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Collapse takes everything - a translation try

marcoriccardi

Published: 16 Mar 2018 › Updated: 16 Mar 2018Collapse takes everything - a translation try

Collapse takes everything - a translation try

The day before yesterday, I posted a poem in Italian, called Collasso Pigliatutto, claiming it was impossible to translate in English, and regretting that the way I could write and compose verses in English was so distant from what I use for Italian. Then, an exchange of comments happened under a beautiful poem posted by f3nix@f3nix, Voli Effimeri – Ephemeral Flies. Thanks to the passionate and incredibly supportive brisby@brisby, that tries with an heart big and warm as a cozy house to read and understand our efforts in Italian, I’ve decided to try the “mission: impossible”. A translation, or better a paraphrase with notes! That will certainly ruin the rhythm and the flow of the poem, but I want to do it anyway, since almost all my blog readers speak English and not Italian.

So, this is the poem and the paraphrase of each verse.

Collapse takes everything [play on words in Italian: “con l’asso” (“with the ace”) sounds like “collasso” (“collapse”)]

Required socket adapter
for the ass.
[in Italian, “presa” is the power socket, but “presa per il culo” means “take the piss” (literally “take by the ass”]
it was not detected
no soul
in the BIOS
Good morning, beauties!
Get your interfaces
Even today sky
streaked of trails
cynical.
[play on words between “scie chimiche” (“chem trails”) and “scie ciniche” (“cynical trails”)]
Perturbations are expected
in the late anthropocene.
The rush hour is from 0 to 24.
[in Italian it’s like “all hours open”]
We have already signed up
a demographic contract,
let’s show off-reak
[play on words between “mettersi in mostra” (“show off”) and “mostro” (“monster”)]
to increase our resolution.
Oil
of elbow
[“olio di gomito” is like “elbow grease”]
but not palm oil:
God forbid
sin of own thought!
There’s a government crisis
of the self.
Temptation to drug ourselves
with faith.
Dying for dreams
living in nightmares.

collasso pigliatutto.jpg

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Tabletop role-playing game author, amateur poet & writer, wannabe human being

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