Poems

 

The last light hesitates

Between the folded fingers of the poplars –

The dark shivers with cold and expectation

Behind us

And slowly lays its arms around us

To make us more lonely.

 

After her tragic death in December 1938 at the early age of 26, Antonia Pozzi’s poems—which she had been secretly writing for years—were brought to light and became the object of great critical attention, going through several editions in Italy and being translated into all the major European languages. Since then, her reputation has risen steadily, and she is now considered one of the greatest Italian poets of the 20th century. Acclaimed for the terseness and simplicity of her language, her poems show an acute power of observation and deep psychological introspection, revealing a mind akin to Emily Dickinson's and Sylvia Plath's, but also a unique and unmistakeably original voice. This new version with facing Italian text perfectly renders the delicate undertones and that sense of longing which is such a distinctive feature of Pozzi's poetry.