Julio Savi

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To read or to decide to reread these
poems means to knock at a door and
to enter into the private garden of the
poet. Each poem is concluded in
itself: a necessary pause, a particular
view of the colour of a feeling, of the
light of an hour. That moment of the
poet, be it inscribed in the unique
instant which his pen has perpetuated
or a stage of a life from whose course
the instant draws its meaning, is what
the poet invites his readers to share
with him. It is up to them to chose
their approach. But whatever door
they may disclose, they will meet the
same person, whose writings and
sensitivity always manifest—whatever
his age or the specific circumstances
of his life may be—the purity and the
intensity which already characterize
his earliest poems.

Leïla Mesbah Sabéran

THE TAWNY DANDLE
Trieste, 5 December 1998

Snow-white silent
they burn, tear
after tear they melt
into hazy light
beneath the icon.

But she, the tawny
candle, sodden with sandal
and incense, cannot keep
quiet, as she burns,
in the astonished silence
of her snow-white companions.

As she burns, she crackles,
and gives off her sweet fragrance.

ON THE ALTAR OF YOUR FRIENDSHIP
Bologna, 6 January 1999

On the altar
of your friendship
I place the black
pearl of my heart.

It is black,
I know, and dark,
but it is a pearl
and you a swan.

Giancarlo Gasponi. Fields in Val d’Orcia, Toscana.