“

Now reading

Da Lei me diceva proprio così/From This Is Exactly What She Told Me

GIUSEPPE CONTE

   da LEI MI DICEVA PROPRIO COSi

Lei mi diceva: sai che sei forte e debole, che
sei turpe e tenero, che non vorrei un altro
uomo, che mi fai venire anche solo con lo
sguardo? Lei rideva quando mi si offriva, lei

era un frutto spaccato ma impenetrabile, faceva
della sua dedizione un'estasi, mi soggiogava.
Lei mi diceva: sono tua: e diceva: sii
mio, apparteniamoci, in noi il mondo pud

salvarsi

Non ha amato cosi l'ape che succhiava
dai fiori azzurri della salvia, il geco
appena nato dal ventre morbido, vegetale,
i brevi voli dei passeri tra i cipressi

cimati. Che cosa vale amare la parole, e
un solito corpo, e il tempo? C'é un passaggio
lungo dove noi gia non ci apparteniamo, e siamo
cipressi pit alti, meno alti, siamo fiori

fioriti o rinsecchiti, e gechi, e

api

                GIUSEPPE CONTE

   From THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT SHE TOLD ME

She told me: do you know that you are strong and weak,
  that
you are mean and tender, that I wouldn't want another
man, that you make me come just with
your look? She laughed when she offered herself to me, she

was a fruit split but impenetrable, she made
an ecstasy of her dedication, she subdued me.
She told me: I am yours; and she said: be
mine, let's belong to each other, in us the world can

be saved

This wasn't the way she loved the bees that sucked
from the blue flowers of the sage, the gecko
just born from the soft, vegetal belly,
the brief flights of the sparrows among the pruned

cypresses. What's the point of loving words, and
a customary body, and time? There's a path
to where we already don't belong to each other, and we are
cypresses, some taller than others, we are flowers

in bloom or withered, and geckoes, and

bees

41,493

poems

4,155

poets

207

poetic terms

Browse the collection

Explore the archive →

Selected

Poems worth returning to

The glossary

The language about poetry

From aubade to zuihitsu, 207 definitions of the forms, figures, and schools that shape the line.

Explore the glossary→