Embedded Files
ALFONSO GATTO: 3 Relocations
Traduzione (Italian)
= Translation (English)
from trans + latio (Latin)
= ‘a carrying across, a removal, a transporting’
= A Relocation
Post-truth
Not for a moment can we ignore the evidence there is,
looming over us and over all that we assume may be the case,
one fundamental question. Consider: the starlit canopy
stretched overhead, in extent near-infinite, in gloriousness
unfathomable, and in its randomness, its chaos
equally so. Can we stop ourselves from finding there images
of ourselves, magnified and dignified, hailed by angels
the instant we look skyward? Can we learn to observe
dispassionately the vastness? – adopt the indifference the stars
appear the more obviously to treat us with, the more we see of them?
By such means, might we accommodate our genuine discoveries?
The former, the self-aggrandisement, although ultimately
undignified, it is hard to avoid. Because the mind, when in denial,
becomes a tyrant in full flight: climbing ever higher, bolder
to outrun its captors – the facts without alternative: the quiddity
of the universe’s scale, of personal mortality; last things.
All of which does nothing to excuse redaction of the files.
And no-one can defend how, drawing solely on what they have
permitted to appear, they put out the true story.
(after ‘Domande’ in La Storia delle Vittime)
Deepfake
And, as the focus sharpened, their pursuit grew clear:
extending the hand of inside
knowledge plus, within its gift, the hiddenness,
the Man in Havana formula – consulate
in a tranquil sidestreet,
access granted to gardens nearby in the square.
And, for them, the exact equivalent, blending in
so studiedly they blurred,
a veil behind which little might survive to veil.
Yet, in a heartbeat, they’ve recovered, brightened,
offered a free trial,
running smooth sculpted fingers through their smoother hair
and moving all the time in time, yet
weightlessly, as if
puppetry, as if their comfort could be anything
but coercion.
(after ‘Figura’ in Rime di viaggio in terra dipinta)
Invasive
(Deerhurst, Gloucestershire)
A flash flood, he would disfavour –
too flash, by half. Far
preferable a gradual
inundation, its widening
calm entirely as
the world should be, and his
appearance confirmation
only, a silver sharpness
flowing through the winter’s brittle reeds ….
Some children played in the sunken
lane outside the church.
“Stay quiet,” their parents told them.
“So the water cannot find you.”
From this day forward they
will know subjection as a game ….
One little boy, just woken up
and still bleary from his nap,
even so understood he mustn’t
speak. So he waved his arms instead:
an S.O.S. to the cargo cult .…
The river’s razor-edge
a minute-hand, that doesn’t move
unless you watch intently
and jumps ahead if you glance away;
sand on the tiny beaches glistens
then gleams – shines, as moisture
with exploratory touch,
with inuring hesitance moves in ….
And comes to rest: a glassy
blackness, almost as if laid out
for mourners to revere. The constant
audible hum, their burning
question: which conquest is his greatest?
which might, at any cost, be theirs ….
And Severn will leave in its wake
the close-cropped uplands of Wales,
the forever border wars, to make
its peace beside cathedrals,
where summer clouds are mirrored
in a placid stream, in held
breath of the feathered oars’
glide backwards to the catch
while Deerhurst Manor and Odda Chapel’s
floodgates, strengthened, stand
unbreached, intact.
(after ‘lo sbarco’ in La Storia delle Vittime)
Notes
Deerhurst is a village on the east bank of the River Severn, a few miles south of Tewkesbury; originally a Benedictine monastery, its priory survives as the parish church. Odda’s Chapel, once a chantry, stands nearby. Both these Anglo-Saxon buildings were fortified to defend against Viking raiders, sailing upriver.
‘the catch’ : the part of the stroke when the oar blade enters the water and the drive begins.
‘feather’: to turn the oar so that its blade is parallel with the water (opposite of square).
Alongside translations of Alfonso Gatto, Ralph Pite (ralph.pite@bristol.ac.uk) is currently translating contemporary ecopoets writing in Italian and German. He's seeking to bring together poets and translators from across the continent in order to highlight and compare how diversely Europeans are being impacted by the ongoing polycrisis. He recently published an ecocritical study, Edward Thomas's Prose: Truth, Mystery, and the Natural World (OUP 2025). Breath of Stone, the new album by the Peer Group, is now available on the major streaming platforms.
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