Poems by Rosy Gallace, translated by Irma Kurti
THE EXPIRED TIME
It wasn’t the highway kilometres
that made us feel distant.
It wasn’t the labour
or the cost of the tolls.
.
It wasn’t even
a round trip on an easy jet.
It was our thoughts
so distant… and… different.
.
Our time has traveled
between parallel lives
chasing each other, never meeting.
.
Our thoughts intertwined
with the days filled with loneliness;
now, they’re here in their nakedness.
.
Our time has expired.
.
For once, without finding any holds,
let’s look at each other through sincere
eyes and beyond words, let us listen
to the rhythms of heart, let’s shake
hands, be real, let’s just be ourselves.
.
IF YOU WERE HERE
I would not feel the unbridgeable void
in these long summer days.
I’d forgive even the chirping of cicadas
that took away the sleep from your nights.
.
I would run to you to find
the answers to my silences.
I would ask you how to live:
get up, get dressed, wash, eat,
keep that pain a secret,
the pain that takes the breath away.
.
I would fly to you on dark days;
I don’t know where else to go.
I’d find relief among those walls
that smelled so much
of lavender and talcum powder.
.
If you were here
I wouldn’t be so lost tonight,
confused and cold. I’d have a smile
and a warm hand, that word you
whispered in a low voice and how
magically everything turned as before.
.
This time I’d take you by the hand,
proudly I’d lead you along the course,
even on that chair you hated so much
despite that, you would be happy with me.
.
I would touch a kiss on the folds
of the forehead while you travel in
your memories in a smile shielded
from the grimace of pain.
.
Rosy Gallace was born in Guardavalle in the province of Catanzaro in Calabria and lives in Rescaldina, Milan. She has published several books of poems which have been translated into English, Romanian and Albanian. She is the creator, organiser, and president of several literary contests and also acts as part of the jury for various literary competitions in Italy.
Irma Kurti is an Albanian poetess, writer, lyricist, journalist, and translator. She is a naturalised Italian. She has won numerous literary prizes and awards in Italy and Italian Switzerland. Irma Kurti has published 26 books in Albanian, 17 in Italian, 8 in English and two in French. She is also the translator of 11 books of different authors and of all her books in Italian and English.
.
PLEASE NOTE: ARTICLES CAN ONLY BE REPRODUCED IN OTHER SITES WITH DUE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TO BORDERLESS JOURNAL
Borderless 