Two Poems
by
Milo De Angelis
Trans/ated by Lawrence Venuti
THE CENTRAL IDEA
came to mind (but just by chance, because of the smell
of alcohol and the bandages)
this thoughtful busying of oneself
notwithstanding.
And still, in front of everybody, one chose
between the actions and their meaning.
But by chance.
Despotic beings gave away the center
carelessly, with an X-ray,
and in a dream threatening bosses
were whispering:
"if we take from you what isn ' t yours,
nothing will be left. "
BECOMING
Another action, in the vineyard, gathering
this dusty, sweet muscatel
among the ants
that run across the sweat
on one's back, hurrying
beneath a sun that dries up everything
while the plain broadens, and something
that was enormous disappears
slips from the terror to the discomfort
of becoming unimportant, to the last
tremor, nothing.
