 
miles de versos 
como agullas imantadas
delicadamente pousadas 
sobre a tona da auga
solitarios, meus semellantes 
brevemente sinalando un norte
para deseguido, lastrados de acné,
caducados, repousar cubrindo o fondo 
con restos de sal dos mares
nos que cosín ronséis
lentamente reducíndose
a un compost nutritivo 
alimento dos meus
Lusíadas

Compost

All, so many, 
thousands of verses 
like magnetized needles
delicately placed 
on the surface of the water
solitary, my fellows 
briefly pointing to a north
to then, weighed down by acne,
expired, rest covering the bottom
with remnants of salt from the seas
in which I sewed wakes
slowly reducing
to a nutritious compost 
food for my
Lusíadas

Na máis produtiva hora da mañá
mentres bulía a pór bandeiras nos mails  
atopei o borrador do novo convenio:
como unha espiña de baleiro
asomou o meu ano de nacemento;

seguín a rápida sucesión de tarefas
como decote, sen decatarme
do burato negro que a espiña
impune chantara no meu peito

Agora de noite (e de día) 
os meus pensamentos [sometidos 
ao potente campo magnético]
pérdense nunha desolación de vacuidade 
evaluando a fina capa de terra 
que queda baixo os pes

Collective agreement 

In the most productive hour of the morning
while I was busy putting flags on emails 
I found the draft of the new agreement:
like a thorn of emptiness
my year of birth appeared;

I followed in the rapid succession of tasks
as usual, without noticing
the black hole that the impunished thorn
had left embedded in my chest

Now at night (and during the day)
my thoughts [subjected 
to the powerful magnetic field]
are lost in a desolation of emptiness
evaluating the thin layer of earth
that remains under my feet

Ao pé da casa, pola parte da fachada que dá ao leste agárdame cada mañá a sustancia mesta 
ás veces contén un mundo de insectos duros que rebulen coas suas bocas buscando o débil ventre polo que se abriren paso
rara vez o amencer, coas suas bondades de idílico laranxa, consegue agrupalos nun recuncho afastado abrindo paso para un señor que se dirixe á oficina: Good morning - Bonjour!
outras porén semella un flan de xelatina memoria acumulada en ósos - brancos, duros, resilientes - que atraveso cargándome da esencia dos minerais 
É fermoso o nacer do día, se puidese escoller sería merlo e o meu continente chamaríase mesdemaio, só aspiro a ser a banda sonora dos namorados
A luz do día é tamén como un estropallo que rasca a terra coa que escondín as duas feridas 
[aínda hai noites de luar das que volven humedecidas, debilitado o músculo]
Gústame espertar nesta luz sabendo das alas dos insectos e da melodía dos paxaros, ambos tributarios do aire, ambos tan necesarios para conformar o ser humano

Dawn

At the foot of the house, by the east-facing façade, the thick substance awaits me every morning

sometimes it contains a world of hard insects that stir with their mouths looking for the weak belly through which to make their way

rarely does the dawn, with its idyllic orange goodness, manage to group them in a distant corner, making way for a gentleman who is heading to the office: Buenos días - Bonjour!

other times, however, it seems like a jelly mould, memory accumulated in bones - white, hard, resilient - that I cross, charging myself with the essence of minerals.

The sunrise is beautiful, if I could choose, I would be a blackbird and my continent would be called Mayday, I only aspire to be the soundtrack of lovers

daylight is also like a scourer scratching the earth with which I hid my wounds

[still after some moonlight nights, they return damp, the muscle weakened]

I like to wake up in this light knowing the wings of insects and the melody of birds, both tributaries of the air, both so necessary to shape the human being

Hai uns tractores pequenos
arrastran cubas co tratamento
para as miles de viñas da comarca

a terra é poema de fartura
entre as mans escuras de sol

na estrada de entrada ao concelllo
bandeiras de solidariedade con Palestina

un cartel municipal cargado de razón 
avisa da oposición á guerra e á tortura

mentres a dous quilómetros do benintencionado aviso 
impunemente, coa connivencia dun goberno 
necio, cínico e mesquiño
nesta terra fértil, agradecida
os vellos, en silencio, indefensos
morrían atados ás suas camas

durante a pandemia

o pobo só sabe chorar 
o que as pantallas ordenan


Town of the vineyards and the orderly rejection

There are some small tractors
dragging sprayers with the treatment
for the thousands of vineyards in the region

the land is a poem of plenty
between sun-darkened hands

on the entrance road to the town
flags of solidarity with Palestine
a municipal poster loaded with reason
warns of official opposition to war and torture
while two kilometers from the well-intentioned notice
with impunity and the connivance of a government
stupid, cynical and petty
in this fertile, grateful land
older people, in silence, defenseless
died tied to their beds

during the pandemic

people only know how to cry
what the screens order

Per tutti coloro che soffrono, anche per te, amica mia.

Co primeiro orballo da mañá
sorprendo a dor axexando 
como un raposo á porta do galiñeiro 
inocente marabíllome do seu peso específico
como sabe o camiño de memoria!
tan torpe eu na tentativa de esquivalo
ante a imposibilidade de evitalo
aloumiño a idea de imitar a Mendeléiev
compilando a táboa periódica dos sufrimentos
para sacalos da indefinición na que moran
establecendo así as magnitudes do grupo 
que teña xa asociada a liberación do sal

Compilation

With the first dew of the morning
I catch by surprise the pain lurking
like a fox at the door of the henhouse
innocently I marvel at its specific weight
how it knows its way by heart!
so clumsy I am in the attempt to dodge it
faced with the impossibility of avoiding it
I come up with the idea of imitating Mendeleev
compiling the periodic table of forms of suffering
to draw them out of the indefiniteness in which they live
thus establishing the magnitudes of the group
that already has the liberation of salt associated

A superficie é todo 
este extenso garabateo 
disposto en configuración tridimensional
que crea unha ilusión 
capaz de enganar o ollo:
percibe volume en só duas dimensións 
A profundidade 
como un planeta remoto
únicamente é visíbel 
nun punto da sua inmensa órbita

Trompe-l’œil

The surface is all 
this extensive scribbling 
arranged in a three-dimensional configuration that creates an illusion 
capable of deceiving the eye: 
it perceives volume in only two dimensions. Depth 
like a remote planet 
is only visible 
at one point in its immense orbit

Esta semana que se agota 
inminentemente
deixou a imaxe dos prados ingleses 
asolagados nunha marea branca
da que as árbores sacaban medio corpo 
para beber da tenra luz matinal

tamén despóis de tantos anos
atopei o fío que te amarra
e tira constantemente de ti
nas primeiras páxinas dunha novela

e para rematar o compendio de eventos 
a lectura e o sol conxuntáronse
para depositar con delicadeza 
un pouso do cobizado desexo
tan propio da florida estación

Weekly roundup

This week that is
imminently running out
left the image of English meadows
flooded in a white tide
from which the trees took half their bodies
to drink from the tender morning light

also after so many years
I found the thread that ties you
and constantly pulls you
in the first pages of a novel

and to finish the compendium of events
reading and the sun came together
to gently deposit a lingering trace 
of longed-for desire
so typical of the flowery season