Poems by Mario dell’Arco
Translated from the Romanesco by Marc Alan Di Martino
Rocking Horse
———–It gallops and trots with a boy on its back,
hand holding onto its mane.
———–Inert on the floor, it can’t even walk
without that hand
holding onto its mane.
§
Er Cavallo a Dondolo
———–Trotta, galoppa, con un pupo in groppa
e la manina a fonno a la criniera.
———–Inchiodato pe tera, nun cammina
senza quela manina
a fonno a la criniera.
The Moon Is a Feather
———–An angel has lost
a feather from its wing right in the sky.
Sappho, Leopardi and Quasimodo
———–all fix their eye
on it—and poems fly. Odd, though:
that feather’s still afloat
on the breath of a poet’s note.
§
La luna è una piuma
———–Un angelo s’è perso
una piuma dell’ala in pieno celo.
Sia Saffo, sia Leopardi, sia Quasimodo:
———–punteno l’occhio verso
la piuma—e nasce un verso. Strano: ar fiato
de la poesia, la piuma
galleggia ancora in celo.
Mario dell’Arco, the pen name of Mario Fagiolo (Rome, 1905–1996) was the most significant Romanesco poet of the latter half of the twentieth century. An architect by profession, he abandoned architecture for poetry after World War II. He published nearly 60 books and chapbooks of poetry in his lifetime. His work is marked by its bittersweet, almost jaded stance, a hallmark of the Roman attitude towards life (and death). Marc Alan Di Martino’s translations of dell’Arco have been published in Los Angeles Review, On the Seawall, One Art, Bad Lilies and many other journals.
Marc Alan Di Martino is the author of Love Poem with Pomegranate (Ghost City Press, 2023), Still Life with City (Pski’s Porch, 2022)and Unburial (Kelsay, 2019). His poems and translations appear in Bad Lilies, iamb, One Art and many other journals and anthologies. His translation Day Lasts Forever: Selected Poems of Mario dell’Arco was published by World Poetry Books in 2024. Currently a reader for Baltimore Review, he lives in Italy.
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