Swans Commentary » swans.com November 17, 2008  

 

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by Guido Monte & Alison Phipps

 

Multilingual Poetry

 

Life is not a main clause or an assertion, it's instead an interjection...a conjunction, at most an adverb.
—Claudio Magris, Alla cieca

non più come prima © 2008 Nicola Spacca

 

 

(Swans - November 17, 2008)  

Mundus caeli vastus constit silentio
great sky stopped soundlessly

asi sea teerum ata ar neamh
(it's about time, earth of heavens)

aur bin warsha jal jati hai,
Purkh say aaway purkh mein jaai,
na di kisi nay boojh bataai.
...then lightens without raindrops,
it was born from man and returns into man,
but nobody can ever guess what it is.

Such is the mystery of life
the mist of knowing what a man
never can know of the authoring creator
who inhabits the darkness
of the womb and delights
in the wordfolds of flesh.

Incarnate.

Intimate

Invisible.

Known to the woman
who shelters the word-seed
and ponders these things
in more than her heart.

 

 

Collage: non più come prima ("no more like before," 2008), by Nicola Spacca, Flugschrift-blending between his photo of an old street of Montreal at night and the sky of Le café le soir by Vincent Van Gogh.

Alison Phipps is Professor of Languages and Intercultural Studies at the University of Glasgow.

 

 

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Poetry

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About the Author

Guido Monte on Swans (with bio). Also, please check Guido's entry on Wikipedia.

 

Legalese

Please, feel free to insert a link to this work on your Web site or to disseminate its URL on your favorite lists, quoting the first paragraph or providing a summary. However, please DO NOT steal, scavenge, or repost this work on the Web or any electronic media. Inlining, mirroring, and framing are expressly prohibited. Pulp re-publishing is welcome -- please contact the publisher. This material is copyrighted, © Guido Monte 2008. All rights reserved.

 

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